Spain arrived in Germany under the radar, with a feeling they were unnoticed. They leave not just as the European champions — but with another thrilling generation with the potential to rule the world.

This was the Euros of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, two adolescents off the pitch who turned into gamebreakers in a competition that changed their lives forever. It was the competition of Rodri, a Ballon d’Or contender in the making. But in general, it belongs to a team who have been head and shoulders above everyone else.

Luis de la Fuente’s side swept past Germany, France and eventually England — the three biggest candidates to win the competition — and none of them could complain.

Spain fans will remember Euro 2024 because it was not another win: it was an unexpected one. This squad was meant to be good, but not this good, and especially not at this age. They have won seven games out of seven. The best player of the tournament, as well as the best young player, were Rodri and Yamal.

The Athletic has spoken to multiple people over the past four weeks, many speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not cleared to speak publicly at the time, to tell the inside story of what their success has been built on. It includes…

• The leadership of Alvaro Morata
• The unnoticed talent De la Fuente showed to the world
• How the players embraced the change of style
• The Yamal and Williams explosion

Morata — misunderstood but a ‘brilliant captain’

Morata is fascinating. The 31-year-old striker has not been one of Spain’s standout performers, he scored one goal in seven games, and it is the one position De la Fuente would appreciate an improvement in.

But it is impossible to analyse this Spain team without the figure of its captain — and the most-loved character in the dressing room.

“Media have given him and keep giving him a lot of stick… but I am telling you: he is the best bloke in that dressing room,” said one person familiar with the team environment in Germany when asked about Morata.

“You might think that’s how I’ll describe every player we have here, but that’s not cheap praise. Trust me. A brilliant captain, the perfect guy for this group.”

Both things are true. The amount of pressure Morata has had to deal with over the last three major competitions for Spain has been almost unprecedented. He was booed by his own fans in March in a friendly at the Santiago Bernabeu. “My kids can’t understand why fans are booing his dad,” he said in Germany.

But inside the dressing room, where it matters most, the feeling is the opposite. “Morata is undoubtedly the player who creates more bonds inside the group and one of the funniest guys. Whenever he is talking, all the young guys listen to him and his stories, he is brilliant,” said Yamal before the start of the competition, to the surprise of many fans.

He has been the heart of the base camp Spain set in Donaueschingen, a small town in the Black Forest. Apart from having Yamal, Williams, Fermin Lopez or Alex Baena paying close attention to his stories, he has given golf classes to Marc Cucurella and Alex Remiro.

He was a poker partner for Dani Carvajal, Joselu, David Raya and Ayoze Perez. Before the start of the competition, he asked every player to choose a song to put on their Spotify playlist to have all tastes represented and he was the DJ of the dressing room. The song La Potra Salvaje became an anthem and was played after every win once the full squad was on the team bus.

He has taken the diplomacy reins, too. Morata led the negotiations with the Spanish FA to define the bonuses related to performances. He wanted an extra share of the total bonus split among the staff that works every day with them — from the kit men to the media team, from physiotherapists to the chefs.

In the build-up to the final, he was supposed to speak alongside the manager in the press conference. Instead, he asked the FA to put Jesus Navas in place, so the 38-year-old could announce he was retiring from the national team.

Morata said during the competition that “he does not feel valued in Spain and sometimes you feel more love from abroad”. He has been working with psychologists and after winning the competition, he confessed to national TV, La 1, that two ex-Spanish players prevented him from retiring.

“If it had not been for Andres Iniesta and Bojan Krkic, I would not have played this Euros. They are the sort of people who are gifts from life. They went through similar situations I’ve had here. At the end of the tunnel, there is always light.”

This Euros turned Morata into the fourth-best goalscorer ever for Spain, with 36 goals in 80 games. De la Fuente said that, if he had to reincarnate as a player of his team, it would be his captain.

He might as well retire after this success, but Morata’s example has had a deep impact — his mission completed.

De la who?

Declan Rice said he did not know the Spanish manager before this Euros and you can’t really blame him for it — De la Fuente’s experience at a club level is reduced, at its best, to two failed projects in Spain’s third tier.

