Spain in 2026: the Red Sticks' successful transition under Caldas

On 4 August 2024 Spain faced the number one team in the world. Belgium, reigning Olympic champion, on home Olympic soil in Paris, in a quarter-final. Spain won 3-2. Marc Miralles dragged home a penalty corner, the team held firm, and a country that had waited sixteen years for its best Olympic result pushed through to the semi-final. It was no upset in the sense of luck. It was the harvest of a rebuild.

This dossier is about that rebuild. About how the Red Sticks, the nickname the Spanish men's team carries in the hockey world, deliberately chose a generational shift after the Tokyo Games, and how head coach Max Caldas arranged that shift so the team came out of it not weaker but stronger. It is about the drag flick of the Cunill brothers, the composure of a naturalised Olympic champion, and a batch of twenty-somethings who took European bronze in 2025. And it is about the honest question that hangs over the 2026 World Cup: is this team built to peak when it must, or does it only peak when no one expects it?

World ranking and qualification

Spain goes into the 2026 World Cup as the number six in the world, and that is exactly the position that makes the team hard to gauge. On the FIH world ranking Spain climbed to sixth place on the back of a strong end to the season, just behind Australia and Germany and ahead of Argentina. The margins in the upper mid-table are small: Spain sits close to the teams above and close to the teams below, no established powerhouse but not an outsider you can simply dismiss either.

Qualification for the World Cup ran through the FIH Pro League. In the 2024-25 season Spain finished third, behind the Netherlands and Belgium, and that earned a direct World Cup ticket. It was a historic result, the best Pro League placing the team had ever achieved. That is precisely why the contrast with the following season is so telling, but more on that later.

The continental dynamic largely determines where Spain stands. Europe is the toughest region of world hockey: six of the ten best countries in the world are European, and Spain has to prove itself in that company time and again. A sixth place on the world ranking means in practice that Spain is fourth or fifth in Europe, a serious medal outsider but no favourite. It is exactly the position from which the finest surprises arise, and the cruellest disappointments.

Every World Cup appearance by Spain

Spain is one of the constants of world hockey: the country took part in almost every World Cup edition since the first in 1971, and that first edition was not held in Barcelona by chance.

The major tournaments

Spain has never won a world title, but it came close twice. In 1971, at the very first edition in home Barcelona, Spain reached the final and lost narrowly to Pakistan. In 1998 in Utrecht Spain stood in the final again, this time beaten by host nation the Netherlands. In between and afterwards the team took bronze in 2006 in Mönchengladbach. At the Olympics the haul is higher: silver in 1980 in Moscow, silver in 1996 in Atlanta and silver again in 2008 in Beijing, when Spain went down to Germany in the final. That Beijing silver is the benchmark against which every generation since has been measured.

Recent editions

The two most recent World Cups tell the story of a team under construction. In 2018 in India Spain finished eleventh, a low point, a team that had lost touch with the top. In 2023, again in India, the picture was already different: Spain reached the quarter-final and lost there 3-4 to Australia, a match it could have won. The upward trend set in motion with Caldas became visible for the first time at the 2023 World Cup, and had its real breakthrough at Paris 2024.

Philosophy and approach

Max Caldas is an Argentine who built his entire coaching career in the Netherlands, and that is no detail. He was an assistant with the Dutch women when they won Olympic gold in 2008, then became head coach of those same women and made them world champions in 2014, and subsequently took charge of the Dutch men. When he took over at Spain in 2021, he brought the structured Dutch hockey school to a country that was known precisely for individual class and unpredictability.

Caldas put it in an interview with the Spanish federation how he sees the work: not as a sprint, but as "una maratón de sprints", a marathon of sprints. And on the constant need to keep evolving, he said in that same conversation that "lo que nos trajo hasta aquí no nos lleva hasta allá", what brought us here does not take us there. It is a coaching philosophy that honours the past without leaning on it. What made the team good in Paris is not automatically enough for the World Cup.

In a conversation with Argentine media Caldas explained what drew him to Spain. He already knew the Red Sticks from his time on the Dutch staff, where one of his tasks was to study the opponent. He had seen the Spanish youth play, the under-16, under-18 and under-21, and knew what was coming. What motivated him, he said, was integral work with the squad, assembling a staff that pushed back at him, and letting the youngest grow up with an awareness of what it means to play for the senior team.

