According to Marca, Fermín hopes to score his first goal for the national team.
Fermín helped Barcelona maintain their lead at the top of the table with two signature goals at the Cívitas Metropolitano. Both goals were typical of his personal style, coming from a midfielder making late runs into the box. His goal tally for the season has now risen to 8, matching his total from last season.
The Barcelona player is in excellent form, which he has maintained throughout the season. Fermín is one of the trident leading Barcelona in La Liga and positioning them favorably to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League. In addition to his 8 goals, he also has 7 assists. Alongside him are Raphinha (19 goals, 3 assists) and Yamal (13 goals, 12 assists).
Fermín hopes to bring this goal-scoring ability to the Spain national team. After 10 appearances and 312 minutes for Spain, the Andalusian midfielder has yet to score his first international goal. In fact, injuries have been the main reason for his lack of consistent appearances with the national team.
De la Fuente coached Spain before the 2024 European Championship. He made his debut in a warm-up match against Andorra in Badajoz, which Spain won 5-0. In the European Championship, he only played 28 minutes in the third group stage match against Albania, when Spain had already secured qualification and first place in the group.
He then went on to participate in the Olympic Games. In Paris, Fermín was a key figure in Spain's gold medal win, scoring 6 goals, two of which came in the final, and providing 1 assist. Fermín and Álex Baena had a fantastic summer. Previously, no player had ever won both the European Championship and the Olympic gold medal in the same year, having played in both tournaments. The Frenchman Albert Rust managed this in 1984, but the Mulhouse goalkeeper did not play a single minute in the European Championship.
Then injuries struck him. Fermín was not called up to the national team again from the European Championship final until the 2025 Nations League Finals. Injuries and fluctuating form kept him out of the squad until the Nations League Finals, but he did not play a minute in that tournament.
By the FIFA World Cup, Fermín was in top form, and Luis de la Fuente saw him as an important player to change games and add goals. However, in the penultimate league match, a week before the squad announcement and when the match was no longer crucial, Fermín fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot. What should have been his first FIFA World Cup ended up in the operating room, and he could only watch Spain win on television.
All of this remains in the 23-year-old player's memory. Fermín has returned to the midfield role that coaches value so highly, capable of scoring 10 goals or more by the end of the season. With less than a third of the season played, he is only two goals shy of that mark.
In Prague, with Olmo absent, Fermín will make his 11th appearance for Spain. He still awaits his first goal for the Spain national team. Across the dugout sits Santi Denia, the coach with whom he embraced and celebrated the Paris gold medal.