But on an international level, it is another story. The 63-year-old has been a part of Spain’s setup since 2013 — enough time to feature in five major tournaments in the youth ranks. He became champion in two and reached the semi-finals at least in all of them. Despite Euro 2024 being his first experience at a senior level, he has delivered again.

De la Fuente hugs Williams — whose partnership with Yamal has been key to Spain’s success (Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

He created an enjoyable environment around the team rather than preferring names loved by the media, such as defender Sergio Ramos or Real Madrid forward Brahim Diaz, the latter eventually opting to represent Morocco.

De la Fuente’s biggest achievement has been passing on his experience in knockout tournaments to a squad who have never looked shocked by the biggest stage.

“I am fully convinced that the players we have here are the best we have to win this. I would not change any of them,” he said when he announced his squad.

“The absolute priority we had was to make sure we found a good role distribution on the pitch. Let every player know what we expected from them and show how they could make the difference,” a member of the coaching staff says to The Athletic.

“We had a pretty solid structure from before the competition. The players knew it. We knew them so well from youth ranks. All was set and we just needed to put the ball into the back of the net. As soon as it happened… it clicked.”

Spain’s dressing room knew few people were tipping them for glory, but they have used that as motivation to prove people wrong.

“This generation has a winning mentality, shown from the youth ranks,” said Mikel Merino before the start of the tournament. “This is the biggest of the pressures and what we set ourselves for. We don’t look at what’s said on the outside.”

For all the young stars, the veterans played a specific role, too. Navas was the only player left from the 2008 Spanish golden generation, led by Xavi Hernandez, Iker Casillas, Iniesta and Ramos.

Navas has been dealing with a chronic hip injury for the last four seasons but, despite everything, he wanted to be there. He was needed to start in the semi-final against France after Dani Carvajal was sent off in the quarter-final win over Germany. He played 58 minutes in which he was able to contain Kylian Mbappe.

That same night, people briefed on the situation say Navas could not sleep due to the pain he was in with his hip.

The example he set to the younger generation in that team regarding the values and commitment to defend the shirt, in the eyes of De la Fuente’s staff, is as precious as any win they could get.

Spain were convinced they could go all the way thanks to De la Fuente’s faith in them. When the rest of the world realised that, it was too late to make them crumble.

Players embraced the new era

A 3-0 win against Croatia in the opening game revealed a lot about Spain: the tiki-taka days were gone. Spain had less possession for the first time in 136 competitive matches — but deservedly won.

Becoming a versatile team was the biggest demand De la Fuente sought when he was appointed as the national manager after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as memories of the defeat on penalties to Morocco were fresh and poignant.

De la Fuente has involved certain players within the general leadership of the group — and listened to as many of them as possible.

Particularly relevant was a moment in the quarter-final against Germany. During the second half, with the hosts pushing for an equaliser, Carvajal asked his manager to take Yamal off, as the German wing-backs were causing problems and the teenager was struggling to keep up with the tracking back. De la Fuente agreed and Ferran Torres replaced him in the 63rd minute.

Another of the players who has been listened to has been Rodri. The Manchester City midfielder believed that neutralising their opposition’s counter-attacks was crucial if Spain wanted to beat the best teams.

Rodri was named the best player of the tournament (Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images)

The prime example arrived before the last-four meeting with France. The team had barely time to train, as they needed to recover fitness levels, so De la Fuente focused on one aspect: counter-pressing after losing the ball and guarding against counter-attacks.

De la Fuente believed the basics of their style were so well-processed by his players that he preferred to focus training on reducing their weaknesses. The assistant manager and former La Liga player, Pablo Amo, is one of the names praised for his role in training.

“Thanks to the work Spanish academies are putting in, we believe the Spanish footballers are the ones with the best decision-making in the world,” a member of the coaching staff says.

“All players have to identify what every play requires and the execution that follows is normally right. Knowing we have that, for us it was only to boost it and try to correct the things we lacked the most.

