Lamine Yamal Ready for Spain's World Cup Opener Against Cape Verde

Spain will walk into their World Cup opener with their brightest young star available and ready to go. Not for 90 minutes, but ready all the same. For Luis de la Fuente, that is more than enough.

Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona prodigy who watched the end of the 2025-26 season from the treatment room after a hamstring injury in April, has been given the green light to face Cape Verde on Monday. The question over his fitness has hung over Spain’s preparations. That cloud lifted in a single line.

“The good news is that Lamine is in perfect condition,” De la Fuente told reporters on the eve of the game.

For Spain, that matters. A lot.

Young stars fit as Spain chase rare double

Yamal is not the only one to emerge from the medical bulletins with a smile. Nico Williams and Victor Munoz are also available, giving De la Fuente the attacking depth he wants as Spain chase a place in a very small club.

La Roja are aiming to become just the fourth nation to hold the European Championship and World Cup at the same time, two years after lifting the European title in Germany. The ambition is clear. The scars are, too.

Since that golden night in 2010, Spain’s World Cup story has unravelled badly: a group-stage exit, then two last-16 eliminations on penalties. One semi-final in their last 14 appearances at the tournament. One.

The numbers do not match the aura.

Yet the sense around this squad is different, not least because De la Fuente can call on Yamal and Williams together again. Both have been carefully managed in camp, both have trained heavily, and both will be handled with caution when the whistle blows.

“They're all available, although some won't play the entire game,” De la Fuente said. “The doctors say Lamine can play tomorrow without any issues. Not to play 90 minutes, but to play some minutes, yes. The process with Williams is similar.”

So Spain’s attack will come with a dimmer switch. Not full power for the full game, but enough to change it when needed.

Managing minutes, raising expectations

This is the modern World Cup: recovery plans, medical data, minute management. De la Fuente has leaned into that reality rather than fighting it.

“They've been working together a lot of days, a lot of hours, and with the relationship they have, they've been happy,” he explained of Yamal and Williams. “They could play, if we think the game demands it.”

That last line matters. Cape Verde will not frighten a team that Opta’s supercomputer rates as tournament favourites, but De la Fuente is clearly planning for the long haul, not just the first 90 minutes of the campaign.

The recent record urges caution. Spain have won only one of their last six World Cup matches – the 7-0 demolition of Costa Rica in the 2022 group stage – with four draws and one defeat wrapped around that outlier. The football has often looked neat. The outcomes have not.

Now they arrive tagged as favourites, armed with a new generation and a coach who has doubled down on trust in his young core. The margin for error shrinks with every glowing prediction.

Cucurella noise, calm response

Around the camp, the club game still seeps in. Reports in Spain suggest Marc Cucurella is close to swapping Chelsea for Real Madrid, a move that would ignite headlines in any other week. De la Fuente, though, batted away any suggestion that such talk might disturb his defender.

He would not be drawn on the transfer itself, but he did not hold back on Cucurella’s value to the national side.

“If it's good news for Cucu, or someone else, we'll celebrate it,” he said. “I don't talk about clubs, but if you ask me about Cucurella for the national team, he's convincing.

“He's been with us since he was 17. I know his performance, the quality and potential he has. He might be one of the best left-backs in the world, without doubt.”

That is the tone of this Spain: assertive, unapologetic, unafraid to say their players belong at the very top. It fits a squad that expects to go deep and a coach who has worked with many of them since youth level.

A familiar weight, a new face of hope

So Spain open against Cape Verde with the weight of history on their back and a teenager on their shoulder. Yamal will not play the whole game. He may not need to.

His presence alone changes the mood, stretching defences, tilting the pitch, hinting at something more daring than the risk-averse Spain that has stumbled through recent World Cups.

Opta’s models say Spain are favourites. The record books say Spain usually fall short. On Monday, the truth of this campaign begins somewhere in the middle – with a fit Lamine Yamal waiting on the touchline, ready to see which version of La Roja turns up.