See 5 reasons that make Spain one of the favorites for the World Cup title

Spain, champion of the 2010 World Cup, debuts in the World Cup this Monday (15) against Cape Verde, at 1 pm (Brasília time). Led by Luis de la Fuente, the team is one of the favorites for the title in this edition.

In addition to the debut of Lamine Yamal, who arrives at the World Cup as one of the competition's main stars, the team has an unbeaten record of 30 games. The positive sequence has never been achieved by the Spanish team before a World Cup.

See below five reasons that make Spain one of the biggest favorites for the World Cup.

Yamal's First World Cup
At 18 years old, Spaniard Lamine Yamal is one of today's football prodigies, and began to stand out worldwide when he was just 16 years old. That's because the striker helped Spain's victorious campaign to win the 2024 Euro Cup.

Formed in the ranks of the Catalan team, Lamine Yamal became a fundamental part of the Spanish team in a short space of time. Even though he is still very young, the striker demonstrates the personality and experience of veteran players by combining speed, creativity and a great capacity for improvisation.

On the field, his personality is reflected in a style of play marked by boldness, disconcerting dribbling and the ease of deciding matches with goals and decisive plays.

In addition to Yamal, Spain is betting on the talent of its new generation, which has other great stars such as Nico Williams, Pedri, Gavi and Pau Cubarsí.

Assuming a leading role in the team's offensive sector, it is worth remembering that Lamine Yamal and the others also contributed to the European team's qualification for the 2026 World Cup.

"A World Cup game can scare many people, but for Lamine it's the opposite. He has the desire, he knows it's an incredible scenario, that it's the most important competition. We'll see the best version of Lamine Yamal", highlighted Toni Padilla, journalist at Díari ARA, in an interview with CNN.

Generation 2026: Lamine Yamal competes in his first World Cup as one of the highlights | CNN PRIME TIME

Nations League finalist
Although they didn't win the last Nations League, Spain reached the final against Portugal. After extra time and a 2-2 draw, Luis de la Fuente's team let victory slip away on penalties, losing 5-3 on penalties and finishing runner-up.

In the group stage, Spain finished first in Group A4, recording five wins and a draw in six matches. In the quarterfinals, he eliminated the Netherlands, and in the semifinals, he was once again the executioner of France, just like in the 2024 Euro Cup.

Champions of the competition in 2023, Spain lost to the Portugal team, which became two-time champions with titles in 2019 and 2025.

Current champion of the European Championship
Among the great European teams, Spain stands out for being the current champion of the European Championship, a title won over England in 2024. The title, with goals from Nico Williams and Mikel Oyarzabal, made Fúria the first team to lift the tournament cup four times (1964, 2008, 2012 and 2024).

Luis de la Fuente, who before taking over the main team worked in the youth teams, joined the group of José Villalonga, Luis Aragonés and Vicente Del Bosque of champion coaches with Fúria.

In the 2024 edition, Spain reached the final as favorites, as they had an undefeated campaign in the competition, having won all of their group stage matches, in addition to the round of 16 against Georgia, the quarterfinal against hosts Germany, and the semi-final against France.

At the time, the lineup chosen by the coach was Unai Simón, Carvajal, Le Normand, Laporte and Cucurella; Rodri, Fabián Ruiz and Dani Olmo; Nico Williams, Morata and Yamal.

Among the names, Carvajal, Le Normand, Dani Olmo and Morata were not called up, but the others could be in Luis de la Fuente's formation for Spain's debut in the 2026 World Cup.

Spanish team lifts the Euro 2024 cup - Reproduction/X/Seleción Española
Research forecast and AI
Since the draw of the World Cup groups, artificial intelligence (AI) tools and specialized surveys point to Spain as the competition's favorite.

In December 2025, shortly after FIFA defined the grouping of the competition, CNN Brasil carried out a survey on platforms such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT and Grok, which predicted the victory of the European team based on analysis from supercomputers, bookmakers and the FIFA rankings.

According to Google Gemini, for example, the probability of victory was 17%, followed by France (14%) and England (11%). Grok, artificial intelligence from the social network X, was another tool that defined Spain as having the greatest chance of winning the tournament, increasing the probability to 19%. Perplexy highlighted that the bets are motivated by the title at Euro 2024 and the revelation of young people like Pedri and Lamine Yamal.

A more recent study, from the Dortmund University of Technology, revealed on June 9, showed that the European team has a 14.5% probability of winning their second world championship.

"Using this model, we simulated the entire World Cup 100,000 times: game by game, following the tournament draw and all FIFA rules", explains Rouven Michels, one of those responsible for the study.

30 games unbeaten
Another reason that makes Spain debut as one of the candidates for the title is the fact that Spain has an unbeaten run of 30 games. The last time Luis de la Fuente's team suffered a defeat was in March 2024.

According to a survey by the Spanish newspaper Marca, the current sequence exceeds by ten matches that recorded by the team led by Julen Lopetegui before the 2018 World Cup, held in Russia. In that edition, Spain was eliminated in the round of 16 by the host team after a penalty shootout.

In 2006, in the World Cup held in Germany, La Roja also arrived on the back of a run of 22 games without defeat under the command of Luis Aragonés. Despite the good moment, the Spanish said goodbye to the tournament in the round of 16 after losing 3-1 to France.

In 2010, the team coached by Vicente del Bosque reached the World Cup in South Africa boasting an unbeaten run of 12 matches. Unlike previous campaigns, the Spanish team turned their good record into an achievement and lifted the World Cup trophy for the first time.

For the first time, Spain goes to the World Cup without Real Madrid players

Source: CNN