“We are not here to improve our players because we don’t have the time. If they are here, it’s because they are already so good at many things. Our only goal is to make our player’s life in-game easier. That’s how we plan.”

Yamal and Williams announce themselves to the world

For them, it all started in Georgia in the qualifiers. It was September 2023 and De la Fuente had just won the Nations League, but the pressure on him had not faded completely.

Spain clinched the trophy with two hard-fought wins, one in extra time and the other after penalties, against Italy and Croatia. Results were better than feelings and there was plenty of work to do. Their place at the Euros was not secured after a loss in Scotland.

Spain were about to travel to face Georgia, a side against whom they had struggled to beat. De la Fuente opted to use a refreshing duo on the wings: Williams and Yamal played together for the first time. Spain won 7-1 and they both scored.

Yamal and Williams share a moment in Berlin at the final whistle (Jewel SAMAD / AFP)

Four days later, Williams and Yamal started another qualifier, against Cyprus — Spain won 6-0. Williams provided two assists, while Yamal’s craft blew everyone’s mind. That was the birth of the partnership that lit up Euro 2024.

“That trip to Georgia is key to understanding success,” says a member of the backroom staff. “It was a release point. Pressure was still around and the way we played helped us to believe we were on the right track.”

The way Yamal and Williams clicked on and off the pitch was beyond their wildest dreams.

The wingers got to know each other in September last year thanks to Barcelona and Spain full-back Alejandro Balde. Yamal and Williams were soon sharing rooms on international duty, filming TikToks and bolstering their chemistry on the pitch.

In Germany, the bromance kept going. Williams, 22, called Yamal “his son” as he claimed “he still needs to learn from the advice of his elder one”. The teenager would reply to his joke saying he completely owned his counterpart when they faced each other at EA FC24.

Williams was the man of the match in the final against England; Yamal was the young player of the tournament. They have been involved in eight goals in the tournament.

“They are the new era,” a member of the Spanish FA told The Athletic. They have become the indisputable favourites of every fan. They are role models in a country where dealing with racism in sport has been debated repeatedly, two young athletes from an immigrant background are showing everyone what the real Spain looks like.

“They are a constant joy, they have added this to the team” De la Fuente said. “We have a mature squad, very professional, and then those guys are so fun to be with. They’ve fitted so well with the veterans, who took the fresh air they brought and revitalised themselves, too. Our more senior players help a lot in guiding them. The exchange and impact is really positive.”

Now it will be time to look at their immediate future — especially in the case of Williams. Will Athletic Bilbao be able to keep him? His £55million ($71.4m) release clause will surely be too tempting for top European clubs…

Turning issues into blessings

Nobody would believe losing a player such as Pedri to injury could be good news — but it turned out to open a door for Dani Olmo. The RB Leipzig attacking midfielder was not a starter but ended the Euro 2024 as the top goalscorer with three goals. He came on in the eighth minute against Germany after Pedri’s injury and took a starring role.

The instant solutions De la Fuente has found to the minor issues that emerged throughout the competition have been a decisive factor in their success.

Olmo celebrates his semi-final winner against France (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Nacho started against Croatia after a brilliant end-of-season at Real Madrid as Aymeric Laporte was suffering some physical discomfort. Then it was Nacho who was injured and reopened a door for Laporte to flourish as their best centre-back.

De la Fuente had a big call to make on the left-back role. He opted for Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella in front of Alex Grimaldo, who starred for Bayer Leverkusen, and it was inspired.

“Sometimes we believe we need to use the best players available, but it’s more important to use those who make your team better,” one person with an understanding of the dressing room environment said. Cucurella excelled defensively and his brilliant cross set up Mikel Oyarzabal to score the winner in the final.

Then there is Fabian Ruiz. The 28-year-old Paris Saint-Germain midfielder was one of the starters with the lowest pedigree among the group before Euro 2024. He scored once and laid on another against Croatia and was a dominant midfielder throughout the competition.