Paris 2024: the fourth place and the legacy

The Paris Games became the confirmation of the project. In the group Spain lost to Great Britain and the Netherlands, but it beat reigning world champion Germany 2-0, with goals from José "Chefo" Basterra and Pepe Cunill, and drew with host nation France. In the quarter-final came the 3-2 against Belgium. The semi-final was lost 0-4 to the Netherlands, and in the third-place match India were too strong at 2-1, despite a penalty stroke from Miralles. Fourth place. The best Olympic result since the Beijing silver, and more importantly: achieved with a team in the middle of a rejuvenation.

The legacy of Paris is not the medal that just missed, but the proof that the transition worked. Players who a few years earlier did not exist at this level now stood in the semi-final of the Games.

2025 Euros Mönchengladbach

A year after Paris Spain confirmed the trend at the EuroHockey Championship in Mönchengladbach. In the third-place match France were the opponent, beaten 2-0. Marc Recasens opened the scoring, and three minutes from time Nicolás Álvarez decided the match, a player in his early twenties who had broken into the regular core at that same tournament. It was the first European medal for the Spanish men since the silver of 2019, and the moment when the young guard showed they were not just taking part, but deciding.

FIH Pro League 2024-25 and 2025-26

Here the story turns honest. Over two seasons the Pro League mercilessly exposes what the strength and the vulnerability of this team are. In 2024-25 Spain finished a historic third and took the World Cup ticket. In 2025-26 the team fell back to seventh place, level on points with Germany but with a poorer goal difference.

The 2025-26 season showed both faces of Spain within a few weeks. The team lost to the Netherlands, twice to England and to Australia, but beat India 0-2, took a fine win over Argentina and closed the season with a 2-5 away win at Germany in Berlin, exactly the kind of strong finish that lifted Spain to sixth on the world ranking. Four wins in thirteen matches: that is the reality with which Spain goes to the World Cup. The peaks are those of a medal contender, the troughs those of a team that does not yet reach the highest level every week.

Preparation schedule towards August 2026

Preparation for the World Cup ran through a series of training camps and friendlies. At a first camp in Terrassa in mid-July Spain, with the definitive World Cup group, twice beat Wales comfortably, 8-0 and 9-2. After camps in Sant Cugat and Santander, early August brought a final camp in Terrassa with three friendlies against China, after which the team travelled to Wavre. The exact results of the China series had, at the time of writing, not been made public by the RFEH.

The staff under Caldas

Caldas leads a staff that combines Dutch structure with Spanish hockey knowledge. The goalkeeping coach is Bernardino Herrera, himself a Spanish international between the posts at the 2004 Games. Borja Movellán is responsible for tactical preparation and player development, and Oriol Torras connects the youth pipeline to the senior team, a key role in a team that runs precisely on that pipeline. Video analysis lies formally with Diego Gavilán. The overarching organisation falls under the Real Federación Española de Hockey, with its training base at the CAR in Sant Cugat near Barcelona.

The World Cup squad

This is the definitive squad with which Spain goes into the 2026 World Cup, twenty players plus two reserves, announced by the Real Federación Española de Hockey and confirmed on the official FIH team list. Notable is the return of experienced names who largely sat out the 2025-26 Pro League season, such as Álex Alonso, Xavi Gispert, Chefo Basterra and Marc Reyné. Of the Cunill brothers only Pepe made the squad; his brother Pau missed out, as did César Curiel and Pere Amat. Caps and years of birth come from the official FIH player report, as of August 2026.

Caps and years of birth according to the official FIH player report for the 2026 World Cup. Two reserves have been designated but, at the time of writing, not officially confirmed by name. Clubs for the 2026-27 season may still change owing to the ongoing transfer window.

Four key players

Marc Miralles is the heart and the captain of this team. The midfielder, for years active at HC Bloemendaal in the Dutch Hoofdklasse, is by far Spain's most dangerous penalty corner taker. His drag flick, called the arrastre in Spain, is precise and hard to read, and he reveals his direction only at the last moment. He is the constant factor in the transition: the man who was there before and after the rejuvenation, and who holds the team together.

