World Cup winners Spain were due to be at home on Monday to a heroes’ welcome in Madrid, where a million fans are expected to greet them after a night of wild celebrations across the country.
The triumph has sparked a flood of national pride in soccer-mad Spain, where many younger supporters had never seen the men’s team lift the World Cup since their only previous title came in South Africa in 2010.
Fresh from their 1-0 win over Argentina in Sunday’s final in East Rutherford, United States, coach Luis de la Fuente’s side will land in Madrid at 12:50 (1050 GMT) with the golden trophy.
The players are then expected to be greeted by King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez before boarding an open-top bus for a parade in central Madrid starting at around 4.30pm.
They will travel from near the Moncloa Palace, the prime minister’s official residence, to Cibeles Square, the representative of the central government in Madrid, Francisco Martin, told Spanish public television.
A ceremony involving the players will be held afterwards in the square, the traditional gathering point for celebrations of the Spanish national team and its supporters.
About a million people are expected to line the parade route, with additional security and transportation measures planned to handle the crowds, Martin said.
A total of 2,050 police officers and 400 Civil Guard personnel will be deployed, he added.
The exact timetable for the celebrations had not been fully confirmed on Monday morning, however, with Sanchez scheduled to make a short visit to Algeria before returning to Spain in the afternoon.
Even the royal family had yet to confirm whether the king would attend the celebrations.
The scenes are expected to echo the celebrations that followed Spain’s first World Cup title in 2010, when hundreds of thousands of fans flooded the streets of Madrid to welcome the team home after their win in South Africa.
– ‘Champions!’ –
As the country awaited the team’s arrival, celebrations continued through the night from Madrid to Spain’s smallest villages on Sunday night.
The capital was already buzzing with post-final activity, with thousands of supporters packed into the venue and three fan zones taking to the streets to celebrate.
Car horns blared, fireworks lit up the sky and supporters poured into the streets and squares moments after the final whistle, despite a tense final in which Spain struggled for long periods to break down Argentina’s defence.
In Madrid’s Colon Square, where a fan zone had been set up for the game, supporters draped in the red-and-yellow Spanish flag sang and danced through the still summer night, while others set off flares and fireworks, an AFP reporter observed.
“Champions, champions! (Champions, champions!),” chanted the excited fans.
Others chanted “Que viva Espana! (long live Spain)” as they celebrated a triumph that came just two years after Spain won Euro 2024 and with the women’s national team already holding the world title won in 2023.
“You have faced every challenge with the conviction of a great team and you have taken the name of Spain to the top,” the Spanish Royal House said on social media platform X, hailing a “reward” that derives in particular from “exemplary dedication in every match.”
“Today, we celebrate a title. Tomorrow we will remember a legend,” he added.