Fabian was one of the stars of the tournament (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

There has been an emergence of unexpected heroes, too. Merino scored the winner against Germany in the same stadium where his dad scored for Osasuna back in the 1990s.

And Oyarzabal, the Real Sociedad forward who missed the last World Cup due to a serious knee injury, vindicated his recovery process with the 86th-minute winner against England.

Football is not meant to be a fair sport, but Spain were not meant to be the best team in this competition.

(Top photos: Getty; Dan Mullan, Miguel Medina/AFP, Ina Fassbender/AFP; design: Dan Goldfarb)

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — The 16th green at Renaissance Club sits well below the sloped fairway just off the Firth of Forth, low enough that not a soul surrounding it could see the golfer standing in the Scottish dune grass taking five minutes to hit the ball. They knew nothing of metal spikes or hidden sprinkler heads. To them, Robert Macintyre was nearly out of the Scottish Open, two shots back of Adam Scott with three holes to go. The dream of a Scotsman winning his national open would have to wait another year. Yet here they still stood around the green, patiently waiting, hanging on to some combination of courtesy and hope.

So as a ball appeared from the dark, cloudy sky and bounced before the par-5 green’s up-slope, confusion ensued.

“Is that Bob?” one fan asked.

“Bob?” shouted another.

Scotsman Ross Gray was the volunteer who found the tee shot in the dune grass in the first place. That ball had no chance. He then walked to the green to prepare for the next shot. As he saw the ball bounce and slowly roll up, up, up to within 6 feet from the pin, even Gray said, “That has to be his fourth, dunnit?” But one by one, the realization spread through the semicircle of fans like a wave that it was Macintyre until an out-of-proportion roar erupted along Scotland’s east coast.

“Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!” they chanted as Macintyre finally appeared, walking down the hill with a hand in the air.

Just like that, Bob from Oban eagled the 16th hole to tie the lead. From that moment forward, there was only one way this could end. Bob Macintyre had to win his national open. Thirty minutes later, he was screaming so loud he nearly lost his voice.

“I’ve been brought up to fight for everything,” Macintyre said, “and I just fought for it.”

Dougie Macintyre didn’t drive down from Oban until late Friday night. “My dad is a negative man,” Macintyre joked — so much so that the head greenskeeper at Glencruitten Golf Club doesn’t commit to the drive from Scotland’s west coast until he’s sure his son will make the cut. It wasn’t until around the second round’s 15th hole that Dougie, who caddied for his son during his Canadian Open win last month, felt comfortable.

Dougie is a proud but shy man, a skilled shinty player and golfer in his own right who never had the opportunity to chase those dreams further. He and his wife, Carol, raised a family just off Glencruitten’s 12th tee looking up at hills and fairways so similar to the ones Macintyre just eagled Sunday. They had four children of their own. Many more foster children too, including a boy they’ve watched for the past six or seven years. And Dougie passed the games he loves down to his children.

GREAT SCOT!!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
@Robert1Lefty wins the @ScottishOpen with a roar heard across Scotland! pic.twitter.com/Fe20zt6lcv

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 14, 2024

Maybe, just maybe, they’d be able to chase those dreams more than he could. Bob was a special talent, the kind who members knew was different when he was outdriving adults and hit his first ace by age 12. But Dougie and Carol couldn’t afford to send Bob across Britain to play countless junior tournaments the way most of his peers were.

Sometimes club members and mentors helped out financially. Macintyre’s sisters were skilled horse riders, and the family owned a horse for them to compete with. They had to sell the horse, Molly, for enough money to send Bob to the few tournaments he could attend.

He was never the sexy young prospect. He didn’t have the hype from amateur wins or college exploits. He slowly made his way up the ranks, and even when he automatically qualified for the 2023 Ryder Cup, it was met with skepticism.

“Your face doesn’t fit exactly because you’re not a central built guy,” Macintyre said, “and I just have to graft at it. The biggest thing for me was never give up. A lot of people might say, ‘He doesn’t quite have this, he doesn’t quite have that,’ but I’ve got fight, and that’s all I need.”

