The degree scroll World Champion and the style imposed by the Spanish national soccer team have notably reinforced the emotional factors associated with the external perception of the 'Spain' brand. In this way, the soccer success has caused the country to improve its image and appear linked to values such as spectacular, acclaimed, impressive, talent, exciting or wonderful. This has been highlighted in a study by the Center for Media, Reputation and Intangibles (MRI) of the University of Navarra, which has analyzed more than 300,000 news items in the written press in English in which Spain is mentioned.

This revaluation of the 'Spain' brand will have positive economic effects especially in those sectors where the emotional component is more important. "It will mainly affect areas such as culture, the arts and fashion. Therefore, it is likely to increase the attractiveness of Spain as a tourist destination," explains Francesc Pujol, author of the study. According to him, it will also increase the international prestige of the Spanish Football League.

However, 'Spain' has not been altered by the sporting triumph in rational and responsible factors such as innovation, efficiency, coherence, commitment or leadership. For this reason, the change in perception of the European country may be lost once the journalists' interest passes. However, as Professor Pujol points out, "some positive and lasting effects can be expected due to the massive, concentrated and global media impact of the World Cup, which has led to strong identification between the national team and the 'Spain' brand". In addition, the fact that it is a team sport and that the degree scroll will remain in force for four years will continue to feed the positive association in the medium term deadline.

The Center for Media, Reputation and Intangibles of the University of Navarra has developed its own methodology for analyzing brand reputation through the analysis of news content in the written press. It can be applied to companies and individuals as well as to cities and countries, as in this case it has been done with the Spain brand.

Iniesta, hero and most mediatized footballer of the World Cup

report has also analyzed the media value of the World Cup players. From agreement with the results, Andrés Iniesta, scorer of the only goal of the final, has starred in all the chronicles and occupies the first place with 18.2 points of media value. In second and third place, respectively, are the Dutch Wesley Sneijder, with 16.9 points, and Arjen Robben, with 15.9. Three other players from 'La Roja' make up the list of the 10 most media-valuable players: David Villa, in fourth place; Iker Casillas, in seventh place; and Xavi, in tenth place.

Thus, the national team achieves another victory and is proclaimed as the most mediatized team of the World Cup with a total of 20.8% of the news of the tournament. Germany is in second place, with 14.8%, and finalists Holland is in third place place, with 14.3%.

In the chapter on coaches, the most media-worthy was Argentina's Diego Armando Maradona, with 6.4 media value points, followed by Spain's Vicente del Bosque, with 5.4, and Germany's Joachim Löw, with 2.9.

Finally, it is once again confirmed that the referees with the most media attention are those linked to controversies. Specifically, England's Howard Webb, who refereed the final and who scored 8.2 points in terms of media impact, took first place. Behind him is Uruguay's Jorge Larrionda, with 4.1 points and in charge of refereeing the controversial quarter-final match between England and Germany, with the clear disallowed goal to Lampard. And the third classified is the Italian Roberto Rosetti, with 3.3 points of media impact, who refereed the quarter-final match between Argentina and Mexico and in which he awarded an offside goal to the Argentinean Tevez. Undiano Mallenco, the only Spanish representative in this sector, who refereed three matches, occupies the thirteenth position with 0.5 points.