England and Spain’s varying paths to superpower status

As England again wonder how Keira Walsh can evade Spain’s intense press to decide a major trophy, some in the Football Association are still marvelling at the shift. This is as high a level as you can get, and is now a frequent challenge. They grew up hoping just to qualify for tournaments.

- MIGUEL DELANEY CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

“I have trouble explaining to my kids sometimes that this isn't normal,” FA chief executive Mark Bullingham laughs. “When you look at 1967 and through 50 years to 2020, we made one final.”

The Euro 2025 final will mark the third consecutive major final for Sarina Wiegman's team, and also the fifth in five years across England's women's and men's squads. But there is one country that matches that, and that is tomorrow's opposition, whom they of course know well. Spain have reached the final of the last three major tournaments, across women's and men's, to go with three consecutive Nations League finals, and all of that on the back of the original 2008 revolution in their men's game.

Those in Spanish football who care about the women's game now feel the same as Bullingham. It's still amazing that the world champions hadn't won a knockout match until 2023, just as the men's team couldn't get beyond quarterfinals for decades. The game's two historic underachievers have become the modern powers. That is also down to something much better than old-fashioned football cycles. It's about resources, and culture.

To spin Bullingham's own words around, this actually is a “new normal”, because it is entirely logical cause and effect. England and Spain are two of the wealthiest football economies in the world, and have finally developed infrastructures to match them. The fact they are doing it across the women's and men's games is all the more relevant ahead of this final because it speaks to the breadth of the approaches. They've got to the point where everyone else - including at this tournament - asks them how they did it.