'On the 1 st of July 2012, the French newspaper Le Parisien published that The Reds were'The most beautiful team in history' and the British Guardian dubbed them 'the greatestteam of all time.'It was also the most successful team there had ever been. Never before had a nationalside managed to consecutively win a World Cup and two European Championships. But itwas not always so. The same media that would eventually praise the Spanish side hadridiculed them for decades. They were portrayed as perennial losers, a notion popularisedby Alfredo Di Stéfano when he quipped that 'we played like never before but lost like wealways do.' No one had ever believed in Spain. But the friendship between the youngMadrid player Iker Casillas and the young Barcelona player Xavi Hernández, captained byLuis Aragonés and surrounded by the best players of their generation, changed the team'smindset and the country's history.But the journey to success was far from easy. Aragonés immediately clashed with theprevious generation of football players for the leadership of the Spanish locker room. Thisstruggle almost stopped The Reds in their tracks and there was also a strainedrelationship with the press, which repeatedly demanded that Aragonés step down. Worstof all, there was serious strife between the Real Madrid and FC Barcelona players. Thegrowing tension between both clubs even threatened the friendship between Iker Casillasand Xavi Hernández and jeopardised the collective spirit and future of the national side.'