{"id":30746,"date":"2026-05-28T00:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/30746\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T00:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T00:15:12","slug":"iker-casillas-links-barcelonas-spain-world-cup-dominance-to-the-clubs-economic-ruin-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/30746\/","title":{"rendered":"Iker Casillas links Barcelona\u2019s Spain World Cup dominance to the club\u2019s economic ruin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Cup<\/a> squad that Luis de la Fuente<\/a> announced for Spain<\/a> brought contrasting reactions between the two giants: Barcelona<\/a> have eight players, while Real Madrid<\/a> did not get a single call-up. For Iker Casillas<\/a>, there is a clear explanation. He made the comments during a Kings League conversation with Gerard Piqu\u00e9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Casillas said: \u201cEverything has a process. For there to be that many Barcelona players, the club had to go through a major financial crisis that forced them to rely on the academy. Then it\u2019s a matter of whether the young players are good enough or not, but for that you first have to trust them and give them continuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two legends were champions in 2010 in South Africa, with the goalkeeper being the team\u2019s standout player as they analyzed the squad list, a list they mostly agreed with following the manager\u2019s decision on Monday.<\/p>\n

Casillas on the goalkeepers<\/p>\n

One of the main doubts before the list was announced was in goal. Unai Sim\u00f3n<\/a> is the clear starter for de la Fuente, not only because of his performances with Athletic Club, but also because of his strong record with the national team.<\/p>\n

\"Garc\u00eda<\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda was chosen to be the third goalkeeper of Spain (Alex Caparros\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The other logical choice was backup David Raya<\/a>, who has had an excellent season with Arsenal that could even end with a Champions League title. However, the difficult decision was to leave Joan Garc\u00eda ahead of Alex Remiro.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018He<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

\u2018He can win the World Cup alone\u2019: Vinicius Jr. sees Lamine Yamal leading Spain to the title<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Casillas said: \u201cThe goalkeeper position was the most well covered. Garc\u00eda had a good season. The ones de la Fuente has called up are fine, I would still agree even if he had included others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casillas on the absence of Real Madrid players<\/p>\n

Another major talking point around the list was the absence of Real Madrid players for the first time ever, which sparked controversy because of the team\u2019s level. That was also something the legend addressed. Casillas said: \u201cI, having played in Real Madrid\u2019s academy and being Spanish, am frustrated that none have been called up, it\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Cup squad that Luis de la Fuente announced for Spain brought contrasting reactions between the two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[92,4865,10561,4888,83,17],"class_list":["post-30746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-barcelona","tag-gerard-pique","tag-iker-casillas","tag-luis-de-la-fuente","tag-real-madrid","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}