Spain national football team (La Furia Roja)

Being the current reigning World and European champions, Spain have lost their tag of perennial underachievers in the last four years.

Following Real Madrid’s early domination of the European Cup, the national team won the European Championships at their first attempt in 1964 by beating the Soviet Union in the final in Madrid.

Yet, despite the wealth of talent that has since graced the Primera Liga and many of the game’s superstars who have featured regularly for La Roja, success on the international staged had since proved elusive.

They did reach the European Championships final in 1984 but lost to France in Paris. Spain also rose to the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in July 2008 to become only the sixth nation to top the list, and the first without previously having won the World Cup. However, this coincided with their long-awaited success at Euro 2008 when they beat Germany in the Final in Vienna with a goal from Fernando Torres.

Between November 2006 and June 2009, they went undefeated for a record-equalling 35 consecutive matches before losing to the United States, a record shared with Brazil, including a record 15-game winning run to earn third place in the FIFA Confederations Cup.

Spain’s new-found sense of global influence was cemented in 2010 when they lifted the World Cup in South Africa, beating Netherlands in the final in Johannesburg.

They became only the second team to win a World Cup outside their own continent (following Brazil's wins in Sweden and Korea & Japan) and so the only European team to win the World Cup outside of Europe.