TROON, Scotland — The questions came every single day, one after the other, pressing Scottie Scheffler about whether he’d leave the Masters if his wife went into labor with their first child. The entire week was framed around this emotional crossroads in his life. People and Us Weekly tracked it like celebrity gossip. Here at The Athletic, we even wrote a story about Scheffler taking the lead into Saturday night without his wife, Meredith, there alongside him.

The baby was not due for another month.

When Bennett was eventually born in May, an ESPN reporter ambiguously broke the news with the hashtag #babyborn. The PGA Tour announced it on the tour website. Scheffler’s arrival that week at the PGA Championship in Louisville, Ky., was like an appearance from the royal family.

Life is suddenly very different for Scottie Scheffler. A golfer once deemed as boring, unexciting and ho-hum has somehow gone from really good golfer to comically famous human being. A player who spoke more than anyone on tour about how important it was to keep golf and life separate — about the essential nature of staying grounded in spite of success and generational wealth — is now in another class of attention. His injuries and equipment changes are headline news. His family is tabloid fodder. A bizarre arrest in Louisville made him an international fascination. His rare weeks when he finishes outside the top 10 at a major are treated like disasters.

Scheffler has been the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world for 96 of the past 121 weeks. Yet it wasn’t until 2024 he became a superstar.

“It’s definitely been a bit trickier,” Scheffler said Tuesday before the Open Championship at Royal Troon. “I think continuing to play better this year definitely — especially at tournaments, I think there’s just a lot more going on day to day. I think I’ve had to almost lean into that more, just continuing to improve my rest so that it’s actually restful.”

Scheffler has always gone out of his way to keep his life small. He has a few big sponsorships but keeps the number at a minimum. He doesn’t post his life on social media. He stays off his phone a remarkable amount altogether.

And before this year, all of that was fine. He was world No. 1. He was the 2022 Masters champ. But he was maybe the fifth-most famous player in his sport. He could be normal. Brush off an occasional interview? No big deal. Don’t sign for a fan? Eh, he wants other people more anyway.

But something has noticeably shifted alongside his game’s elevation to a new level in 2024. He’s won six big-time tournaments in his last 10 starts, including a second Masters green jacket in April. Conversations around major championships have become, “Who’s your pick, you know, outside of Scottie?” And though a year ago his galleries were solid but unremarkable, Scheffler now has the largest following aside from Tiger Woods as fans want to see history.

There is now a responsibility element to his public appearances. He seems to grasp that.

“It’s a pretty cool feeling to be able to make someone’s day by signing an autograph or taking a picture,” Scheffler said. “It’s a pretty fun feeling. I’m trying to embrace more of that side of it than not being able to sign everyone’s autograph. People are upset because you can’t get to them throughout the day. That’s not a fun feeling. I’m trying to lean into more of making somebody’s day by signing something or taking a picture.”

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It’s fascinating the way it’s slowly progressed, so easy to forget that his pre-tournament news conference at the Players Championship in March was filled with countless questions about how unfamous he was, how for whatever reason he didn’t move the needle like other huge stars.

But something happened in the second round of that week. He had won the week before at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a new putter, and talk increased about how unstoppable he’d be with a better stroke on the greens. Then, that Friday, Scheffler slightly injured his neck, needing massages before each tee shot for several holes. Suddenly, a dozen or so reporters rushed from the media center to catch him on the back nine. It was urgent. It was covered in a way golfers’ injuries are almost never treated. He of course came from behind to win.

His four-shot win at the Masters was treated like an inevitability. He had Tiger-esque odds as a 4-to-1 favorite while constant talk of his coming son hovered over his week. His greatness took on a new tone.

But it was that strange, horrible day in Louisville that took Scheffler across the Rubicon. When Scheffler was thrown against a car and arrested before the second round of the PGA Championship, it was a viral, flashbulb type of moment. By the time he teed off hours after being in a jail cell, fans already had “Free Scottie” T-shirts and bought inmate costumes out of support. They loved him, all because of some freak incident.

