Four of Five Johan Cruyff Award Finalists Are Spanish: De la Fuente, Luis Enrique, Arteta and Emery

Four out of five. That is how lopsided the shortlist for the 2026 Johan Cruyff Award, given to the best coach of the year, has become: Luis de la Fuente, Luis Enrique, Mikel Arteta and Unai Emery are all Spanish. The only one who breaks the pattern is Belgium's Vincent Kompany. The Ballon d'Or ceremony will take place on October 26 in London, and just reading those four names together tells you everything about where world soccer stands right now.

This is no coincidence and no one-off year. Look back at the 2025/26 season: De la Fuente led Spain to the World Cup title, Luis Enrique won another Champions League with PSG, Arteta claimed the Premier League with Arsenal, and Emery lifted the Europa League with Aston Villa. Four coaches, four different competitions, four major trophies. The picture gets even bigger when you look at the 2026/27 Champions League: six Spanish coaches are managing in Europe's top competition (Luis Enrique at PSG, Arteta at Arsenal, Emery at Aston Villa, Andoni Iraola at Liverpool, Iñigo Pérez at Villarreal and Cesc Fàbregas at Como). The Spanish soccer federation, the RFEF, has already pointed out that Spain is the country with the most coaches among the competition's 36 clubs.

Coaching education, the foundation of it all

Why is this happening right now? Arteta has a fairly direct answer. During the RFEF's International Coaches Congress in June 2026, the Arsenal manager didn't mince words:

What sets us apart as coaches is the coaching education, the instructors we have, the method. I believe we're pioneers in that and we're ahead of any other country.Mikel Arteta

That's no small statement coming from someone who had already won the Premier League and played in a Champions League final by the time he said it. Arteta also shared a thought on how he manages his locker room: "To push a player to his limit, it's important to have closeness and a connection with him." Education, method and closeness with the group, that combination keeps coming up whenever people try to explain the phenomenon.

The RFEF isn't just talking. In January 2026 it organized a congress in Saudi Arabia for Spanish coaches working there, noting that more than 70 Spanish professionals (coaches, sporting directors, fitness trainers and assistants) were working at Saudi clubs. The training travels with every one of them.

A school built over decades

To understand the phenomenon, you have to go back several decades. Johan Cruyff left a decisive mark on Barcelona and on the way the game is understood, and the evolution of youth academies kept polishing players and coaches who grew increasingly comfortable with spacing and decision-making. Juan Carlos Garrido, a Spanish coach with international experience, summed it up for the RFEF: "Spain is the country that best developed training and playing methods." According to him, it all started in the 1990s and then filtered down into the academies: "That generation changed the way soccer was played in Spain and, above all, changed the training method that later carried over into the academies."

From there, everyone found their own path. Guardiola brought those ideas to Germany and England. Luis Enrique developed them at Barcelona, with the national team and now at PSG. Emery built a career that took him through Russia, France, Spain and England. Xabi Alonso found his own version of it in Germany before making the jump to English soccer. Same roots, different outcomes.

The Premier League, the biggest showcase

If there's one league where this shows up under a microscope, it's the Premier League. Arteta, Emery and Iraola built their projects there, and the new generation has added names like Álvaro Arbeloa at Fulham. Emery, who has coached in Russia, France and England, understands the process better than most:

We coaches feel proud to be able to add value to the Spain brand. Those of us who contribute good work wherever we are, with a certain amount of success, help more people gain access to jobs in soccer, so we carry a share of that responsibility.Unai Emery

Emery also pointed to something that often gets overlooked: "The importance of language is huge, so we need to be able to add knowledge on that front too." And when it came to his countrymen, he didn't hold back: "What Luis Enrique is achieving is tremendous, but we also have Andoni Iraola and Mikel Arteta doing outstanding work, Iñigo Pérez, there are some very good coaches, Valverde, Bordalás."

Iraola, for his part, represents the newest wave: he started in Spain, went through Cyprus and the Championship, and ended up at Anfield managing Liverpool. Every step, another rung on the ladder.

Luis Enrique and the challenge of staying on top

Luis Enrique just won his second straight Champions League with PSG, the third of his career, and the club extended his contract through 2030 in early September, right before the start of the title defense. Now comes the challenge of chasing a third consecutive Champions League, something he described without sugarcoating it:

We have to accept that everyone is fired up and motivated to play against us, and that we need to get out of our comfort zone.Luis Enrique

Beyond Europe, the export extends to Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, with entire coaching staffs working outside Spain. RFEF president Rafael Louzán said it in January: "For the RFEF, the work of Spanish coaches around the world is very important." The federation is also working with UEFA to recognize different coaching education pathways, so that the brand keeps resting on certified knowledge, not just isolated results.

Guardiola opened a door. De la Fuente, Luis Enrique, Arteta, Emery, Iraola, Xabi Alonso and several others kept pushing it wider. And here's the result: six Spanish coaches on Champions League benches, half the Premier League speaking Spanish, and four candidates for best coach in the world coming out of the same country.