Torres cap sparks row as Spanish MP pushes false vulture fund claim
Ferran Torres's "Make Spain Great Again" cap and a false accusation from a left-wing MP that his company is a housing speculator have turned Spain's World Cup victory into a flashpoint for the country's political and economic debates.
Spain's 2026 World Cup victory over Argentina has been overshadowed by a political storm surrounding match-winner Ferran Torres. After scoring the decisive 106th-minute goal in New York/New Jersey, the striker appeared at the Madrid victory parade wearing a red cap reading "Make Spain Great Again", a direct adaptation of Donald Trump's campaign slogan.
The garment has sparked fierce debate across Spanish public life. Because the phrase has previously been used by the right-wing party Vox, commentators have interpreted the gesture variously as a harmless joke, an ironic nod to the former US president, or a deliberate provocation directed at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Torres has declined to clarify his intentions following the team's meetings with King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Sánchez.
The political fallout quickly escalated from symbolic to substantive. Alberto Ibáñez, an MP for the left-wing coalition Compromís–Sumar, seized on the controversy to attack Torres's business interests, wrongly labelling the player's company a "vulture fund".
Ibáñez based his claim on a Forbes report stating Torres holds "20 properties strategically spread between the Valencia region and Catalonia". He alleged that Eleven Future Invest, Torres's company, had bought "20 homes in Valencia" to speculate on the housing market and called for legal reforms to block such funds.
However, sources close to the footballer confirmed to media that these claims are false. Eleven Future Invest's primary holding is a commercial building next to Valencia's Mestalla stadium, containing 50 offices leased to businesses. Torres personally owns four residential properties—a home in Barcelona, two in Valencia, and a holiday house—along with a single plot of land for future development.
The episode highlights the intense sensitivity of Spain's housing market, where soaring prices have made real estate speculation a central political battleground. The rapid spread of the MP's unsubstantiated claims, and the conflation of a sports star's commercial real estate portfolio with the predatory practices of actual vulture funds, illustrates how charged the economic debate has become.
The diplomatic friction extended beyond Spain's borders. Teammate Marc Cucurella faced criticism in the Argentine press for playing the track 'Malbec' by Argentine artists Duki and Bizarrap during the Cibeles celebrations. Daily TyC Sports described the song choice as a "mockery" of the defeated Argentine side.
