The explosive emergence of Dean Huijsen as a Spain international should make the rest of the world's leading national teams lose their temper and roar at the heavens in abject and furious frustration.
La Roja have been semifinalists or winners in six of their last eight senior tournaments (European Championships, FIFA World Cup, UEFA Nations League and the Olympics), a towering record powered by what already felt like an endless production line of skinny, small, young kids who break into the team, instantly playing with poise, intelligence, exquisite technique and, in some cases, boasting the threat of becoming all-time talents. At their debuts: Pedri (18 years, 6 months) Gavi (17-2) Pau Cubarsí (17-2) Lamine Yamal (16-1) stand out most, but think too of Fermín López, a European and Olympic champion aged 21 as well as Nico Williams making his debut at 20, now a Euro 2024 winning-star.
Now there's Huijsen, a thrilling, gifted 19-year-old, 6-foot-6 ball-playing central defender who was born in Amsterdam -- a runner-up in at the 2022 Euro Under-17 tournament with the Netherlands -- and opted to play for Spain the instant he was granted Spanish citizenship. He made his debut during this break, having been called up as emergency cover from La Roja's U21 squad last week, and -- you guessed it -- played his first senior international match in Rotterdam against the country of his birth.
Bienvenido a España, Señor Huijsen (it's pronounced Houssen).
Not only that, but the centre half was then selected to start in the Nations League quarterfinal second leg on Sunday and was an absolute star in Spain's dramatic elimination of Ronald Koeman's Oranje thanks to a penalty shoot-out following one of the great modern international ties, one that finished 5-5 on aggregate.
(If you've not already seen Huijsen's laser-guided 50-metre pass into the sprinting path of Yamal to make it 3-2 Spain, then go seek it out on the internet. But have a damp cloth to cool your forehead handy and somewhere to kneel down in admiration. It's epic.)
This may seem vulgar, but the next thing that happens won't be a flood of congratulatory telegrams or mobile phone messages to Andoni Iraola, the Bournemouth coach, for sanctioning Huijsen's €18 million transfer from Juventus last summer on a six-year deal -- nor to Frances Hernández who, on behalf of his ex-employers, the Spanish FA, went to meet the player and his family in Italy to assure Huijsen that La Roja wanted him, and returned home to Madrid with assurances from the kid that he, too, wanted the switch to happen.
No, the next thing is an absolute deluge of Europe's elite clubs queuing up to sign him this summer, with Real Madrid reportedly ahead in the pecking order. There are good reasons for that beyond Huijsen's abundant talent, composure, and Spanish language skills: he has a decent buyout fee (€60m) in his Bournemouth contact, imposing height, crisp passing skills, good goal record and balanced, mature personality.
Out of all Europe's top-table clubs, Juventus were first to spot -- back in 2020-21 -- that this was a kid with a hugely special future. Madrid and two other LaLiga big names were beaten to the signing, which now seems ludicrous given the fact that Bournemouth's latest international star grew up on Spain's Costa Del Sol, hence his quite clear Andalusian accent and word-perfect Spanish.
A local/Malaga legend as a player and now one of their youth team coaches, "Juanito" Jesús Gutiérrez says: "Real Madrid, Barcelona, Villarreal... they all wanted Dean in 2021. I reckon that in quite a few seasons he was with our youth teams he'd be scoring seven or eight goals from central defence and there aren't many centre-halves capable of that: only people like Sergio Ramos or Fernando Hierro."
That's the key to Huijsen being persuaded that he needed to attain his Spanish passport and then opt for the European champions when it came to his international playing future.
The Huijsen family moved to Marbella when Dean was five, he played locally from a very young age, was picked up by Malaga when he was 10 and, there, he shot through the ranks. Right now he's a physical duplicate for Peter Crouch -- startlingly tall and slim, elegant on the ball and filled with confidence -- and back then Huijsen too was a striker. But Malaga moved him to centre-back and not too long after turning 15, he was training with their first team and looking in his element.
In other words: a budding phenomenon.
