2010 FIFA World Cup Final Preview: Pinnacle of Spain's Golden Age

Tennis player Rafael Nadal won Wimbledon a few days ago, meaning he has regained his spot as world number one in the ATP rankings, and has now gained eight career grand slam titles at the age of just 24, with a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics to go along with those achievements.

Cyclist Alberto Contador won the Tour de France in 2007 and again in 2009. He goes into cycling's greatest race this year as the favourite, following in the footsteps of Carlos Sastre, who was Tour de France champion in 2008.

Formula One driver Fernando Alonso has won two world drivers' championships in 2005 and 2006, and has a decent chance this year with Ferrari.

In team sports, Spain won their first ever gold medal in basketball in 2004. Then they won at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, preceding their success at the 2009 Basketball Eurocup.

Rafael "The Matador" Nadal not only is a world-beater in tennis in singles, but also as part of a team. Spain emerged as victors in the 2008 Davis Cup, courtesy of fellow high profile tennis stars Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez, David Ferrer, Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, etc.

Then there is the crown jewel of Spain's sporting infrastructure; the mens' national football team, La Furia Roja, La Selección Española, or simply La Roja, i.e the team that won the European Championships in 2008.

It's fair to say that currently, Spain is experiencing something of a Golden Age in sports. A fact the Spanish media will have most certainly made everyone aware of if they haven't already.

Spain is now on the verge of witnessing the most remarkable event in its sporting, and perhaps social, history.

As everybody will unassailably know if they haven't been living in a cave or North Korea for the past month, Spain are in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final where they will take on the Netherlands.

It is the most watched single sporting event in the world, with viewing figures globally for the final in 2006 peaking at 715.1 million according to FIFA.

To put it into perspective, that's over 10 percent of everybody on earth watching 22 men kick a ball around a field of grass.

Of course, double or triple that number could be informed about the match or at least know what the result was.

It just shows how big of an achievement it is for Spain. Before this tournament they'd never even reached the semifinals. This was despite having world football superstars like Alfredo Di Stefano, Raul, Fernando Hierro, Andoni Zubizarreta, Jose Antonio Camacho, Fernando Morientes, etc.

This potential peak in the Golden Age for Spanish sport marks the nation's rapid rise to world power, both economically and now in sporting terms following the downfall of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

The country's soccernomics has now reached the stage where Spain has one of the highest numbers of UEFA Pro License-standard coaches in Europe, and indeed the world.

Spain's also the home of the two most richest and successful football clubs in world football, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, with the two teams contributing 12 players to the Spanish squad, not including star striker David Villa, who recently moved from Valencia CF for €40 million.

The country's top professional league, commonly known as La Liga , is one of the most popular in the world, with an average league attendance per match of 29,029. This is the eighth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world, and the third highest of any professional football league, says Wikipedia.

And according to the league coefficient by Europe's football governing body, UEFA, to determine the country's footballing strength based on European performances, La Liga is ranked second overall.

65 percent of Spaniards are in the starting line-ups week in week out for teams in the country's top-flight, compared to just 57 percent in Italy and Serie A and a shocking 33 percent in England and the Premier League.

It shows how Spain has risen from the ashes of perennial under-achievers to become a football force capable of beating the world, which in part is due to Franco's dictatorship downfall and the rise of a stronger economy able to invest more in sport and produce world-beaters across the spectrum.

Of course, that's not linked to the number of foreigners in the Spanish game or anything of the sort, but it explains why interest in Spanish football has grown domestically and internationally, and why Spanish clubs are at the forefront of world football, with the facilities to produce top quality talent and give them the chance to shine on club football's biggest stage.

Spain has become richer since Franco died. That economic Golden Age could well be about to fully become a true sporting Golden Age.

And should La Furia Roja be successful and win the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, this divided nation might even witness a social Golden Age also; people uniting all throughout Spain as one country.

Should Spain beat the Netherlands, will members from El País Vasco (the Basque Country), Andalucía (Andalusia), Cataluña (Catalonia) and Galicia, who all consider themselves as different nationalities and not part of Spain, unite as one and bask in the glory of Spain's remarkable achievement?