Eric Garcia believes that the mixture of young players and veterans in Spain’s squad could make them successful at the World Cup
Spain’s talented young players have supporters wishing for a comeback to the heydays from 2008 to 2012, when they won three straight major tournaments.
With players like Andres Iniesta, Iker Casillas, and David Villa, Spain dominated international football between 2008 and 2012, winning two European Championships and their first World Cup.
Spain hasn’t advanced to a major tournament final since their victory at Euro 2012, and most of its star players from their heydays have retired.
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From that Euro 2012 group, only Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba are still playing, but the development of promising young players like Ansu Fati and Pedri has rekindled optimism that success will return under Luis Enrique’s leadership.
Garcia believes Spain’s combination of seasoned players, like Busquets and Alba, with their exciting tyros might result in a prosperous tournament in Qatar.
“For me, we have a perfect combination between young and old,” Garcia told SPORT. “In the end, youngsters continue to learn every day, and other more experienced players try to teach us.
“I think that this combination has many benefits in many aspects, because this group is spectacular.
“We have to be ourselves. We know what we are capable of when we are ourselves, we can compete and beat any team. That is the first step, first Costa Rica and then the rest, with the intention of going far, which is what we want.
“Maybe we don’t have a [Lionel] Messi or a Neymar, but we have players who individually contribute a great plus, like Pedri, Gavi, Busquets, [Marco] Asensio at the level he is. Having these players will help us.”
