Spain's story of pain

Butragueno feels fortune has not favoured Spain

Real Madrid legend Emilio Butragueno speaks exclusively to World Football's Nada Grkinic about Spain's failure to make an impact on the international stage.

Forty years have almost elapsed since Spain's last triumph as an international force, when they beat the former Soviet Union in Madrid to win the European Championship in 1964.

Since then, it has been a story of what might have been for Spain, with defeat in the Euro 84 final against France and agonising World Cup quarter-final exits in 1986, 1994 and 2002.

Despite producing some of the game's finer talents - Francisco Gento, Emilio Butragueno, Andoni Zubizarreta, Raul and Fernando Hierro among them - and with what some consider to be the finest league in the world, Spain has not been equal to the sum of its considerable parts.

Why?

Seasoned observers point to the influx of too many foreign players to the Spanish league, the pre-eminence of Real Madrid's as Spain's number one sporting institution and of the long, hard domestic seasons.

Others argue that after years of Franco's repressive regime, under which the Basques and Catalans suffered greatly, patriotic feeling was punctured beyond repair.

And then there is the case for the Spaniards having an inordinate amount of bad luck.

We have to say Spain has done very well in the past 30 years because it has been present in all the big events Emilio Butragueno

But Emilio Butragueno, the former Spain legend and darling of Real Madrid, where he is now sporting director, believes that his country's international record does not deserve such criticism.

"Normally when we reach a championship, say the World Cup or the European Championship, Spain has a good team with some great players," Butragueno told World Football.

"Some of them are household names. We have to say Spain has done very well in the past 30 years because it has been present in all the big events.

"But it's true that we have struggled to cross a particular line which is the quarter-finals. We have reached them several times and in fact we have deserved to get through to the semi-finals.

"But for different reasons, we were knocked out. It's difficult to explain.

"In the last World Cup, we lost to South Korea on penalty kicks and the referee disallowed one goal, and we deserved to win that game.

"So we had to return to Spain with no reward. That was really difficult for us. Normally we would say next time, but that is a bad sentence for competitive people like we want to be."

Butragueno, whose appearance has barely altered since his playing days, is convinced that better days lie ahead for Spain's new crop of exciting youngsters.

Torres is being talked about as the next Raul

The Spanish Under-20s and Under-21s are flourishing and Fernando Torres is the latest wonderkid to have taken Spain by storm.

"We have very good young players and I think they can be very successful," he added.

"Torres is a promising star and has a strong future. I am sure that as soon as we pass that obstacle [the quarter-finals], future generations will immediately do much better.

"The national team hasn't won a big title since 1964 when Spain beat Russia in the European Championship, so we need to convince ourselves that we can do it.

"We have strong players and all of them are winners, some of them play for the best teams in the world so they have already shown that they are great players."

Spain lead Norway 2-1 after the first leg of their Euro 2004 play-off.

Should Inaeki Saez's men succeed in getting to Portugal, Spain will no doubt be cast as the dark horses for the title.

And if remaining on the Iberian Peninsular helps, as in 1964, maybe Spain's wait for another trophy will finally come to an end.

You can hear the story of Spain's failure as an international force on World Football on Saturday 15 November. Use the audio link on the front page.