Fermín's Return to Spain National Team Amid Raphinha's Hat-Trick Heroics
At the final whistle in the cauldron of the Sanchez Pizjuan, Fermín walked off with more than just three points in his pocket. He carried something far more personal: a sense that his career had just turned a corner.
The La Masia product, born in nearby El Campillo, has been recalled by Luis de la Fuente for Spain’s upcoming Nations League games. For a 23-year-old who watched the 2026 World Cup from the outside after a physical setback ruined his summer, this call-up lands like a release.
He didn’t try to dress it up. "I am very happy to return to the national team. It was very hard not to go to the World Cup. I have started the season well and I am happy to return to the national team," Fermín said, the relief evident between every word.
Yet for all the emotion wrapped around his own story, the night in Seville had a different leading man.
Raphinha owned it.
The Brazilian tore through Sevilla with a ruthless hat-trick, ripping apart a defence that usually feeds off the noise and fury of its home crowd. Under Hansi Flick, Raphinha has been pushed into new territory, drifting inside and attacking central spaces instead of hugging the touchline. It has changed everything.
Seven games. Twelve goals. Suddenly, the former Leeds United winger is not just adapting to a new role; he is dictating it, surging to the front of the early race for the Pichichi.
Fermín, watching it unfold from midfield, summed it up with a smile. "Raphinha is our unexpected number nine. It’s tremendous what Raphinha is doing. He is very good and he adapts to any position. We give him the passes and he scores the goals. He had never played as a center forward and he is putting up very good numbers,” he noted.
The setting made it all the more impressive. Trips to Sevilla are rarely gentle exercises in ball circulation. The stands press in, the whistles rain down, and every misplaced touch feels amplified.
Fermín made that clear. The intensity, he said, is non-negotiable in this fixture, and the game plan under Flick is just as demanding. Lose the ball, hunt it back. No pause, no retreat.
“Sevilla puts a lot of pressure on us here at their stadium, and Raphinha’s three goals have been decisive. The manager asks us to be very intense, to press high after losing possession,” Fermín revealed.
A local kid back in the Spain squad. A winger reinvented as a goal machine. A team drilling Flick’s instructions into every phase of play.
If this is how early-season adversity is answered, the rest of the campaign suddenly looks a lot more interesting.
