FIFA U-17 World Cup Team Profile: Spain

JAKARTA - Spain came to Indonesia with the ambition to win trophies for the first time at the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Spain, a team with young stars, has never managed to lift the trophy even though it has reached the final four times.

There is no Lamine Yamal in the Spanish U-17 national team competing in the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Even though he is still 16, Yamal has entered the senior Spanish squad. He has also made his debut and even scored a goal with the senior team.

At the club, Yamal has become a pillar of Barcelona. He became a new magnet from the Blaugrana after the end of the Lionel Messi era.

However, Yamal actually helped bring Spain U-17 to Indonesia. He became part of the La Rojita squad that competed in the 2023 U-17 European Cup.

As a result, Spain was ranked third and pocketed one of the four tickets available to the European team.

However, Yamal is no longer in the squad brought by coach Jose Lana. But without Yamal doesn't mean Spain is minus a star player.

There is Marc Guiu who is also included in the Spanish squad in the U-17 European Cup. Both Yamal and Guiu contributed four goals each in the European Cup.

Guiu, who is also a La Masia academy product owned by Barca, was trending when he made his senior team debut against Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish La Liga match.

Not only that, he only entered a few minutes and immediately broke into the opponent's goal and at the same time gave Barca a 1-0 win. Guiu has also appeared in the Champions League

The Spanish national team at the junior level is actually no different from the senior team, which for a long time has never won the championship trophy. The U-17 national team, in fact, became a runners-up specialist without ever winning.

Of the 10 matches in the World Cup, La Furia Roja has reached the final four times. But never won. While the other two only ranked third.

Good achievements were made in the U-17 European Cup. They had entered the final seven times. The result? Spain won three times and made runners-up four times.

It's like only the senior national team has a hard time winning the World Cup. Despite having a squad that is no less capable because most of the players are taken from the two giants La Liga, Barcelona and Real Madrid, Spain is difficult to achieve achievements in the World Cup.

The highest achievement was ranked fourth in the 1950 World Cup and finally won the 2010 World Cup.

While in the European Cup, Spain won in the 1964 edition. However, they did not lift the trophy for a long time until finally Spain was able to do it in 2008 and 2012.

In the last edition, Euro 2020, Spain reached the semifinals and then ranked third.

The success of the senior team over the past decade has at least spurred the spirit of the juniors to follow in the footsteps of being champions for the first time in the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup

Lana, who accepts the responsibility, hopes to meet the target. This 48-year-old coach replaces Julen Gu Way who brought Spain through to the final round. He started managing the team since October 2022.

Lana is not a foreign figure for some of her players. After becoming an assistant coach at Racing Santander, she handled the national team more. Lana coached the U-15, U-16 and U-21 national teams and finally started the U-17 national team.

Can Lana meet the target in Indonesia? What is clear is that her troops must start the fight in the group stage which was held in Solo first.