First of all, to emphasize that Spanish football has turned from prosperity to decline, it is more or less a bit of Versailles. At present, Spain is still the top team in the world, ranking in the top 10 in the world. But compared to the era of three consecutive major championships from '08 to '12, isn't Spain just going from prosperity to decline? From 08 to 12, Spain was the undisputed number one in the world rankings, and now, Spain may only be considered a lower level among the top teams. The two consecutive World Cups have stopped in the round of 16, which reflects this.
No other team can dominate all year round. Brazil was so good back then, reaching the finals of three consecutive World Cups, and then didn't it also slip from the peak? Until now, Brazil has not completely recovered its vitality, and even the quarterfinals of the World Cup have become their bottleneck. Specific to Spain, in the golden age of Habaibu, the dominance of the transmission and control system was too strong, and it did show a situation of who competed with each other; In other words, it's not as good as it used to be. In fact, in that era, Habaib's operation in the midfield was one thing, and Spain was still the two great strikers, Torres and Villa. Whether it is individual ability or scoring efficiency, these two are excellent. Fernando Torres has always been considered to be a soft and embarrassing player, but who was the final in the 2008 Euro final? In the 11-12 Champions League semi-finals, who completely beat Barcelona at the last moment? Not to mention Villa, who scored in the Champions League final.
Now that we have talked about Spain's striker, we might as well further expand on the topic - who is the iconic figure of Spanish football from prosperity to decline?
Perhaps, it was Morata.
Alvaro Morata did not cross paths with Spain's heyday, as he was first selected for the national team in 2014. In the last decade, Spain's strength has been declining, but Morata's status in the national team has become higher and higher. Starting from a substitute and working hard until now, Morata has actually become the leading big brother of Spain and became the captain of the national team. Obviously, in Spain now, Morata is the top name.
But herein lies in the problem, Morata is really not as strong as Villa and Torres. Morata didn't have many brilliant moments in his career, because he perfectly avoided the golden age of Spain, so Morata didn't have any achievements in the national team, and the only title was only the UEFA Nations League championship in the 22-23 season. More than ten years ago, Spain won the World Cup and the European Cup, and now, it is not easy to win a UEFA Nations League championship. If we start with 2014, the 10 years that Morata has been deeply involved in the national team are exactly the 10 years when Spain has slipped from the peak, and Morata has become a witness and an iconic figure from prosperity to decline.
Morata has played for Real Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and other big teams, but he has only performed well in some games and has not been very consistent. Take the Chelsea trip as an example, when I first went, it was eye-catching, but when I drove high and went low, the sense of presence became lower and lower. Compared with his predecessor Villatorres, Morata is probably one notch behind.
Today, Morata's status in the Spanish national team even surpasses that of Torres Villa, but this is not because his ability is better than his predecessors, but because the overall strength of Spain is far less than that of the year, and Spain really can't find a 100% boss, only 34-year-old Morata, who has the feeling of being a boss in terms of age.
For a team, the heyday is a rare and unattainable one, and Spain wants to usher in the era of three consecutive major championships, and the conditions required are too extravagant to be achieved in the short term. Therefore, in the next few years or even more than ten years, Spain's football status will probably not change, that is, the middle and lower level of the first-class, compared with France, Argentina, Brazil, and England. It would be good for Morata and his younger brothers to maintain such a position. Wanting to surpass their predecessors is not something that Morata is capable of.