Welcome to a Happier Country. That was the banner that the Spain players read when they disembarked from the flight that took them back to Madrid with the World Cup.
Nothing can describe better the effect that this success in South Africa has had in a country that has for too long been tarnished by negative reports from international financial institutions and frightening statistics that suggest no end in sight to the deep economic crisis.
Iker Casillas took the cup to the King, the Prime Minister and finally on to the bus that took the squad around Madrid, where about 1.5 million people waited up to six hours to greet their heroes. By the time the parade had finished, the country had taken a new step towards the closest form of national cohesion anybody can remember.
A process that started two years ago with victory in the European Championship accelerated as Spain kept overcoming every test that was put to them in South Africa. Finally, for instance, one can be Spanish and Catalan at the same time, a fan of Barcelona and the Spain team.
The national flag has returned to the people, cleansed of extremist wrinkles. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that Spain has found moral leadership through football.
Will we still be talking in these almost Utopian terms when the dust has settled? Will Spanish nationalists remember the way Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol showed off a Catalan flag on the pitch at Soccer City, especially now that the level of autonomy of Catalonia is being ardently debated and negotiated?
National differences, historically, have had a lesser influence on the Spain side than repeated clichés would make you believe. It has been more of a problem that a dominating club culture has always felt that an international game is an interruption to the only important competition: La Liga.
Football rivalries will soon bring back the usual differences of opinion, but one conclusion Spain should take from the celebrations that took place in every village and city up and down the country — Barcelona erected a giant screen close to the Nou Camp to watch the national team for the first time — is that there is not a single way to be Spanish, Catalan or Basque.
Certain forums, the Catalan sports media mostly, have been trying to appropriate the success, remembering that the line-up in the final had seven Barcelona players (including one, David Villa, who has not played for the club yet) and the Madrid sports press would probably have done the same if Real had been better represented.
But so far that kind of parochialism has been limited because in the streets of Barcelona and Madrid, fans were celebrating without invoking divisions.
It is now possible to see Puyol kiss with passion the Catalan flag and have him for ever as a Spanish hero. Spain FC — as some have called this group of friends who play as a team and have solidarity, humility and hard work as their philosophy — are everybody’s national side. “Visca España” (Viva España in Catalan) was the opportune and intelligent cover of AS, the Madrid-based sports newspaper, after the victory in semi-finals.
The influence of the Barcelona players and their club’s style in the national team certainly helped to bring a new set of fans to La Roja, but Spain did not owe everything to Barcelona.
If it were not for the goals of Villa and the saves of Casillas (the penalty against Paraguay, the two from Arjen Robben against Holland in the final), Spain would not have won the World Cup. Nevertheless, the contribution of the Catalan club has been significant and extends beyond the players.
Spain has copied the style that has made Barcelona, following the Dutch football school, the best team in the world and that total faith was invoked in the most difficult passage of the tournament — just before the Chile game, in their final group-stage fixture — with the calling of the “cricket ground meeting”, a gathering of the top players, including Carlos Marchena, Puyol, Casillas and Fernando Torres, but without Vicente Del Bosque although it had the coach’s permission.
But why is that style, which has resulted in only two defeats in 55 games, been so difficult to beat? Because to do so you need three things: organisation, bravery with the ball and defensive commitment from all the XI.
National sides cannot generally prepare properly to implement these tactics because of the lack of time, so Spain are automatically at an advantage. It also helps that the style is being implemented by an extraordinarily talented crop of players from the same generation — Villa, Gerard Piqué, Casillas, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Xabi Alonso and Sergio Busquets.
Put it this way — Chelsea or Liverpool might be able to stop Spain, but Portugal, Germany or Holland could not in probably eight out of ten cases.
The Spain players also enjoy a special, more trusting relationship with their media than occurs elsewhere in Europe. The kind of dynamic was exemplified when Pepe Reina recorded on his mobile phone the appearance of Queen Sophia in the changing rooms after the Germany game, with Puyol coming out of the shower, and sent it to Spanish television for the country to enjoy.
The players made us part of their success and in exchange they felt they were being unconditionally backed by their home country. Football is changing Spain and most people are relieved that a solution has been found to make the country less tense and more celebratory of its differences.
After all, we are a nation of nations and should be proud of the diversity.
