That soccer is more than a sport in which eleven against eleven play is well known. Its social implications are enormous and the triumph of the Spanish team in the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 gives good faith of this. The long-awaited success a team accustomed to bitterness when it was the biggest soccer competition on the planet it served as a balm and united a country heavily hit by the economic crisis at that time.
During several weeks of summer heat and passion for the ‘Roja’, the most talented generation in the history of Spanish football made us forget unemployment, public debt, risk premium and economic problems They had been drowning the country for months in a global context of strong recession. Neither cuts, nor austerity, nor tighten the belt as Brussels said. For a few days all the headaches disappeared. We were immortal, the best in the world in the king of sports.
The title won in the forever beloved Soccer City of Johannesburg not only changed one but made the coin drop cross over and over again before the impossible challenge of climbing the dreaded quarterfinal wall, but also caused a true explosion of interest in the philosophy of Spanish football around the world that benefited elite technicians and footballers, but also those furthest from the spotlight, who found professional opportunities dreamed of by all corners of the globe in the heat of the passion for ‘tiqui-taca’.
Beyond the grass, and as Spain was overcoming the extreme situation caused by the defeat in the debut against Switzerland, the streets, bars, houses and even workplaces, because a World Cup is a World Cup, were filled with people dressed with t-shirts, scarves and flags despite the hot Spanish summer. Television audiences skyrocketed to figures that remain record-breaking today and aware that Spanish football was facing a unique opportunity, that it was a ‘now or never’, the Spaniards witnessed, perplexed, the defeat against the Swiss team, a stone that was not in the script but that is part of every epic story, they breathed relief with the victory against Honduras and clenched their teeth against tough Chile, with an unforgettable goal from Villa, the most distant in the history of the World Cups .
Then there would come the all or nothing, emotion in abundance and four brilliant victories at times, but also suffered until the heart attack. Who does not remember where and with whom he was when Spain left Cristiano Ronaldo on the way, when he knocked down the curse of quarters against Paraguay, when he embroidered football against Germany, which always wins, and of course, when Casillas denied the goal to Robben and Iniesta, that normal boy from Fuentealbilla, became eternal.
Jorge Valdano said that football is a state of mind, and the truth is that despite all the problems, the golden dream changed the face of the country. From the anguish of day to day, the euphoria of “I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish” passed. From being leaders in the unemployment figure to “I’m Spanish, what do you want me to beat you”. The night of July 11, 2010 was unforgettable and long, very long, but Madrid took to the streets again the next day to provide Vicente del Bosque’s boys with a real mass bath, with more than a million people at their feet.
Children who discovered the team as champion, adolescents and young people who had already taken some displeasure and older people who had only known disappointments and never expected to celebrate a triumph like that took the main roads of the capital, the ones they walk through every day. frantic thousands of people in their daily chores. Calle de la Princesa, Gran Vía, Plaza de España, the Royal Palace …
Cibeles and Neptuno also, because for once there were no more colors than those of Spain, attended the parade of champions, greeted with palms, songs, banners, smiles beaming with happiness and even a tear, but with joy. Spain, which has fought with itself so many times in its long history, attended the party of all together as never before, because for once, we were the best.
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