There is something surprising about generations of success in sports. France, Italy, and Belgium were great judges of international cycling. it will be overshadowed by Spain, which later emerged in the nineties. However, the current Spanish bike is hardly a shadow of what it has been in the last decade. When I was a kid, Sweden rose to prominence in world tennis – Borg, Wilander, Edberg – and then disappeared. What about American tennis, which has been irrelevant since the times of Sampras and Agassi? In sports, figures jump from one country to another and follow the movement of a pendulum like art. It’s no coincidence, and it’s no coincidence, that opera singers flourished in Spain in the last century and now they don’t, or that names like Pavarotti and Di Stefano no longer pop up in Italy. It’s no accident, because there has to be a foundation, and that’s what happened in Spain between the late eighties and early nineties, which coincided with its rapid Europeanization and the Olympic Games—in sport. in Barcelona. Infrastructures and high performance centers were created, the quarry was strengthened, scholarships were provided, new coaches trained abroad came and thus a virtuous cycle began, felt not only in football and basketball, but also in many sports branches.
At the same time, the implementation of the Bosman Law meant an almost immediate internationalization of clubs. And what seemed to hurt the national sport – as fewer local players would compete – had the opposite effect: It improved the game and the quality of the athletes. As is often the case with cultures and markets, opening borders increases the level and brings improvements. The development of nations is not by looking inward, but by looking outward. Sports are no exception to this rule.
All circuits expire and, depending on age, that of the tennis player Rafael Nadal also sees the end approaching. It’s the law of life, and it’s surprising that we found an almost perfect replacement in young Carlos Alcaraz. It may take longer to find replacement parts for basketball, cycling and other sports. But when it comes to football, a new generation of young talent is making their way to the top teams (neither Haaland nor Mbappé did), favored by the clubs’ budget crisis (paradoxically) making it difficult to come to terms with European stars. to join the Spanish league). But beyond the spares, the great success of Spanish sport over these past three decades remains in the collective imagination, which does more than just teaching, politics or culture to foster a sense of unity in a country. It has been in a deep crisis for at least twenty years.
And perhaps what can be learned from this success shared by all Spaniards is the importance of working from below, being open to the outside world rather than developing a narrow identity, effort and meritocracy. Because as a nation, we should aspire not only to sports but also to other achievements: education and professional quality, innovation and science, environmental protection and the maintenance of welfare policies, the wealth of the industrial fabric and the abundance of employment. Of course you can: the recipes are the same as those of the sport.