CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
PLUS ULTRA! Spain has won the 2026 World Cup in extra-time against a 10-man Argentina, finishing with a 0-1 scoreline in the New Jersey final.
It was a very clunky, cruel and torturously still final showdown between the two football heavyweights - as the world watched on for nearly two hours of stereotypically dry football.
And then suddenly it was over. After a frustratingly goalless 90 minutes, Ferran Torres came off the bench to score the winner - in turn delivering Spain their second men's World Cup title.
Nearly 50 million Spanish are now in the streets celebrating this rare moment of national euphoria.
However, it seems that this victory is not just for the people of the Iberian subcontinent.
In the last two hours, it can be confirmed that Spain now has 117 million new passport holders - as the Filipino diaspora suddenly look back on 350 years of colonisation with rose-coloured glasses.
17,700 kilometres south of Spain, in the main street of Blacktown in Sydney's Western Suburbs, a 2nd generation Filipino-Australian man is now also Spanish.
Enrique Rodríguez says bro just look at his last name. In fact, look at his first name.
The 45-year-old pub chef is now wearing a 2010 Spanish football jersey, and is demanding that everyone acknowledge his family's rich Southern European ancestry.
This phenomena is now taking place in every Filipino enclave in the world, from Hawaii to Los Angeles - to Queensland and Blacktown
Usually reserved for the upper classes of Manila, the Filipino urge to be mistaken for Spanish becomes universal in the event of a world cup victory.
Unbeknownst to the European Union, the population of Spain has now quadrupled.
"We have the same alphabet as them" says Enrique.
However, like the rest of his newly Spanish community of global Filipinos, Enrique has no interest in discussing how - just one month ago - they were celebrating Filipino Independence Day on June 12th, commemorating the 1898 struggle of revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo, who proclaimed the country's sovereignty from Spanish colonial rule after centuries of oppression.
That is not relevant to today's celebrations of footballing supremacy.
"Vamos, España!" says Enrique.
