"He is the best": the world is left stunned by Dani Olmo

BarcelonaIn the stands of the Dallas stadium, Miquel Olmo continued to bite his lip and wring his hands as if he were praying. Dani Olmo's father suffers greatly every time he sees his son playing an important match live. All the hours they spent together, the games, the advice, and when his son was young and used to go to the fields where he coached, flash through his mind. In Terrassa, Figueres, Sabadell, or Girona. Miquel sat on the benches of some of the most important Catalan football clubs. He left a good human impression wherever he went. Now he no longer coaches and follows Dani, always attentive to everyone. You see him traveling with Barça in the Champions League and now, at the World Cup, watching his son's exhibition against France live.

"It hasn't been an easy year," the Olmo family explains about the season. Despite the titles won with Barça, injuries have plagued the Valles midfielder, who hoped to have more continuity with Hansi Flick. But he has arrived at the World Cup in top form. And Luis de la Fuente always manages to give Olmo a lot of prominence. Against France, his game was colossal. In the first half, he hadn't missed a single pass. At the end of the match, only one. A single pass against one of the most powerful teams on the planet. The Terrassa player slipped between the lines, always finding passing lanes, positioning his body well to escape more physical midfielders and always arriving a tenth of a second before his opponents, as in the play for Pedro Porro's goal. He arrived, gave the assist, and immediately rolled on the ground, pushed by an opponent. From the pitch, he saw how the Extremaduran full-back scored the second goal. And Dani knew he would play in a World Cup final.

"He's a brilliant footballer, exceptional in his position. He's very versatile, but I believe his growth is linked to the team's. The team is the most important thing, and the players understand that. Dani is a footballing genius," Luis de la Fuente said about the Vallesà native, who started the World Cup on the bench, on the day against Cape Verde. The coach didn't take long to open the doors to him for the starting lineup. Nothing surprising, as the connection between this coach and the footballer is evident.

In 2019, Olmo was already a starter for the Spanish U-19 team, which would become European champions, featuring Unai Simón, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal, and Fabián Ruiz. And where the coach, of course, was De la Fuente. A coach who also took the Terrassa-born player to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where they would win silver. Once De la Fuente moved to the bench of the senior Spanish national team, Olmo has played his best international football, with victories in the Nations League in 2023 and the Euro 2024. If they win the World Cup on Sunday, he will have won all possible titles at the national team level. He'll be missing the Champions League with Barça and little else.

It would be the reward for a different career path, as Olmo chose to leave La Masia, where he had struggled so much to get into, when he was still a youth player. And instead of going to England as some young players might have done, he opted for a less-traveled route, on the fringes of European football, moving to Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. Dani always speaks highly of what he learned in the Croatian capital. He never has a bad word to say about Dinamo and everything he experienced there. "I came from a culture where the ball is cared for, and there I learned to work on my physicality. I was 16 years old and training with Croatian national team players who had played in World Cups. It was a huge step. It made me improve as a player physically and mentally, because the game was faster," the midfielder explained in the past. After moving to German club RB Leipzig, Olmo returned home, to Barça, to the delight of Miquel, his father.

Against France, Olmo played one of the best games of his career. Defending, as De la Fuente also asks him to. Taking care of the ball, as he learned at La Masia. And positioning his body well against bigger opponents, as he learned in Zagreb. The former Barça player and now Como coach, Cesc Fàbregas, explained on North American television where he comments on the World Cup that Olmo was "Spain's best player." "It's not goals or assists, it's his intelligence. His movement between the lines, his technical quality, the way he creates space for everyone... defenders simply don't know whether to follow him or maintain their position. That's what makes him so dangerous," said the Maresme native.

Cesc, like so many other former players, knew where to look during the match. He looked towards Olmo. "That's exactly why Barça signed him. Players like him don't just play football, they solve problems. And, in my opinion, De la Fuente would have made a big mistake if he had left him on the bench after that opening match against Cape Verde. Spain looked predictable and the match ended goalless. The moment Olmo is in the team, the attack has rhythm, creativity, and purpose. To me, he is indestructible," he added. Watching the match, former international midfielder Juan Mata was also rubbing his eyes. "How Dani Olmo plays football," he said. Those who have played top-level football in midfield were talking about Olmo. The player who pocketed France in the World Cup semi-finals.