Joaquín Menini brings something no other Spaniard has: an Olympic gold medal. Menini won the Rio Olympic tournament with Argentina in 2016. Born in Argentina but holding a Spanish passport, he switched to Spain in 2022 after a conflict with the Argentine federation and three years without an international, at Caldas's initiative. He is the calm point in midfield, the link between defence and attack, and the winner's mentality a young team needs.

Luis Calzado has, in the years under Caldas, grown into the undisputed first-choice goalkeeper. He was between the posts in both Paris and at the 2025 Euros, and proved his worth at the biggest moments. In the Olympic qualifier against Ireland he preserved the Spanish lead in the closing stage with a double save, first on the penalty corner and immediately afterwards on the rebound. For the 2025-26 season he swapped Real Club de Polo for the Dutch side SV Kampong.

Pepe Cunill is the second penalty corner threat alongside Miralles. The midfielder, who ahead of the World Cup Atlètic Terrassa swapped it for Belgian side Dragons, scored the decisive 2-0 against Germany in Paris and grew into an ice-cold alternative at the top of the circle. His older brother Pau, also a drag-flick specialist, just missed the World Cup squad, so the arrastre burden at the World Cup rests with Miralles and Pepe Cunill.

Competition analysis by line

The Caldas system

Under Caldas Spain plays an offensive, energetic and daring style, in the federation's own words ofensivo, enérgico y atrevido. The core is pressing high, transitioning quickly after winning the ball, and, from a clear structure, giving room to the individual class that has always characterised Spanish hockey. Caldas describes it as a clear structure that offers room for adventure: the foundation must be so solid that players dare to take calculated risks.

In possession Spain seeks width, with wing defenders pushing up high to pull apart the opponent's first pressing line. Against teams that press high, Spain regularly opts for the direct route: a long ball forward, where the attacking leader positions himself as a target, holds the ball up and waits for the team to join. It is a way of neutralising an aggressive press in one move.

Here belongs the honest caveat too. Spain's greatest vulnerability is not tactical but physical and mental: sustaining this high level across a full tournament. The 2025-26 Pro League showed that the team can beat the best and, a week later, be comfortably brushed aside. A playing style that runs on intensity and pressing demands a deep, fresh squad, and that is exactly where the tension lies: the transition has produced talent, but not yet the bench and the durability of the absolute top. At a World Cup with pool matches, an intermediate round and knock-out stages in a short span, that is the scenario in which Spain could go out early.

The goalkeeping contest

The pecking order in goal is clear: Calzado is first choice, Revilla the second. The more interesting question is what happens when Spain falls behind in the closing stage. Caldas is not afraid to pull his goalkeeper for an extra field player then, as in the third-place match against India in Paris, when Spain unleashed a final offensive with eleven field players in the last minutes. It is a gamble that fits the daring identity, and one that can fail just as easily as it can succeed.

The penalty corner as a weapon

The penalty corner is Spain's sharpest weapon, and it is deliberately set up in multiple layers. Miralles is the first option with his drag flick, but the moment an opponent tunes entirely to him, Spain has a second drag-flick specialist in Pepe Cunill. In addition the team works with variants where Miralles steps over the ball and a teammate takes the finish, or where the rebound is set up aggressively with players ready to tap home a saved drag flick after all. It is not a single unstoppable shot, but a system that presents the goalkeeper and the first runner with fresh choices each time.

Germany: the mirror and the pain

Against Germany Spain plays its best and its hardest matches. The 2008 Olympic final in Beijing was lost to Germany, the most painful defeat in recent history. At Paris 2024 Spain took a little revenge with the 2-0 in the group stage. Germany remains the yardstick: if Spain beats Germany, it counts.

The Netherlands: the teacher and the wall

For Spain the Netherlands is the team that perfected the Dutch school Caldas brought with him. Spain had not beaten Oranje for years, and Oranje swept them aside 4-0 in the Paris semi-final. At the same time a large part of the Spanish core trains week in, week out in the Dutch Hoofdklasse, against and alongside the players of precisely that wall.

Belgium: the upset as a benchmark

The 3-2 in the Paris quarter-final is the exhibit of the whole project. Belgium was the number one in the world, and Spain won. In the 2025-26 Pro League the gap again proved small with a 2-3 in Wavre, of all places the venue where Spain plays its World Cup pool.