How might Scottie Scheffler try to take on the famous Royal Troon bunkers? Find out Live at the Range.https://t.co/0LPQyHprlO@HSBC_UK | #LiveAtTheRange pic.twitter.com/92VGuKMV7u

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2024

He’s won three more times since that Masters win. When he finished tied for 41st at the U.S. Open in June — his first time outside the top 25 at a major in 2 1/2 years — it was met with concern.

So how does a person who takes such pride in keeping life calm outside of golf handle this new sort of attention? How does he make sure it doesn’t mess with his career?

“I think that’s something that my wife and I are always working on,” Scheffler said. “When we’re at home getting rest, what does it actually look like to be restful? That’s not necessarily sitting there and watching TV. There’s a lot of different things we do to get good quality rest so that, when we come back out on the road and play and do things, I have the energy to compete. I have the energy to — really the social energy to come out and interact with the fans and do this kind of stuff, sit in the media center.”

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This is now the place Scheffler lives, for better or worse. He’s now an ambassador. He’s a celebrity. He has responsibilities and expectations. And sometimes it means strange interactions with strangers recognizing him.

“There’s always some funny ones because I think like sometimes people don’t know exactly what to say, and they can be a bit weird at times,” he said, laughing.

This week at Royal Troon, Scheffler will try to put a cap on a historic year. He has a chance to be the first golfer since Arnold Palmer in 1962 to win seven tournaments by this point in July, and a second major in 2024 would help validate how great he’s been.

So, yes, Scheffler has finally accepted he’s famous. He concedes his life is different and that’s not going away. But do not expect Scheffler to explain why the people love him.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Scheffler said with a smirk. “I guess you’d have to ask them.”

(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

The black gates at the southwest entrance of Hard Rock Stadium had been closed for one hour and 45 minutes when a young child was hoisted on a guardian’s shoulders amid the crush of people waiting to get in for the Copa América final.

The boy waved his hands toward the police officers and security guards standing next to the lone door that was opening to let people into the stadium. He put his hands together as if in prayer, pleading with them to let him in.

“Please,” he said. “Please.”

As a security guard reached out and pulled the boy and his guardian toward the open gate, the boy started to cry in relief, then got spun around, the Messi No. 10 visible on the back of his sky blue and white Argentina jersey.

Similar scenes played out for more than two hours as fans pressed against the closed gates at the stadium in Miami Gardens, a near-disaster that overshadowed the spectacle of the game that was eventually played between Argentina and Colombia, two South American powers fighting for a major international trophy.

Fans had been asked to arrive early, with watch parties banned outside the stadium or in the parking lots. Hard Rock also said “fans MUST have a game ticket” to enter the stadium campus on Sunday.

It was busy outside from 3 p.m., the gates opened at 5 p.m. and the crowd outside started to build around 6 p.m., about two hours from the scheduled kick-off. Several fans were arrested for hopping fences and trying to get into the game without tickets. The decision to shut the gates around the stadium — a response to what Miami-Dade Police called “unruly behavior” — would prove key to what followed.

pic.twitter.com/gj5qZ8Av4a

— Miami-Dade Police (@MiamiDadePD) July 14, 2024

With the sun beating down, fans pushed toward the closed gates, causing a crush. There were few visible barriers to disperse the people trying to get in; to try to ease the flow. When the gates opened slightly, the fans swelled forward and security closed the gates again, with several people stuck outside saying they had no idea what was going on.

This pattern continued again and again, with fans being let in at a trickle, almost one by one. At times, kids would come through with their guardians, their faces beet red, soaked in sweat and many in tears. Other fans clearly suffering from heat-related issues were held upright by their friends. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue set up a medical station just inside the gates, where they treated a steady stream of people suffering from heat-related issues. Video showed fans holding their tickets up to cameras saying they paid $2,000 for seats, only to be denied entry.

