Two wishes for the third night of summer

Born on the same summer day of the same year - 1996 - and both European champions in different age categories with Spain.

The parallel paths of Rodrigo Hernández and Mikel Merino converged on Saturday 22 June in the German town of Donaueschingen, where both celebrated their birthdays during the national team’s dinner.

"I love you all very much", exclaimed the midfielder from Madrid to his teammates, asking them ,as one of the captains of the group, to "keep our feet on the ground and continue with the same humility so that beautiful things can come".

For his part, the player from Navarre said he felt "very fortunate because it's so difficult to play in a European Championships in our short career. We have an exceptional group, both in human and sporting terms, and I'm sure that with the work ethic we have, everything will go very well".

A thunderous applause from the whole squad rang out following Mikel Merino’s words. The two birthday boys, along with all their team-mates, will travel on Sunday to Düsseldorf, where Spain will close off their UEFA EURO 2024 group stage with a match against Albania on Monday.