Spain has won the FIFA World Cup for the second time, beating Argentina 1-0 after extra time to set off celebrations from the royal box to the squares of Madrid.
Ferran Torres, a 62nd-minute substitute, settled the match in the 106th minute at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The Barcelona forward struck from close range to give La Roja (The Reds) a title to place alongside the crown Spain won in 2010.
Torres framed the goal as a national one, saying it “belonged to 47 million people”.
Spain dominated throughout, holding 68 per cent of possession and mustering 20 shots to Argentina’s three.
Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, the hero of the 2022 shootout win, kept the score down with what organisers recorded as a World Cup final record of 11 saves.
The reigning champions then unravelled after Enzo Fernández was sent off for a reckless foul on the young Spanish defender Pau Cubarsí.
Spain, managed by Luis de la Fuente, finished the tournament unbeaten and conceded a single goal across the competition.
Along the way it beat Belgium and then European rivals France 2-0 in the semi-final, while Argentina edged England to reach the decider.
The side already held the European title, won against England at Euro 2024, and now adds the world crown to it.
The defeat denied Argentina back-to-back titles and appeared to close the international career of Lionel Messi, in what was expected to be his final World Cup.
Scaloni’s side had arrived in New Jersey chasing a fourth straight major honour, having won the 2022 World Cup and the Copa América in 2021 and 2024.
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni accepted the outcome, saying of his opponents only that “they were better”.
Messi, 39, thus leaves the World Cup stage as the champion of 2022 but a beaten finalist in what looked like his last act, undone by the dismissal and a relentless Spanish press.
The final whistle was followed by ugly scenes, with reports of an altercation involving Argentina’s Leandro Paredes and Spain’s Eric García.
The win drew praise from across a normally combative political spectrum.
King Felipe VI watched from the stands alongside Queen Letizia, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía.
In a statement, the King told the squad: “Today we celebrate a title; tomorrow we will remember a legend.”
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who travelled to New Jersey for the final, hailed the result on social media and thanked the team.
Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, of the centre-right People’s Party (PP), watched from Madrid’s Plaza de Colón and wrote that there were no limits for the side.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the national-conservative Vox, praised the players for carrying the Spanish flag to the top.
Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz, of the left-wing Sumar, cast the night as a repeat of the 2010 dream 16 years on.
Several Cabinet ministers joined in, hailing what they called Spanish football’s dominance of the current era.
The celebrations came against a grim national backdrop, with Spain still battling major wildfires that have burnt more land than at the same point last year.
A minute’s silence had been held before the quarter-final against Belgium for the victims of a deadly blaze in Almería, the worst in Andalusia’s recorded history.
The breadth of the praise was striking given the tone of Spanish politics.
Sánchez leads a fragile minority Government dogged by corruption inquiries, among them the trial ordered for his wife, Begoña Gómez, who denies wrongdoing.
His brother, David Sánchez, and former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero have also been drawn into separate proceedings.
President Donald Trump, whose country co-hosted the tournament with Canada and Mexico, presented the trophy to the Spanish players.
He had earlier greeted Sánchez and the King at the start of the match.
The moment underlined the close alliance between Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino that has shadowed the competition.
Both men have sought to turn a sporting event into a stage for their own standing, though the final itself belonged to the players.
For Spain, the reward was plain: a second star on the shirt and confirmation of a team that now holds the European and world titles at the same time.
The result also extends the recent grip of European sides on the men’s game, which have now claimed four of the last five World Cups.
The victory caps a remarkable run for de la Fuente, who inherited a rebuilding side built around Lamine Yamal, Pedri and Nico Williams and has since lost almost nothing.
Whether the cross-party goodwill outlasts the street parties, though, is another matter.