A Hard Rock Stadium spokesperson said: “Throughout the afternoon and evening, there were numerous attempts by unruly fans without tickets to overpower security and law enforcement personnel at entry points to the stadium, putting themselves, other fans and security and stadium staff at extreme risk.

“Various stadium gates were closed and re-opened strategically in an attempt to allow ticketed guests to enter safely and in a controlled manner. Fans continued to engage in illegal conduct — fighting police officers, breaking down walls and barricades and vandalizing the stadium, causing significant damage to the property.”

Fans amassed outside Hard Rock Stadium’s south-eastern gate (Laura Williamson/The Athletic)

One woman, who identified herself later to The Athletic as Diana, was carried unconscious into the stadium by a police officer. She was laid down on the concrete in the area set up with medics and eventually woke up and was given water. Steven, a 34-year-old Colombian who lives in Miami and was with Diana, described the situation.

“Everyone started to push and you could feel yourself losing air,” he said. “And once we got closer to the gates, you can only imagine. I noticed that Diana was struggling. Fortunately, I was standing behind her.”

Diana, 28, said she remembered the moment she fainted.

“I tried to breathe,” she said. “A man kept telling me, ‘Try to breathe. Try to breathe’ and I responded that I wanted them to open another gate. They were using one gate for all of these people but people pushed back. I held on to a man that was standing near me. Everyone was pushing. Colombians, Argentines. Everyone was pushing.”

Even friends and family members of players were caught in the melee, as the southwest gate was an entry point for media and VIP ticket holders. The family of Colombia fullback Daniel Muñoz sat together just inside the entrance shortly after the gates were closed, having been pushed toward the entrance and eventually pulled inside.

“We were standing in line as a family waiting to get in and then the reckless people behind me started to push me,” said Manuela Ángel, Muñoz’s wife, who was bleeding from a cut on her wrist. “They thought I was causing chaos, so I was pushed towards the police officers, away from the line. They started yelling at my children. My oldest is six years old and my youngest isn’t even two yet. I’m here with Daniel’s grandmother, his mother, his aunt and other family members. I suffered the most because I was in front of all of them. I had the tickets.

“One police officer helped me because she saw me crying. I told her I was Daniel’s wife and that I was concerned for my children’s well-being. Entering other stadiums (during the tournament) has been fine but tonight was terrible. Just terrible.”

Argentina midfielder Alexis Mac Allister’s family was also caught up. “Alexis had to come out to get us in,” his mother, Silvina, said on Argentinian television. “He was worried about us. It was inhuman. He gave us a hug. We told him to stay calm and get ready to play.”

A fan is detained by police at Hard Rock Stadium (Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images)

One media member, who works for a rights-holder for the tournament, was slammed to the ground and arrested after getting through a gate where media members had been held.

Argentina and Colombia players went out to warm up in front of a sparse crowd at just after 7 p.m., only to abort their routines by 7.30 p.m. when it became obvious the match could not start on time.

“When we were warming up and in the locker rooms, they told us there was a half-hour delay,” said Colombia head coach Nestor Lorenzo. “It was more, right? We were trying to talk to our family members and friends and finding out if they were OK. It was a bit weird and chaotic. We tried to keep calm but there was a level of anxiousness.”

Two fans, both wearing Honduras gear, got in around 8 p.m., after two hours of waiting in the mass of people. Both were soaked in sweat and visibly frustrated. They said police threatened them with tear gas and tasers.

“What’s happening is they want to control the people in the front and it’s not the people in the front. They’re pushing from the back,” Alejandro Flores told The Athletic. “You have to move the people in front out and control the people in the back. Pull them back so that the people can be orderly.

“Their job is to protect and serve. The people are fainting in front of their faces and it doesn’t matter to them at all. They don’t even want to give us water. Not even water, man. Not even water.”

Flores’ frustration boiled over again as he looked back at the people still pressed against the fences behind him.