When it was clear that cash-strapped Malaga were going to need to let their hidden gem go, Madrid invited his dad, Danny, to their Valdebebas training set-up and laid out a vision for the younger Huijsen. Between them, father and son decided that Juve's proposition meant quicker development, more senior football at an earlier age and that's why the Italian giants were chosen.
They said "No, gracias" to Madrid, but certainly didn't say "No, not ever!" An important marker had been set down by Los Blancos.
One fascinating thing about the last few days was that Luis De La Fuente -- Spain's coach who's still only lost one competitive match since taking over in 2022 -- twice opted for Huijsen instead of Real Madrid's Raúl Asencio when it came to defeating the Dutch.
Craig Burley reacts to Lamine Yamal's performance for Spain vs. the Netherlands.
Asencio has only broken through to the Madrid first team this season but his form, his composure, his athleticism, his tackling and even his two assists have been stellar: he genuinely looks like a Sergio Ramos prototype. However, he's 22 -- underlining that when the Huijsen family chose Juve ahead of Madrid four years ago, their instinct that youth team guys break through more slowly for Los Blancos was correct.
When Cubarsí's ankle injury forced him off in the first half in Rotterdam, it wasn't Asencio that De La Fuente selected, but Huijsen. The Oranje crowd at De Kuip loudly and aggressively gave him the bird every time he came near the ball -- it bounced off him.
Then, on Sunday, Huijsen started (Asencio unused on the bench) and strolled through the game with little points of note like good aerial duels, good pace, calm on the ball, getting rid of possession when under unsustainable pressure, that sumptuous assist for Yamal -- plus a "wise-beyond-his-years" moment.
I was reporting at Mestalla and spotted Yamal sprinting over to De La Fuente immediately after the first seconds of extra-time. What became clear was he was warning his coach that Óscar Mingueza had felt a muscle twinge, wanted to be taken off immediately and that urgent action was needed.
De La Fuente frantically signalled to Pedro Porro to get ready and the Tottenham Hotspur full-back did so. But play raged on, with Mingueza increasingly hobbling and hugely vulnerable to being targeted by the Netherlands' speed down their left flank.
It was 19-year-old debutant Huijsen who took matters into his own hands, sprinting far out of position and committing a mild, unbookable foul in mid-pitch, barging over Memphis Depay, so that play could be stopped and Porro brought on. It was the kind of thing a streetwise, well-seasoned 26-year-old would have done, but this was a teenager on his full debut -- one of only five Spain players who started the match and then played all 120 minutes.
Other details you need to know about this bright young kid: while he's predominantly right-footed (see: his assist pass and when he takes penalties), he's played almost exclusively at left centre-back for Bournemouth. The joys of being ambidextrous!
He's also so Spanish that he imports snacks from the supermarket Mercadona to England just to remind him of home, while he and his dad, who was a professional player in Netherlands, chat football obsessively when they are together. "He was a striker and I've inherited his nose for goal," Huijsen Jr said this week.
Back in 2021 when a big decision -- Madrid or Juve -- needed to be made, Dean's father told him that learning a new language and facing the challenge of Italian football would be better for him. The player, himself, now admits: "[Leonardo] Bonucci was there, [Giorgio] Chiellini, [Andrea] Barzagli ... and I learned so much from them. Italy is a culture very close to Spain, but I learned a new language and over there they concentrate heavily on the art of defending: how to hold the line, how to play zonally, how to challenge in the penalty area, when to turn, when to press.
"I aimed to become a more complete player, and I think it was a big help."
For the clubs who will now try to tempt Huijsen away from Bournemouth after just one season, they must contest with the fact that he's loved the Premier League ("It's fast, there's a mega-match every weekend, it teaches you to play vertically do so quickly") and that it was Tiago Pinto, Bournemouth's current president of football operations who both persuaded Huijsen to go to AS Roma on loan and then to join Iraola's outfit. There's loyalty and trust there. However, his appearances for Spain over the past few days confirmed that this lanky, languid and lovely footballer is already in the elite bracket.
Let the charge for his services begin when the market opens. Good luck retaining him, Bournemouth.