In the shadow of Rodri, Pedri & Yamal
©IMAGO
If you think about the success of the Spanish national team in recent years, it is immediately associated with the names Pedri, Rodri or Lamine Yamal. Outside Spain, no one often thinks of Mikel Oyarzabal, who scored the winning goal against England in the 2024 European Championship final. And this despite the fact that since 2025 only Erling Haaland has had more scorers for a national team in the world.
“He understands football very well, he knows exactly what he has to do in every position, even in very difficult situations, especially in creative play. He has an innate ability to play between the lines and uses his running routes very well. He is world class,” said Spain coach Luis de la Fuente after the 3-0 win against Serbia, in which Oyarzabal scored twice. “More guarantee of performance and scoring is impossible.” The Real Sociedad captain started his career as a winger, but later moved to the center, also because the alternatives in the Spanish selection are limited. “When you say a striker is missing, I always say that we play with strikers with different characteristics. We play with all the guarantees.”
Against Serbia, he scored goals 23 and 24 in his 52nd international match for La Roja – ninth place among the four-time European champions’ top scorers. What is particularly remarkable is that it only takes him 105 minutes to score a goal in national uniform, making him just better than record goalscorer David Villa. Since 2025, he has been successful eleven times in eleven games for Spain and contributed six assists. These numbers are only topped by Haaland, who has 19 goal involvements.
He also shows his qualities at Real Sociedad, where he has 14 goals and three assists in 31 games this season. He showed that he can decide big games, and not just at the 2024 European Championships. He recently decided the Basque derby against Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey with a goal and led his team to their first final since 2020. He proved this even more impressively with the Spanish national team. With two assists in the 2-1 win against Italy, he ensured they reached the final of the Nations League in 2021, where they lost 2-1 to France. Scorer? Oyarzabal. Then in 2025, with a brace against the Netherlands, he ensured that Spain reached the semi-finals of the Nations League, where the European champions beat France 5-4 – including two assists from Oyarzabal. In the final, after a 2-2 draw in regular time, Portugal had to admit defeat on penalties; Oyarzabal scored the interim 2-1.
According to his coach de la Fuente, Oyarzabal can do anything, which is why he has already speculated about his time after his active career: “If you ask me which player could become a great coach in the future? Mikel Oyarzabal.”
