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One year since Spain’s return to the summit of Olympus

32 years after winning gold in Barcelona, the Olympic Team was once again hung the gold medal around their necks in Paris
Sat, 09/08/2025 - 11:59

In 1992, Spain’s Olympic Team won the gold medal for the first time at the Barcelona Olympic Games. There is no event that brings together more athletes from all over the planet, so stepping onto the podium at these competitions is a feat within reach of very few. Spain had fallen just short in Antwerp (1920), Sydney (2000) and Tokyo (2021), but thirty-two years after the squad made up of names such as Guardiola, Kiko, Cañizares, Luis Enrique and Alfonso Pérez climbed to the very top of that podium under the orders of Vicente Miera, a new generation of Spanish footballers returned to the Olympus of football by winning a historic gold medal.

 

 

It was exactly one year ago, on 9 August 2024. In Paris. Santi Denia had called up 22 players. The journey began well, with victories over Uzbekistan (1–2) and the Dominican Republic (1–3), where the only setback came precisely when they could afford it, against Egypt (1–2) in the last match of the group stage.


Because of this, they advanced to the next phase as runners-up in the group, where Japan (0-1) awaited. They defeated them without too much trouble (0–3) thanks to a brace from Fermín, who would end up as the tournament’s second-highest scorer with six goals, and Abel Ruiz’s strike to seal the match. In the semi-finals, the victim was Morocco (1–2); the executioners, Fermín and Juanlu.
 

 

 

And once in the final, Spain gave everything against a France (3–5) who started out winning and did not give up a single ball. Two goals from Fermín and one from Baena served to overturn Millot’s opener, but Akliouche and Mateta managed a last-minute equaliser to force extra time. The summit of Mount Olympus would have to wait at least half an hour more. It was in that extra time that it became clear what a great group the coach had built and the quality they possessed. Sergio Camello, who had waited for his moment during the tournament, would score in the first half. And when France were fighting to force a penalty shoot-out, the Madrid-born player followed from the halfway line a ball played out by Arnau Tenas, finishing by evading the goalkeeper’s charge with a goal worth its weight in gold.

Many of these heroes are already stars of the sport, even though they have only just begun their careers, but they will surely never forget that day when they bathed our crest in gold. They will always have Paris.