The young Barcelona player, Fermín, as Spain's adult national team won Euro 2024, also aspires to win an Olympic gold medal in the future.
Spain's performance at the Euros has been one of a kind. After winning the title in 2024, Spain has surpassed Germany's record of winning the most European Cups with four. It would be a supreme honor to win another Euro and Olympic gold medal in the same year. Looking back to 2012, Spain's adult team won the title three times, while the national Olympic team failed to win any Olympic medals.
The Spanish men's soccer team won the Olympic Men's Soccer Championship for the first time in their history at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. At the last Olympics, the Spanish Olympic team reached the final, but lost to the Brazilian Olympic team by a score of 10:2, finishing second.
Morocco, the powerhouse of African soccer, won the African Cup of Nations in 1976. In the 1/8 finals of the 2022 World Cup, Morocco, led by Ashraf, beat Spain 3:0 on penalties and made it all the way to the semifinals, eventually finishing third, creating the best World Cup record for an African team. But at the Olympics, Morocco's achievements were relatively bleak.
The Moroccan National Olympic Team has been as impressive this Olympics as they were brilliant at the 2022 World Cup. They beat the Argentinean National Olympic Team 2:1 in the group stage, eventually advancing to the top of the group. In the quarterfinals, the Moroccan National Olympic Team swept the U.S. National Olympic Team 4:0, marking the team's most impressive performance at the Olympics.
This Moroccan national Olympic team led by Ashraf is worth up to 165 million euros and includes talented young players such as Akhomaki, Abboud and Elhanous.
Spain's Olympic squad, worth a total of 370 million euros and featuring Fermín and Cubasi, two rising stars from Barcelona, as well as Villarreal's Baena and Atletico Madrid's Omorodion, has not brought in big-name over-age players, and 17-year-old Yamal has not joined the team. After all, the players who played in the Europa League were exhausted over the summer and the new additions may not be at their best.
For example, Alvarez, who won the Copa America with his team in 2024, looked out of his depth at the Olympics. As the most expensive player at the Games, he was left with no goals, and the Argentine Olympic team lost 1:0 to the French Olympic team in the 0/4 finals.
Fermín, the top scorer for the Spanish national team, played only 28 minutes as a substitute in the Europa League.
At the 2012 Olympics, the two teams' national Olympic teams had a meeting that ended in a 0:0 handshake, and both ended up failing to make it out of the group.
With the strength of the Moroccan Olympic team and the growing strength of the Spanish Olympic team, it is reasonable to expect the Spanish Olympic team to reach the final for the second consecutive Olympics.