“CONMEBOL is a disaster,” he said of the tournament’s organizers, the South American Football Confederation. “In North Carolina (the Uruguay-Colombia semifinal) was a test. They should have prepared themselves and the same thing is happening. North Carolina was a disaster. Right now, it’s going down the same path, or worse.

“CONMEBOL should not have brought this tournament to the United States… Look around, because they’re not ready for a World Cup.”

Fans wait to be granted entry into the stadium (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

This stadium will host seven matches at the 2026 men’s World Cup — four in the group stage, a round-of-32 game, a quarterfinal and the third-place playoff. The tournament is organized by soccer’s world governing body FIFA as opposed to CONMEBOL.

Another fan who declined to give a name stood with his hands on his hips near an escalator at the entrance, watching the scene from which he had just emerged continue to play out.

“People piled on. There was more and more pressure and people were fainting,” he said. “There are children vomiting, a lot of people there, and you can’t move. In other words, you don’t have control of your body; you go where they push you. And on top of that, there is no one to organize or help with anything.”

As he was talking, police officers backed away from the gates and stood off to the side. Suddenly, at around 8:15 p.m., a quarter-hour after the game was initially supposed to kick off, the southwest gates were opened and fans flooded in without tickets being checked or anyone being patted down or passing through metal detectors.

A Hard Rock Stadium spokesperson said: “Shortly after 8 p.m., stadium officials, CONMEBOL, CONCACAF and law enforcement officers communicated and decided to open stadium gates for a short period of time to all fans to prevent stampedes and serious injury at the perimeter. The gates were then closed once the threat of fans being crushed was alleviated. At that time, the venue was at capacity and gates were not re-opened.”

Video taken from the stadium appeared to show fans still sneaking into the stadium after that initial rush of supporters were let in. One video showed fans crawling through an opening up near a ceiling adjacent to ventilation. Another video showed fans climbing a makeshift ladder to get over a fence.

Thousands were still outside when the game eventually kicked off at 9.22 p.m., 82 minutes after it should have started. Some watched from the stadium’s aisles until police combed through the crowd checking for tickets and asking those without them to leave. Others retreated to the stadium concourses for food and water — alcohol sales were suspended shortly after kick off.

Those refused entry remained until well into the second half of the game, past 11pm, and Argentina did not seal its win until gone midnight after extra time.

Supporters eventually got to watch Argentina’s 1-0 win over Colombia — but those who gained entry without tickets were removed (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cava issued a statement along with chief public safety officer James Reyes saying Miami-Dade Police provided more than 550 officers for the game and that they were “outraged by the unprecedented events at tonight’s Copa America finals”.

“The Copa America final is organized by CONMEBOL and Miami-Dade Police Department provides security support, along with other law enforcement agencies,” the statement read.

“Let’s be clear: This situation should never have taken place and cannot happen again. We will work with stadium leadership to ensure that a full review of tonight’s events takes place immediately to evaluate the full chain of events, in order to put in place needed protocols and policies for all future games.”

Hard Rock Stadium promised to work with CONMEBOL to address the “individual concerns of ticket holders who could not get in”.

“We are grateful to the law enforcement officers who managed a difficult situation and prioritized the safety of the venue, the players, their families and the fans,” a spokesperson added. “We will continue to work with law enforcement to identify and hold criminals accountable who engaged in illegal conduct tonight.

“It is disappointing that a night of celebration was impacted by unlawful and unsafe behavior and we will fully review the processes and protocols in place tonight and work with law enforcement to ensure such an event never happens again.”

Members of the press were caught out, too: Veronica Brunati, one of Argentina’s most respected football reporters, tweeted at 10.37pm to say she had been unable to enter the stadium.

“This is a nightmare,” she wrote. “It’s madness. There are thousands of us here outside our entrance gate.

“But I’m alive, thank God.”

(Top photos: Maddie Meyer, Megan Briggs/Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)

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)