Spanish national team finally comes of age at World Cup (Feature)

By Duncan Shaw Jul 12, 2010, 11:05 GMT

Madrid - The Spanish national football team finally came of age on Sunday, by beating the Netherlands 1-0 in a bad-tempered World Cup final in Johannesburg.

The global media were unanimous on Monday in their judgement that Spain was the best team on display in South Africa - and fully deserved their first ever world triumph.

The Spanish media, for their part, were delighted to have found a 'Golden Generation' that converts their attractive football into long-awaited success, adding the World Cup to the Euro 2008 triumph.

Prestigious Madrid paper El Pais commented on Monday that 'this success has been a long time coming.'

Indeed it has.

For many decades Spain have been the under-achievers of European and world football, always failing to live up to expectations at the big tournaments, always going home early complaining about the referees or their bad luck.

'The national team is no longer a team of unlucky losers,' commented radio station Cadena SER on Monday. 'Now it is an accomplished team of winners.'

The Spanish national team has until now been a paradox to international football analysts: how could such a collection of talented individuals - most of whom have enjoyed European success for Barcelona or Real Madrid - consistently fail to perform together when wearing the red shirt?

La Roja, as the national team is known, has traditionally been the poor relation in Spanish football, much less important in terms of achievement, identity and affection than the powerful clubs of La Liga.

Indeed, until the belated 2008 triumph, many players responded to national team call-ups with reluctance and foreboding rather than with enthusiasm.

In addition, La Roja was treated with indifference, and even with hostility, in the Basque region and Catalonia, where many people saw it as one of the symbols of a despised centralist state.

The only achievements of La Roja before 2008 were fourth place at the 1950 World Cup, and triumph in the 1964 European Championship - played in Spain, with only four teams participating - and the 1992 Olympic victory, again achieved on home soil.

The long years of frustration and disappointment - and of watching other countries celebrate - have finally come to an end.

As sports daily Marca commented on Monday, 'the present of Spanish football is glorious, the future should be bright.