India: the hurdle that will not fall

India denied Spain the bronze in Paris with a 2-1 in the third-place match, and earlier India had already cost Spain an Olympic final in 1980. It is an opponent that has outsmarted Spain at crucial moments, and thereby a psychological hurdle.

Key players by rival

• Germany: Niklas Wellen, Gonzalo Peillat (the other naturalised Argentine of European hockey), Christopher Rühr.
• The Netherlands: Thierry Brinkman, Jip Janssen, Koen Bijen.
• Belgium: Arthur Van Doren, Tom Boon, Victor Wegnez.
• India: Harmanpreet Singh, Manpreet Singh.
• Australia (pool rival): Aran Zalewski, Jeremy Hayward.

The Spanish hockey mentality has always been one of class without a safety net. The country produced generations of technically gifted players who at their best were bewitching and at their worst unreliable. What Caldas has tried to change is not the class but the safety net. His message to the players, as he put it to a group of coaches, is that the staff's work is a service to the players, not the other way round. The structure is there to make the players better, not to smother their creativity.

That sounds abstract, but it became concrete in Paris. A team that used to fall apart after conceding a goal held firm against Belgium at 3-2 and defended the lead to the end. A team that used to play one good match at a major tournament and then vanish now stacked up wins and creditable defeats into a semi-final. The mental gain of the Caldas era is that the Red Sticks have learned to see their best level not as a fluke but as something they can summon. That the summoning does not yet work every match is the next step, and precisely what is at stake at the World Cup.

Menini plays a quiet lead role in that change of mentality. An Olympic champion who shows every day in training what winning demands changes the standard of a dressing room without having to say a word.

Spanish hockey has a heart, and that heart beats in Terrassa, an industrial town just north of Barcelona. Here lie the clubs that deliver internationals generation after generation: Club Egara, Atlètic Terrassa, Junior FC, and a little further into the city the Barcelona club Real Club de Polo. When Barcelona hosted the Games in 1992, the Olympic hockey was played not in the city itself but in Terrassa, at the Estadi Olímpic de Terrassa. Catalonia is to Spanish hockey what Bloemendaal and Den Bosch together are to the Dutch: the place where the sport truly lives.

That also explains why so many Spanish internationals play abroad. The Spanish league is strong but small, and the best players move to the Dutch Hoofdklasse or the Belgian league, where the level and the money are higher. Miralles at Bloemendaal, Menini and Recasens via Rotterdam to the Spanish circuit and the Belgian KHC Dragons respectively, Calzado at Kampong: the Spanish core is to a large extent an export product. That has a downside, for it makes the national team dependent on clubs in other countries, but it also produces players who play at the highest club level week in, week out.

The Cunill brothers, both at Atlètic Terrassa, represent the other side: players who stay in the heart of Catalan hockey and become internationals from there. Between the exporters and the stayers lies the reality of a hockey country big enough to matter and small enough to know every player.

The venues for Spain

Spain plays its pool matches at the Belfius Hockey Arena in Wavre, the new stadium that, together with the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, hosts the 2026 World Cup. For Spain Wavre is familiar ground: it played there against Belgium in the Pro League. The tournament begins for Spain right on the opening day, Sunday 16 August, against South Africa, followed by the blockbuster against Australia on Tuesday 18 August and the pool closer against Ireland on Thursday 20 August. The men's final is also played in Wavre, on Sunday 30 August, which means Spain could stay in Belgium for the entire tournament if it reaches the final.

Pool C and the tournament format

Spain is drawn into Pool C, together with Australia, Ireland and South Africa. On paper Australia is the favourite for first place, but Spain beat the Kookaburras earlier in the Pro League, so that status is not untouchable. Ireland and South Africa sit below Spain on the world ranking and are the teams against which Spain has to take points.

The 2026 World Cup has a new format. Sixteen countries, four pools of four, and the first and second of each pool advance to a second group stage with two groups of four. There they carry over the head-to-head result against the other qualified pool rival. The top two of each second-round group advance directly to the semi-finals. So there are no more quarter-finals, and every team plays at least five matches. For Spain that means: finishing at least second in Pool C is the first, hard assignment.

