Mikel Oyarzabal has done everything in his power to buck the trend of the egotistic centre forward.
He doesn’t have a super agent in his corner – he leaves all that to mum Dorleta and dad Ernesto – and he’s never generated a transfer fee, spending his entire career to date at Real Sociedad. Not one to chase social media clout, Oyarzabal has just 359,000 Instagram followers. By contrast, Spain’s third-choice goalkeeper Joan Garcia has 3.1 million.
He is not extravagant in his fashion choices – one Spanish broadcaster described him as ‘styling his hair like a kid from a private school’ – nor all that fussed if every one of his team-mates takes the limelight away from him.
Oyarzabal, 29, happily swaps red carpet appearances and parties for spending time with his partner Ainhoa, who is a doctor, and their young son. But what that has done is create a misconception that Oyarzabal isn’t one of the world’s best strikers. That he is. Just ask any player, past or present.
‘I’m confused by modern football,’ Zlatan Ibrahimovic said on FOX after Spain’s 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia. ‘I watched Spain today and when the game finished, all I saw was people talking about Lamine Yamal. Did we even watch the same game?
‘For me, Mikel Oyarzabal was the one doing the dirty work. If Oyarzabal played the exact same game with Lamine’s name on the back of his shirt, people would be calling it a Ballon d’Or-worthy performance right now. That’s the truth no one wants to admit.’
Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal, who goes quietly about his business, was superb in his side’s 4-0 win over Saudia Arabia
Oyarzabal, in the right place at the right time, tucks home his second goal against Saudi Arabia
The truth is, Oyarzabal has always been like this. Unassuming in his manner, selective with his words, a leader without being bombastic, and desperate not to receive any special treatment.
It was why, while living in a four-bedroom student flat after making his first-team debut for Real Sociedad as an 18-year-old, he found himself locked out after returning home from a Copa del Rey match at 4am. With his flatmates asleep, rather than wake them up, he abandoned hopes of getting back to his bed.
It was also why when it came to assignments for his business administration degree at the University of Deusto, there was to be no special treatment compared to his classmates. Studying en route to away days and while team-mates played video games, Oyarzabal was happy to just blend in.
At 18, Lionel Messi was scoring at the 2006 World Cup. At that same age, Yamal had already scored at a World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo was a Manchester United regular, lighting up the Champions League.
When Oyarzabal was 18, his head was buried in his books. He wouldn’t even grace the world’s biggest tournament until he was 29, robbed of a spot at the 2022 World Cup due to a cruciate ligament injury that sidelined him for nine months.
So no, there isn’t the hype, appreciation, the razzmatazz that follows strikers like a shadow, with Oyarzabal. But there should be. Few players are as revered and celebrated by fellow pros as the Spaniard, making it all the more remarkable how so few fans see him in the same light.
Oyarzabal is under contract with Real Sociedad until 2028 with a release clause of €75million (£64m), although Barcelona, who have him as their back-up plan to Julian Alvarez, are targeting a fee closer to £30m.
And in a market where Premier League clubs are paying north of £85m for strikers, Aston Villa, Everton, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, all of whom would benefit immensely from a new forward like Oyarzabal, would be mad not to look at him. Man City and Arsenal have liked him in the past, though at 29 that window might have passed.
Oyarzabal scores Spain’s second goal, his first, against the Saudis. ‘Anyone who understands football values him enormously,’ Spain boss Luis de la Fuente said this week
Publicly and privately, Spain’s wonderkid Lamine Yamal is in awe of his team-mate, often referring to him as the nation’s MVP (Most Valuable Player)
‘Anyone who understands football values him enormously,’ Spain boss Luis de la Fuente said this week. ‘For some people, the impact he has may seem small, but here we know just how significant it is.’
Publicly and privately, Yamal is in awe of his team-mate, often referring to him as the nation’s MVP (Most Valuable Player). Marc Cucurella said of Oyarzabal recently: ‘Perhaps not many people thought Mikel had that level before. But I always said that when you play with him, you realise what he brings.’
But you should not need to play with Oyarzabal to know his immense quality. This is a player who is joint-seventh on Spain’s all-time goalscoring charts alongside Fernando Morientes. This is a player who has scored in all six of the major finals he has played in, including scoring the winning goal against England to clinch the 2024 European Championship.
This is a player who has scored in seven of Spain’s last eight games. This is a player who everyone inside that Spain dressing room looks to for leadership.
‘You can lead and set an example without going crazy, without shouting, without being a disciplinarian,’ Oyarzabal said on the eve of the World Cup. ‘There are several ways, and they are all equally valid.’
That’s not to say he hasn’t got a sharp tongue when it’s required, though. ‘Mikel is like a mother,’ team-mate Nico Williams explained. ‘He scolds you when necessary and shows you affection when you need it.’
But being unfashionable and unassuming means the good and the bad can often get overlooked. In Spain’s shock 0-0 draw against Cape Verde, Oyarzabal became the first player on record since 1966 to go the first 30 minutes of a World Cup match with exactly zero touches. Few outside of Spain picked up on it.
Next up, against Saudi Arabia, an unplayable Oyarzabal scored twice and added an assist inside 24 minutes, becoming just the third player since 1966 to record three goal involvements in the opening half-hour of a World Cup game. Again, many were too preoccupied with the ‘bigger’ name forwards to pay much attention to him.
Oyarzabal, who has never commanded a transfer fee, is under contract with Real Sociedad until 2028 and has a release clause of £64m
In the early hours of Saturday morning, Spain play their final group match against Uruguay. Don’t bet against Oyarzabal scoring again.
‘The funny thing about Oyarzabal is that people keep talking about other stars, and he just keeps producing numbers that most strikers would only dream of,’ said Paul Scholes after the Saudi Arabia game.
‘Fourteen goals and seven assists in 13 games (Oyarzabal’s recent record for Spain) is ridiculous. If a bigger-name player were achieving those numbers, we’d be hearing about it every day.’
At some point soon, Oyarzabal will shed the ‘underrated’ tag he loathes for good. And then talk will go from people doubting him to asking themselves: how on earth did we not appreciate him sooner?
