Spain's 2027 World Cup Defense: New Coach, Bonmatí Back

Brazil 2027 already has its defending champion locked in, but Spain didn’t get there the easy way. Between the 2023 final in Sydney and its ticket to Brazil, La Roja lost a European final on penalties, changed head coaches, and had its best player break her leg in training. It qualified anyway.

Why wasn’t Spain’s spot automatic?

Winning the 2023 World Cup bought goodwill, not a bye. Spain still had to get through UEFA’s qualifying group stage like everyone else, and the cycle that followed the trophy was rockier than the result suggested it would be. The team that arrives in Brazil as champion isn’t quite the one that lifted the trophy in Sydney — the coach has changed, and its best player missed half the campaign along the way.

What happened after the 2023 title?

Spain added a second trophy first: a 2-0 win over France in the 2023-24 Women’s Nations League final in Seville, Bonmatí and Mariona Caldentey scoring. The next major final didn’t go the same way. England beat Spain 1-1 (3-1 on penalties) in the Women’s Euro 2025 final, denying La Roja a first European crown to sit next to the World Cup. Head coach Montse Tomé left the role once her contract expired at the end of August 2025, and the RFEF turned to Sonia Bermúdez — promoted up from the Spain U23s — to lead the team into World Cup qualifying.

How did Spain respond under its new coach?

By winning immediately, and without its best player. Aitana Bonmatí fractured her left fibula in a training-ground collision in November 2025, days before Spain’s Women’s Nations League final against Germany, ruling her out of the second leg entirely. Spain won anyway: a 3-0 victory at a sold-out, record-attendance Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on December 2, 2025, with two goals from Clàudia Pina and one from her replacement, Vicky López, retaining the Nations League title back-to-back.

How long was Bonmatí out, and when did she come back?

About five months. The three-time Ballon d’Or winner had surgery on the fracture and was expected to miss the rest of Barcelona’s 2025-26 club season, but she beat that timeline — returning as a late substitute in Barcelona’s 4-0 win over Lyon in the Women’s Champions League final in Oslo on May 23, 2026. Within days she was back in a Spain shirt for the final stretch of World Cup qualifying.

How did Spain actually seal qualification?

Not cleanly at first. Drawn into Group A3 alongside England, Ukraine and Iceland, Spain lost 1-0 away to England at Wembley in April 2026, a result that put England, not Spain, on top of the group with matchdays still to play. Bermúdez’s side answered by beating England 4-0 at home in Mallorca on June 5, retaking first place, then finished the job four days later with a 6-1 rout away to Iceland on June 9. The group win sends Spain straight to Brazil; England, despite that early lead, now has to come through the play-offs for a place.

Where does that leave Spain heading into 2027?

Spain has held the FIFA No. 1 ranking since August 2025, and it arrives in Brazil already qualified, already champion, and with its biggest injury concern from the cycle back on the pitch well ahead of schedule. None of that came in a straight line — a Euro final lost, a coach replaced, a superstar sidelined for months — but the field taking shape for 2027 now has a defending champion that has been through all of it once already.