Yamal grabs the legendary record before the Spain and England clash
Luis de la Fuente, the Spain head coach, has submitted the final 23-man squad list to UEFA in preparation for the eagerly awaited clash against England.
The match will determine the group leaders in the UEFA Nations League, as well as the team that will play the quarter-final as runners-up, and therefore play the second leg away from home.
According to the Spanish newspaper "Marca", the Spanish coach had to leave out only four players despite having 28 in his camp in Las Rozas. Alejandro Grimaldo departed yesterday evening, struck down by a viral infection that had swept through a number of Spain's players over the week.
Álvaro Vallés, Jacobo Ramón, De Frutos and Roberto Fernández will watch the match from the stands of the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.
That quartet includes the fourth goalkeeper, called up because of the problems Raya faced in joining the camp from the start, and one of the players tipped to make his international debut. Alongside them sit the Como centre-back and the forwards De Frutos and Roberto Fernández, both of whom got minutes against Georgia.
The most notable moment, though, came with the choice of shirt numbers. Mikel Oyarzabal and Lamine Yamal were back, and the question was whether the Barcelona forward would give up the number 19 he usually wore with the national team for the number 10 left vacant by Dani Olmo's injury.
The call duly came. Lamine Yamal will wear the number 10 against England, the iconic number worn through football history by legends such as Pelé, Maradona, Messi, Platini, Modrić, Zidane and Zico.
This is not the first time Yamal has chosen the number 10. He first received it in October 2024, when Spain were hit by a string of absences, Dani Olmo among them.
Back then, Yamal wore it against Denmark in Murcia, a game Spain won 1-0 through a Zubimendi goal.
Three days later, muscular problems ruled him out of the clash with Serbia in Córdoba, which Spain won 3-0, and Rodrigo Riquelme took the number 10 in his place.
In the history of the Spanish national team, the number 10 is bound up with Cesc Fàbregas, who wore it during the first golden era between 2008 and 2012.
After Como's current coach left the national team when Julen Lopetegui took charge in September 2016, a long line of players took turns with the number before it became Dani Olmo's.
Thiago Alcântara was the first to inherit it from Fàbregas, and he kept it through his time under Luis Enrique.
Plenty of names followed in the years after: Marco Asensio at the World Cup in Qatar, Sergio Canales, Carlos Soler, Sergi Roberto, Pedri and Dani Ceballos, the first to receive it under De la Fuente.
Yéremy Pino wore it too, picking it up much as Riquelme had after joining the squad urgently in September 2023, as did Bryan Zaragoza, called up to cover an injury.
Nico Williams also features on that list, along with Dani Olmo, the current holder when he is with the squad, as well as Pablo Fornals, Lamine Yamal, Riquelme, Jesús Rodríguez and Víctor Muñoz.
