When the World Cup final kicks off today, the football world will be watching the usual suspects. On one side, of course, Lionel Messi, and on the other his designated heir, Lamine Yamal.
But the real decision could come in the phase coaches hate and fans love: crunch time. When legs grow heavy, Argentina’s hour traditionally strikes – Egypt, Switzerland and most recently England have already experienced that in the most painful way at this World Cup. But Spain travel to the final with a perfectly tuned antidote: Mikel Merino. Over the past few years, the 30-year-old has developed into the personified nightmare for opposing back lines in the closing minutes.
Merino’s path to the top of the world was anything but straightforward. Exactly ten years ago, he was regarded as one of the most sought-after talents in Europe. Borussia Dortmund signed the then 20-year-old from CA Osasuna. But instead of the hoped-for breakthrough, a sporting misunderstanding followed. Under tactical aesthete Thomas Tuchel, the sensitive Basque found no place in a star-studded midfield alongside Götze, Reus or Kagawa; instead, he had to fill in sporadically as a centre-back.
After just one year, he fled back home via Newcastle United. It was only at Real Sociedad that he found the consistency and self-confidence that ultimately allowed him to mature into a Champions League player. He first had to take a step back in order to build momentum for a truly great career.
The real turning point into the player he is today, however, came in London. Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta brought his compatriot to the Gunners after Euro 2024 with a clear vision. But fate struck cruelly in the very first training session: after a collision with Gabriel Magalhaes, Merino broke his shoulder and was sidelined for weeks. In hindsight, however, he described that enforced break as a mental blessing – it gave him the necessary time to analyse the Londoners’ system in detail and to develop further both tactically and physically.
In the end, it was also Arteta who awakened a completely new talent in Merino: despite his previously more defensive style of play, the coach at times converted him into a central attacker at Arsenal. An absolute masterstroke.
"I read on social media that I was supposed to start as a striker in the next game against Leicester. Honestly, I could only laugh and thought to myself: 'How can people talk such nonsense?' I had never played there before and absolutely wasn’t expecting it," Merino told 'FourFourTwo' ahead of the World Cup.
"But then before the game, one of the Arsenal coaches came over to me and said: 'Hey, we’ve thought about using you right up front – not as a classic striker, but more like a midfielder operating furthest forward; so don’t worry about having to be a real striker.' That’s how it happened. I came on with 20 minutes to go, we needed a goal, and I immediately scored two. The rest is history."
