Lamine Yamal handed Spain’s iconic number 10 shirt for England clash

Spain manager Luis de la Fuente has submitted his final 23-man squad to UEFA for the Nations League meeting with England, with Lamine Yamal set to wear the number 10 shirt.

The match on 15 November 2026 will determine the group leaders and identify which side qualifies for the quarter-finals as runners-up, meaning they would play the second leg away from home.

According to Marca, De la Fuente needed to leave out only four players from the 28-man camp at Las Rozas. Alejandro Grimaldo departed on Saturday evening after being affected by a viral infection which had also troubled several Spain players during the week.

Alvaro Valles, Jacobo Ramon, De Frutos and Roberto Fernandez will therefore watch the match from the stands at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano.

Valles is the fourth goalkeeper called up after the problems Raya encountered joining the camp at the start of the international break. Ramon was among the players in contention to make his senior debut, while Como centre-back De Frutos and forward Roberto Fernandez both played minutes in the match in Prague.

The main talking point, however, was the allocation of shirt numbers. With Mikel Oyarzabal and Yamal returning, attention centred on whether the Barcelona forward would give up the number 19 he usually wears for Spain and take the number 10, left vacant by the injured Dani Olmo.

Yamal has now been given the number for the England fixture. It is one of football’s most famous shirts, previously worn by players including Pele, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Michel Platini, Luka Modric, Zinedine Zidane and Zico.

This is not the first time Yamal has worn number 10 for Spain. He was handed it in October 2024 when the national team were dealing with several absences, including Olmo.

He wore the shirt against Denmark in Murcia, a match Spain won 1-0 through a goal from Martin Zubimendi. Three days later, Yamal missed the 3-0 victory over Serbia in Cordoba because of a muscular problem, with Rodrigo Riquelme taking number 10 in his place.

Cesc Fabregas is strongly associated with the shirt in Spain’s history, having worn it during the team’s first golden era between 2008 and 2012. After his departure from the national side, following Julen Lopetegui’s appointment in September 2016, a succession of players took the number before it became Dani Olmo’s.

Thiago Alcantara was the first to wear it after Fabregas and also kept the shirt during Luis Enrique’s time as manager. Marco Asensio wore it at the World Cup in Qatar, while Sergio Canales, Carlos Soler, Sergi Roberto, Pedri and Dani Ceballos also had the number. Ceballos was the first to take it under De la Fuente.

Yeremy Pino, Bryan Zaragoza, Nico Williams, Pepelu, Jesus Rodriguez and Victor Munoz have also worn number 10 for Spain.