Scenario analysis: the road to the final

In the good scenario Spain beats Ireland and South Africa and takes at least a draw against Australia, which can be enough for first place in the pool. That gives a more favourable starting position in the second group stage, where the carried-over points count immediately. From that position a semi-final is realistic, and in a semi-final anything is possible, as Paris proved.

In the likely scenario Spain finishes second behind Australia, with wins over the two weaker pool rivals. In the second group stage a clash with one or more top nations such as the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany then almost certainly follows, and the question becomes whether Spain can sustain that level over several matches in a row.

In the bad scenario Spain trips over its own inconsistency. An unexpected loss of points against Ireland or South Africa, combined with a defeat to Australia, and the team already has to calculate and fear in the pool. Given the 2025-26 Pro League that is not an unthinkable picture, and that is exactly why the first week in Wavre is crucial.

1. Miralles's arrastre at the top of the circle. On every Spanish penalty corner, watch the run-up of Marc Miralles. His drag flick is precise and hard to read, and he hides his direction until the last moment. When he appears to step over the ball, that is often the cue for a variant in which a teammate takes over the finish. The penalty corner is Spain's sharpest weapon, and Miralles is the first player to keep an eye on.

2. Miralles or Pepe Cunill at the top of the circle. When Spain wins a penalty corner, watch who sets up. Miralles is the first drag-flick specialist, but Pepe Cunill is an equally cool second option, and the switch between the two is meant to make the goalkeeper and the first runner doubt whom to tune to. Which of the two takes the ball often gives away which variant is coming.

3. Calzado in the closing minutes. Spanish matches are often decided in the final minutes, and goalkeeper Luis Calzado is at his best there. His double save against Ireland in the Olympic qualifier, first on the penalty corner and immediately on the rebound, is the type of moment in which he can swing a match. Watch his reflexes on a late penalty corner.

4. The goalkeeper off when behind. If Spain falls behind in the closing stage, watch whether Caldas pulls his goalkeeper for an eleventh field player. He did it in the third-place match against India in Paris, with a final offensive with eleven field players. It is a daring gamble that fits the team's identity, and one that makes the last minutes nail-bitingly tense.

5. Menini as the calm point. Amid the high tempo, Joaquín Menini is the player who slows the game when it is needed. Watch how, after a turnover, he shields the ball and gives the team time to organise. The contrast between the explosive pressing and Menini's composure is the sign of the tactical maturity Caldas has brought.

6. The young decision-makers. Keep an eye on Nicolás Álvarez and Bruno Font, the twenty-somethings who symbolise the transition. Álvarez decided the European bronze match against France, Font brings speed and unpredictability into the circle. When one of them decides at a big moment, you see exactly why Spain's generational shift is regarded as a success.

7. The transition after losing the ball. When Spain loses the ball in the opponent's half, do not watch the Spanish back line but the players around the ball. Spain tries to press immediately and win the ball back quickly, before the opponent can organise. If that does not work, the team drops back fast. Those first seconds after losing the ball show how sharp Spain is that day.

8. The match against Australia as a gauge. The pool match against Australia is Spain's real test. It is the strongest pool rival and at the same time a team Spain has beaten in the Pro League. How Spain holds up against the Kookaburras says a lot about how far the team can go at this World Cup.

Three outcomes lie open for Spain. At best the team confirms in Wavre that the transition has produced not only talent but also durability, and repeats the Paris feat of beating a big team at the right moment, deep into the tournament. In the likely case Spain comes out of the pool and meets one of the European powerhouses in the knock-out stage, where it has to summon its best level on a single evening and can just as easily succeed as fail. At worst the inconsistency of the Pro League season catches up with the team, and Spain goes out earlier than its class warrants.

Whatever happens on Sunday 30 August in Wavre, the Caldas project has already given Spanish hockey back something it had lost: the status of a team you do not want to draw. From eleventh place at the 2018 World Cup to an Olympic semi-final and European bronze in five years is a remarkable resurgence. The question that hangs over this World Cup is not whether Spain can be good, for it has proved that, but whether it can stay good, for two weeks, match after match. The answer to that question determines whether the successful transition also becomes a lasting one.

Official sources

• Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH)
• FIH world ranking
• Real Federación Española de Hockey (RFEH)
• EuroHockey Federation
• Olympics.com

Spanish media

• Marca
• AS
• Mundo Deportivo
• El Periódico
• eshockey.es (RFEH news platform)