Finally, Spain can dare to dream of a second World Cup success.
After more than a decade of disappointment, Spain belatedly won a World Cup knockout tie for the first time since they were crowned world champions in 2010.
But it’s Mikel Oyarzabal, not coach Luis de la Fuente, who is masterminding La Roja’s surge towards the finish line after Thursday’s round-of-32 win over Austria.
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Mikel Oyarzabal’s incredible Spain success story
Oyazarbal scored twice in the 3-0 victory at Los Angeles Stadium to become Spain’s first player to net a brace in a World Cup knockout since Emilio Butragueno in 1986.
Fittingly, he has already eclipsed the Real Madrid legend’s international haul with 29 goals, overtaken another in Fernando Morientes and tied a third – Fernando Hierro.
In his previous 14 appearances on the international stage, the Real Sociedad forward has also now racked up an eye-watering 13 goals and eight assists.
The man who clinched Spain’s third European Championship with a last-gasp winner in the 2024 final against England has always had a sense of occasion.
However, it was not so long ago that Oyarzabal felt like a player destined to be a perennial nearly man in the latest iteration of his country’s golden football age.
He missed out on a maiden World Cup appearance in 2022 due to injury after rupturing the ACL in his left knee sustained during a training session with La Real.
The 29-year-old also found himself on the wrong side of history when Spain lost both Nations League finals in 2021 and 2025 while being omitted for their 2023 success.
Yet Oyarzabal’s flexbility has made him an invaluable asset since De La Fuente succeeded Luis Enrique after the shambolic round-of-16 shootout exit to Morocco.
An ability to operate between the lines means he is unburdened by the scrutiny that Spain’s established strikers, notably the much-maligned Alvaro Morata, endured.
Euro 2024 already etched Oyarzabal’s name into the history books alongside Andres Inesta and Fernando Torres but he could soon surpass them, too, in his own right.