It is one of those very modern football truths that says a lot about a squad and very little about the old-fashioned idea of “selection” as a clean, brutal sorting process. Grimaldo has not played a single minute in the Mundial, and yet he is still being described as one of the key figures in Spain’s atmosphere. That is not a contradiction. It is the point.
Spain, as Grimaldo has made clear, are functioning like a family. He says they speak constantly away from camp on WhatsApp, that they try to meet up in holidays if they can, and that the coach has created an environment where everybody understands the collective before the individual. In his words, that is part of why La Roja have won practically everything over these two years. For a player who is not even in the starting eleven, that is a pretty serious contribution.
The obvious headline is the lack of minutes. Grimaldo himself does not pretend otherwise. He wants to play, because of course he does — any player with a pulse wants to play. But at 30 años, he says he has the maturity to understand that this time he has been a little more outside the team’s main XI. The important thing, in his view, is to add value inside and outside the pitch. In a squad of 26, sulking about it would be a luxury. Spain do not need luxury. They need harmony, and he is helping provide it.
The Cucurella connection matters
If you want the clearest illustration of Grimaldo’s place in this group, look at his relationship with Cucurella. He says Cucurella is the teammate he speaks to most in the Selección, and that the connection was instant from the first day. That matters because both operate in the same area, which usually creates tension. Instead, it has produced maturity. Grimaldo is blunt about it: if one plays and the other does not, the first priority is Spain, the team, the Selección.
That is the kind of line squads love to say and coaches love to hear, but in this case it does not sound rehearsed. It sounds like a player who has already done the hard emotional work of understanding his role. He is not the story because of some dramatic exclusion. He is the story because he has accepted the reality of being part of a strong group without making himself the problem.
And that is where the 2024 reference matters too. Grimaldo was not ultimately selected over Cucurella then, and the same dynamic has followed him into this Mundial. That would be enough to frustrate plenty of players. Instead, he is framing it as part of the job: stay useful, stay connected, stay ready. The fact that Spain are in New Jersey preparing for a decisive match with that sort of internal balance is not a small detail. It is the whole selling point.
There is also the bigger picture. Grimaldo says he wants to return to play in Spain, and the article makes clear that Atlético will be his new home. So the focus is not just on one tournament or one lineup decision. It is on a player at 30 años who still sees himself as relevant, still wants the minutes, but understands that reputation in an elite squad is not only built through appearances. Sometimes it is built through the atmosphere you help create when you are not on the pitch at all.
That is the real lesson here. Grimaldo has zero minutes in the Mundial, but he is not invisible. In a Spain camp being presented as unusually united, that may be exactly the point.
