Winning Under-21 and senior EUROs: Five Spain players join Blanc, Mata

Spain's victory at UEFA EURO 2024 means Álvaro Morata, Fabián Ruiz, Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino and Mikel Oyarzabal have joined Laurent Blanc and Juan Mata as the only players to have played on the winning team in the senior tournament after doing the same in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

Morata started Spain's 4-2 win against Italy in the 2013 U21 EURO final, while Fabián Ruiz and Olmo both scored in the 2019 decider, a 2-1 defeat of Germany in which Oyarzabal began the game and Merino came off the bench.

Three years on from that match, Morata, Olmo and Fabián Ruiz all started the EURO 2024 final against England in Berlin, where substitute Oyarzabal scored the late winner in a 2-1 victory and Merino again joined the action from the bench.

In the quarter-finals of the same tournament, Spain contested a rematch of the 2019 U21 showpiece, with Olmo and Merino finding the net to down Germany 2-1 after extra time. Fabián Ruiz and Oyarzabal likewise featured for Spain, while Jonathan Tah and Benjamin Hendrichs contested both games for Germany.

The first player to complete a U21 and senior EURO double was Laurent Blanc. In 1988, he played in the second leg of the U21 EURO final in Besançon as France beat Greece 3-0, having drawn 0-0 away. Twelve years on. Blanc was in the starting XI as Les Bleus defeated Italy 2-1 following a golden goal to win EURO 2000 in Rotterdam.

Juan Mata went on to emulate Blanc with a far smaller gap between his two triumphs. Already a U19 EURO winner in 2006, he helped Spain clinch their 2011 U21 EURO title by beating Switzerland 2-0 in the Aarhus final. Then, just over 12 months on, Mata came off the bench and struck the final goal in La Roja's 4-0 defeat of Italy to win EURO 2012 in Kyiv.