But there Macintyre was, standing on the 18th tee box with a chance to win the Scottish Open. Unlike the year before — when Macintyre birdied the final hole, only for Rory McIlroy to snag it from his hands one group later — the fighting Scotsman controlled his destiny. He entered the 14th hole three shots back and seemingly out of this thing. But he made the 41-foot birdie putt on 14. He made the epic eagle out of the dune grass on 16 thanks to free relief from a hidden sprinkler under his feet. The score was tied.

Macintyre isn’t the most imposing-looking individual. He has a kind, pale face that welcomes you, but he does not look like an elite athlete. He began the day playing in the final group with 24-year-old rising phenom Ludvig Åberg, watching as the 6-foot-3 Swede gave up a two-shot lead on the back nine and swiftly fell out of contention. The handsome Australian veteran, Adam Scott, the other man at 17 under par, waited in the scorer’s tent after missing his 14-foot birdie putt on 18. It was Macintyre’s to take.

Again, Macintyre found himself just off the fairway in some light rough. A pitching wedge was all he needed. He hit a high-arcing left-to-right draw that landed in the center of the green, leaving a double-breaking 14-foot putt for Scottish immortality. He felt strangely comfortable standing over it, too.

And when it went in, grown men hugged and cried. His entire family embraced. Soon the grandstands sang “Flower of Scotland” in unison.

Macintyre dropped his club and shouted with his entire body, thrusting his hips and pumping his fists. He walked over to his caddie to let Åberg finish his putt, then looked up in the sky with hands over his forehead in disbelief. He crouched down as he fought back tears.

Macintyre became the first Scottish golfer to win the national Open in 25 years.

“This is the one I wanted,” he said.

It’ll be a “good west coast cèilidh” at Glencruitten, as Oban natives like to say.

“It could be a long few days to recover, and we expect Bob up tomorrow with the trophy,” member John Tannehill said Sunday night.

A reporter then mentioned to Macintyre that he is scheduled for a 3 p.m. news conference at Royal Troon on Monday for the Open Championship, also in Scotland. He paused for a moment and said carefully:

“I think there might be a change of schedule. I don’t think I’ll be in a fit state to get to Troon. I don’t think I’ll be legally able to drive.”

Oban took in Bob and helped propel him to the big time. In turn, he’s brought the town into the limelight. Reporters often make the trek to tell Bob’s story. Glencruitten has received an influx of business with people wanting to play Macintyre’s home course. Signs are up all around town: “The Home of Bob Macintyre.”

So when he moved to Florida this year to play on the PGA Tour and prepare year-round like most great golfers eventually do, he wasn’t happy. He talked often this summer about losing his “mojo” and how different life was on the PGA Tour compared to the European golf circuit.

It wasn’t until Wednesday that Macintyre divulged he would not be re-upping his rent in Orlando. It’s not worth it. He’s moving back to Scotland and will travel back to the States when the time comes.

So, the week he officially recommitted to his home and inner truth, Macintyre won the national Open against a field including many of the top players in the world. He left home to become great. He came back to prove he already was.

This all comes just five days after two Scottish men made their way up Glencruitten’s steep 12th fairway and onto the green and turned around to point to the home Macintyre grew up in. These were the men who flew with Macintyre to Rome to watch him in the Ryder Cup and played a round with him the Tuesday after he won the Canadian Open in June.

One of the men, Declan Curran, joked that Macintyre is downplaying the pressure, but they want him to pull off the double, to go win the Scottish and the Open Championship in back-to-back weeks in their home country. They laughed, but they believed it.

Macintyre is halfway there, but he’ll be happy with this one forever.

(Top photo: Octavio Passos / Getty Images)

The works of William Shakespeare have inspired countless performances and interpretations over the centuries, but some films show their Shakepearean roots more clearly than others. The challenge here is to identify a handful of those movies in this week’s edition of Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books and stories that have gone on to find new life in the form of films, television shows, theatrical productions and other formats.

Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the plays and their screen adaptations.

3 of 5

“Bringing Down the House”

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“Deliver Us From Eva”