Injured Lamine Yamal named in Spain squad, no Real Madrid players
Injured Lamine Yamal stayed in Spain’s squad while every Real Madrid player was left out, a striking sign of a shifting national power balance.
Spain’s World Cup selection landed with a message as loud as any result on the field: Lamine Yamal is in, and Real Madrid is out. Luis de la Fuente named a 26-man squad on Monday for the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the list contained no Real Madrid players, a first in Spain’s World Cup history and, reports say, the first Spain World Cup squad without a Madrid player since 1950.
Yamal’s inclusion despite a late-season muscle or hamstring injury underlined how much Spain is willing to lean on its youngest star. Nico Williams, who is also managing an injury concern, was named as well. De la Fuente said he expects both wingers to be fit for the start of the World Cup and that Spain will not rush their recovery in coordination with their clubs, a clear sign that the coach is prioritizing the tournament’s long arc over any one early fixture.
The omission of Real Madrid representation is the sharpest break with Spain’s traditional selection pattern. Real Madrid has long been one of the national team’s main pipelines, but that channel was absent from this squad. Dean Huijsen, a Madrid player, missed out because of injury, while Dani Carvajal was also left out after an injury-hit campaign. Barcelona, by contrast, is heavily represented, and the selection points to a generational shift in Spanish football as much as a tactical one.
That shift arrives with Spain in strong competitive shape. The team finished top of Group E in qualifying, won six of its last eight matches in all competitions and will enter the World Cup as reigning European champion after its Euro 2024 title. Yamal is expected to make his first World Cup appearance, though some reports suggest he may miss Spain’s opening group game against Cape Verde on June 15 while he continues to recover. Even so, the squad de la Fuente named suggests Spain is betting on youth, form and cohesion, not reputation, to carry it into the tournament.
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