The desert of the number nine

International week is back. Every coach puts together his most convincing squad to face fierce European powers chasing a trophy propped up by the obsession with squeezing every last penny out of the ball, and by the despair of the club directors who lend their players in exchange for niggles and injuries. We are not very optimistic here. But the prostitution of the ball, and of those who look after it, we will leave for another day. Because, on top of rejecting these international breaks, we always find a way to criticise the managers' squad lists, always unfair, for which we would wipe these dates off the calendar.

Spain are going through a rough patch at number nine that, for now, is nothing to worry about. Ferran Torres dressed up a modest World Cup with the goal that gave Spain their second star. Oyarzabal ended up as the player Luis de la Fuente chose to lead the line and was Spain's top scorer at the World Cup, with five goals, two of them in the group stage. Even so, the coach from La Rioja took him off earlier and earlier in the knockout rounds: on 79 minutes against Belgium, on 74 against France and on 62 in the final. Nor was Borja Iglesias used as a reliable impact sub, with a single minute in the whole tournament, and the one who settled best into the role of finisher in the key moments was the ever-opportune Mikel Merino, who came off the bench to score the winner against Portugal, on 90 minutes, and against Belgium, on 88. And now we are all asking: who will be the heir in front of goal?

Luis de la Fuente has gone for Roberto, the Espanyol striker who has started the season with a good run of goals that, on the other hand, looks more occasional than innate: six league goals in his first six games and none in the six that followed. The return of Ferran, who is going through an eight-game drought and has the aim of a Star Wars stormtrooper. And Mikel Oyarzabal, a reliable forward who is settled in the system, but with no understudy.

In Vallecas there is an answer that isn't on the list. Sergio Camello is 25 and has seven goals and two assists in 791 minutes for Rayo. His Big Data rating is 82: he is twelfth of the 1,166 centre-forwards in the 37 leagues we analyse and the best-rated Spanish number nine in LaLiga. He scores a goal every 113 minutes; among Spanish players in LaLiga, only Lamine Yamal and Málaga's Adrián Niño find the net more often.

He is twelfth of the 1,166 centre-forwards in the 37 leagues we analyse

What sets him apart is not just the goals. Each of De la Fuente's three number nines covers one part of the job: Oyarzabal links play but rarely shoots (54th percentile in finishing); Roberto shoots but barely gets involved (33 in chance creation and 27 in possession), and Ferran shoots but creates little (56 in chance creation). Camello is high in all three: 92 in finishing, 89 in chance creation and 88 in possession. In the league he shoots 2.9 times every 90 minutes, 58% of them on target, and converts three of every ten attempts. He scored twice against Barcelona at their place and once against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

He shoots like Ferran, links play like Oyarzabal and scores more often than all three

And he would be no stranger at Las Rozas. He has already worn the Spain shirt at youth level, and he did so on the biggest night of all: in the final of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, at the Parc des Princes, he came off the bench and scored both extra-time goals, on 100 and 121 minutes, in the 5-3 against Thierry Henry's France, the France of Olise, Doué, Cherki and Mateta.

Nor is he a striker without shadows. His seven goals all came before 19 September, he spent a month without playing and, since his return, he has not scored again. Last season, mostly from the bench, he scored five goals in 830 minutes. But if Roberto's run is worth a ticket, Camello's, shorter in minutes and more complete in everything else, deserves at least that someone at Las Rozas looks towards Vallecas.

Louis Pasteur said that "in the field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind". The number nine Spain are missing has been preparing for a long time.

Data: API-Football, 2026/27 season up to 10/11/2026 (including Real Sociedad 1-0 Rayo on 08/11), 2026 World Cup, 2026/27 Nations League and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Big Data rating and percentiles: Al Primer Toque, against the centre-forwards of the 37 leagues we analyse, with the league coefficient. Spain squad: DAZN, 09/11/2026. Camello's sample: 791 minutes (746 in the league and 45 in the Copa del Rey), a short sample.