With players like Manchester United-bound David De Gea, Valencia's Juan Mata, Barca's Bojan Krkic, Thiago, Montoya and Jeffren, plus Milan's Didac and Athletic Bilbao's brilliant Javi Martinez, Spain's Under-21 team are favourites to win the European Under 21 Championship in Denmark.
Yet La Furia Rojitos could win every game 15-0 and they wouldn't displace transfer speculation from the front pages of Spain's newspapers. The Madrid media have been resolutely warding off any suitors for their top players. Marca reported that Manchester United had made contact with Mesut Ozil's agent last week, a move which the Germany international dismissed because he wants to stay at Madrid until he's 86.
Or something like that.
Ronaldo has also said that he wants to stay at the club, despite him being linked with a move to Manchester City. The press have celebrated the news, yet privately Ronaldo hasn't been so emphatic in his declarations of loyalty to Madrid with old friends from Manchester.
The Portuguese winger is likely to stay in Madrid and face promoted neighbours Rayo Vallecano in the league next year. They finished as runners up to champions Real Betis and both sides have plenty of top-flight experience — Betis are relegated once a decade before returning to where they belong, while Rayo spent most of the 90s in the Primera before being relegated in 2003.
Both of these promoted clubs are in administration. The third team to go up offers a more intriguing prospect. Barca's B team finished third under Luis Enrique to record their best ever league showing. Enrique has left to manage AS Roma, though he may have been tempted to stay if his Barca side were allowed to be promoted. Alas, rules prevent otherwise.
Established names Celta Vigo and Valladolid have been eliminated in the play-offs by Granada and Elche, who meet on Wednesday and on Sunday in Elche.
Granada have not played top-flight football since 1976 and were only promoted from the third division last season. They spent four seasons in Spain's fourth level up until 2006 and are a club on the up thanks to a deal with Italian side Udinese which sees Granada benefit from a dozen loan players.
Granada's stadium has already hosted the Spanish national side this year in a Euro 2012 qualifier against the Czech Republic, but Elche's home is likely to see the most noise in the return leg on Sunday and they'll be hoping for a repeat of the atmosphere in the Martinez Valero that they enjoyed when coming from behind against Valladolid.
Despite Elche not having played top-flight football since 1989, the stadium is one of the biggest in Spain. Holding 38,000 (there were 20,000 there last week), it has staged cup finals and hosted games in the 1982 World Cup finals.
The story of how a backwater city near Alicante staged World Cup games is down to the man the stadium is named after. When Valero told the 200,000 residents of the city famed for its shoe-makers that he would bring the World Cup to Elche, most considered him crazy.
Yet he'd already overseen a new stadium, even if it hadn't been paid for. Valero's logic was simple: since the club hadn't paid for the first phase of the development, why not double the debt and the size of the stadium?
Elche's new home held 53,000 by the time it hosted three games involving Hungary, El Salvador and Belgium in 1982. The local bishop may have called the stadium a miracle, but the extra capacity wasn't needed as all three games attracted less than 40,000 in total.
Residents of Darlington will know all about a club who built a stadium which was far too big for them, but Valero could have the last laugh: Elche are hoping for a full house on Sunday.