Spain’s most electric attacking duo won’t be in the starting XI when the defending European champions kick off their 2026 World Cup campaign. Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams, the two young wingers who terrorized defenses at Euro 2024, have been named to the bench for Spain’s opener against Cape Verde on June 15.
Coach Luis de la Fuente confirmed that while both players are fit, their introduction will depend entirely on how the match unfolds. The decision comes after the pair returned to full training at Spain’s base in Chattanooga, Tennessee, just days before the tournament opener, having missed a pre-tournament friendly while recovering from hamstring injuries.
Why de la Fuente is playing it safe
Both players completed full training sessions in the days leading up to the match. That’s an encouraging sign, but there’s a meaningful gap between “cleared for training” and “ready for 90 minutes of World Cup intensity.” De la Fuente appears to understand the difference.
The crypto angle: Kraken, FIFA, and fan tokens nobody is buying
While Spain prepares for its opener, the 2026 World Cup is also marking a first in the intersection of football and digital assets. Kraken was announced as FIFA’s first official crypto exchange partner around June 9, making this the first World Cup with a major cryptocurrency sponsor embedded in the tournament’s commercial framework.
A pair of Solana-based fan tokens tied to Yamal and Williams, trading under the tickers $YAMAL and $NICO, exist on-chain with market caps below $10,000 each. In English: almost nobody is trading them, and they have roughly the market presence of a lemonade stand.
The 2022 World Cup in Qatar saw brief surges in national team fan tokens on platforms like Socios. But those spikes were exactly that: brief.
With market caps below $10,000, the $YAMAL and $NICO tokens are illiquid enough that a single moderately sized trade could move the price dramatically in either direction.