The Spain coach did not pick a training ground for the reveal. He picked a street in Ceuta, ringed by local residents, and delivered a single line to the camera.

“This is Ceuta, this is Spain.”

That video was Spain’s first squad announcement since winning a second World Cup in July, and it landed on Friday with a message no one at the federation needed to spell out. The 26-man list, released four days before Spain open the Nations League at Wembley, was almost the champions’ World Cup group intact.

A gesture that follows Mbappé’s shirt row

The Ceuta setting could not be read outside the political week that came before it. On Tuesday in Madrid, Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Ibrahima Konaté walked out for Real Madrid’s La Liga match against Elche each folding a “We are all Ceutans” tribute shirt so part of the message was hidden. The rest of the team wore theirs open.

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The tribute had been organised by a group of Valencia business leaders after the July crossing, in which more than 70,000 people forced their way in from Morocco and at least 141 died.

Mbappé went public with an explanation the next day.

“But I also wanted to make a gesture and express my thoughts for all the immigrants who have lost their lives and who are also living in difficult conditions,” he told reporters.

That did not settle it. La Liga president Javier Tebas joined critics who wanted the players to have worn the shirt as intended, framing the tribute as an institutional campaign rather than a platform for personal messages. Vox lawmaker José María Figaredo turned on “three millionaires who live in Spain” for not backing Spaniards, and Popular Party spokesperson Esther Muñoz called the partial display “very embarrassing.” In France, National Rally figures Julien Odoul and Marion Maréchal piled in from the right. Real Madrid declined to comment.

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Four new names, one returning defender

For all the noise around the setting, the football story is a squad that barely changed. De la Fuente handed first calls to Inter Milan goalkeeper Josep Martínez, Barcelona midfielder Fermín López and Espanyol striker Roberto Fernández, and brought Real Madrid defender Dean Huijsen back into the group.

Joan García misses out with a knee injury, Marcos Llorente has retired from international football, and Gavi and Borja Iglesias were left out on fitness grounds. Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Pedri all kept their places among the World Cup winners.

Two stars at Wembley

Spain’s players will wear a shirt carrying two stars for the first time when they walk out at Wembley on 26 September to face England. Croatia visit Madrid three days later, then the Czech Republic on 3 October, before a return trip to Zagreb on 6 October.

Ceuta is still hosting between one and two thousand of the people who crossed in July.

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