“Today football won. Today, these young people are leaving full of emotions, feeling like protagonists of a final rarely seen before. At the same time, I would like to congratulate the French team. They made us suffer a lot, they played their cards and looked for the goal until the end, without respite, without pause and we had to stand up with character on the pitch because our opponent made it too difficult for us”. Santi Denia, flamboyant Olympic football champion at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games from the bench, led Spain to an agonising 5-3 win over France that was decided in extra time.
[The following venues where the Olympic Games will be held]
Santi Denia’s sportsmanship in his words after this epic clash was a reminder of the stage he was on. An Olympic Games that, far from pitting fans against each other, is a breeding ground for exemplary sport. Proof of this, despite the tension of the match, is that the fans of both teams quickly left the Parc des Princes stadium and the joy of some was not an obstacle for the French and Spanish to embrace. No matter the triumph of some and the defeat of others, here the values of Olympism prevailed.
HENRY’S CONGRATULATIONS TO DENIA
There is something about the Olympic Games: flags come together, flags intertwine, tourists mingle with the general public and there is an extraordinary, clean atmosphere. Another protagonist who fed this sporting spirit was the legendary Thierry Henry, coach of the French, who once the match was over, the first thing he did was to congratulate the Spanish coach, demonstrating his class and hierarchy in moments of defeat, as well as sentencing his vision of the definition for the Olympic gold: “Spain in several passages was more than us. We had two chances at the end and we couldn’t because their goalkeeper said ‘no’, but I’m left with a match that will be talked about for a long time and, perhaps, it will be another long time before we have another match as demanding and dramatic until the end.
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It will probably be remembered more in Spain than in France because of the final outcome and because 32 years had passed since the national team had turned the Camp Nou upside down with an Olympic gold medal that would be the greatest achievement in the history of Spanish football at national team level at the time. That triumph is still cherished and remains one of the greatest successes, although in recent times it has had to share the limelight. No player in the Spain side that won on Friday had been born when Kiko scored the goal that won gold in Barcelona.
The Spanish men’s national football team is currently the Olympic champion, Nations League champion and European champion (in addition, the girls are World champions) and are considered the best youth team in Europe, being champions in different categories. Santi Denia knows this and without U-23 stars such as Lamine Yamal or Nico Williams he has managed to bring football back to the top of an Olympic podium, and in an already historic final where the Olympic values box was polished -during and after the match-.
