Pau Cubarsí and Lamine Yamal: Spain's Rising Stars at World Cup 2024
Luis de la Fuente insisted last summer that Pau Cubarsí’s absence from Euro 2024 had nothing to do with age. He said he simply had four centre-backs he considered “a higher level” at that moment.
That line already feels like it belongs to another era.
Because right now, in North America, there are not many defenders at this World Cup operating above Cubarsí’s level. If any.
A defence that doesn’t blink
Spain have glided into the quarter-finals without conceding a goal. That kind of record never belongs to one man.
Mikel Oyarzabal sets the tone by harassing centre-backs from the first whistle. Rodri patrols in front of the back four with his usual authority, shutting down counters before they even look dangerous. The back five behind them have been close to immaculate.
Marc Cucurella is playing like a €60 million full-back and making Real Madrid’s investment look smart already. Unai Simón has rewarded De la Fuente’s faith with five straight clean sheets, keeping David Raya and Joan García watching from the bench. Aymeric Laporte, at 32, is reading games as sharply as at any point in his career. Pedro Porro, so often questioned at Tottenham, looks reborn in a red shirt.
Inside that structure, though, one figure keeps drawing the eye.
Cubarsí’s composure, his timing, his decision-making under pressure – they all belong to a player far beyond his 19 years.
Built in La Masia, ready for the world
Perhaps we shouldn’t be stunned. Cubarsí has been a regular at Barcelona since he was 17. Within the club, they speak about him in the kind of language usually reserved for generational talents.
Xavi labelled him “an era-defining player”. Carles Puyol went further, predicting he would be Barça’s first-choice centre-back for the next 15 years. Those aren’t throwaway compliments in that part of the world.
Cubarsí himself insists he doesn’t feel pressure on the pitch. He plays like he means it. Calm on the ball, ruthless without it, he has strolled into the biggest tournament in football as if it were just another step on a well-marked path.
Yet what he is doing at 19, on this stage, remains extraordinary.
Defensively, he has barely put a foot wrong. He wins his duels, reads danger early and rarely gets dragged out of position. The partnership with Laporte has been a gift for Spain. The veteran guides, organises, talks; the teenager responds, anticipates, executes.
“At crucial moments, a player like Laporte brings that experience Cuba needs [alongside him], and they complement each other fantastically,” De la Fuente said. “We’ve achieved a phenomenal balance in the centre of defence.”
That balance is the platform for everything Spain do.
A centre-back who thinks like a midfielder
Cubarsí offers more than security. He offers ideas.
A La Masia graduate, he has been raised on the art of building from the back. Pass selection, angles, tempo – it’s all there. Only Rodri has played more passes for Spain at this World Cup, a remarkable statistic for a centre-back but entirely in keeping with how they use him.
He steps into midfield lines, breaks opposition pressure with one clean vertical ball, and constantly gives his team-mates an easy option. For De la Fuente, he has become non-negotiable. One of only four players to have played every minute so far, he is now welded to Spain’s gameplan.
At one end, the new conductor in defence. At the other, a prodigy still waiting to explode.
Yamal searching for his moment
Lamine Yamal arrived in North America under a cloud of doubt. A hamstring injury had ended his 2025-26 season with Barcelona early and cast real uncertainty over his World Cup involvement.
He didn’t play in either of Spain’s warm-up games. When he finally appeared, it was for 19 subdued minutes in a shock 0-0 draw with Cape Verde.
Then came the reminder.
Given a start in the 4-0 demolition of Saudi Arabia in Atlanta, Yamal changed the temperature of the match. He opened the scoring, stretched the pitch, and injected a level of invention Spain had been missing. With him on the field, La Roja looked like a different side.
Since then, his tournament has stuttered. The talent is obvious, the end product less so.
Against Austria in the round of 32, his dribbling lit up a routine rout. Spain, in the process, became the first team since Brazil in 1958 – when Pelé burst onto the scene – to start two teenagers in a World Cup knockout match. The symbolism was clear: a new generation, front and centre.
But Nuno Mendes once again shackled him in the 1-0 win over Portugal, just as he has done before. The most feared winger in world football, the kid who terrorised defences at Euro 2024, is still waiting for his first assist of this World Cup. Five chances created, no final pass to define a night.
Yamal knows it. And he isn’t hiding from it.
“I’m very demanding of myself,” he told Mundo Deportivo. “I’m never satisfied with what I’m doing. Besides that, I just need to keep playing. I was out for almost two months, and it’s not the same as when you’ve already played seven games in a row.
“Keep touching the ball, keep playing, keep adding minutes and, obviously, that [big] match will come. In the end, people remember these moments, from the round of 16 and the quarter-finals onwards. That’s when I’m most motivated.
“I’ve taken this whole process calmly so I can arrive at this point in good shape. I feel great, eager to show what we are as Spain and what I am.
“I’ve never been the best player in the group stage. The closer the important matches get, the semi-finals or the final, the better I play.”
That is not bluster. It is a warning.
Two prodigies, one looming test
Belgium await in the quarter-finals, fully aware of what is coming down both flanks of this Spain side – and now, through its spine.
The idea that the knockout rounds might coax the best version of Yamal back into the spotlight is daunting enough for any defence. Pair that with a 19-year-old centre-back playing like a seasoned international playmaker, and the picture becomes even more ominous.
Yamal caught fire when it mattered most at Euro 2024 and dragged Spain with him. History could easily repeat itself on the biggest stage of all.
Only this time, La Roja do not just have an era-defining winger.
They might have found one at the heart of their defence as well.
