Victory For Football? Spain Beat Argentina To Win World Cup

Describing a result as a ‘victory for football’ might seem like a trite cliche – but you won’t find many neutrals disagreeing with that description of Spain’s win in the 2026 World Cup final.

When Ferran Torres slammed in the extra-time winner, and Rodri lifted the trophy high in New Jersey, it is hard to imagine many will have had sympathy for Argentina.

Spain triumphed in a battle of endurance, for players and spectators, to beat the Argentines and win their second men’s World Cup.

On every football metric – and, some would say, morality too – this was the right result.

“There is no doubt that the right team won,” former England captain Alan Shearer said on BBC One. “From start to finish, Spain controlled possession. They were the ones looking to play football, create chances and get in behind.

“This is a result for football because of the way that they have played. Spain deserve it.”

Spain had 65% possession, an expected goals tally of 1.94 and 20 shots on goal – 11 on target.

At the other end, goalkeeper Unai Simon kept his seventh clean sheet in eight matches as he won the Golden Glove for the tournament’s best goalkeeper.

Spain conceded just one goal at the 2026 World Cup – the fewest conceded by any winning team.

Spain are – even in the hard-to-quantify world of international football – clearly the preeminent side in the world.

They are world, Olympic and European champions – not to mention women’s world champions too. The men are now unbeaten in their past 38 matches in all competitions – the longest run by any European team in history.

They stumbled out of the gates in this World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde – meaning that on both occasions Spain have won the world title they have failed to win their opener, after a 1-0 loss to Switzerland in 2010.

There have only been three instances on record of a player completing 100 or more passes in a World Cup final. Two of those were Spain players on Sunday – Rodri with 101, and Pau Cubarsi with 121.

And for many of the squad, this might just be the start.

Cubarsi, 19, was named young player of the tournament, while it seems very likely his Barcelona team-mate Lamine Yamal has his best years ahead.

At 19 years and six days, Lamine Yamal became the third-youngest player to play in a World Cup final, after Pele in 1958 and Giuseppe Bergomi in 1982. He is now the third-youngest winner.