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Football is still the sport that interests the majority of the Spanish population

The club football, commonly known as football or football , is the most popular sport in Spain, followed by basketball and tennis. Football is a widespread passion in Spain. Football is the sport with the most registered players (a total of 942,674, including 898,551 men and 44,123 women) and the most registered clubs (20,588 total) among all Spanish sports federations, according to the Spanish Sports Administration in 2016.

In a survey of the sports habits of the Spanish population in 2010, football was the second most popular recreational sport among the population (17.9%). 75.9% of people said they had ever bought tickets to a football match. In addition, a total of 67.3% of people said they all, almost all, saw many or some of the televised football matches. In another survey conducted in 2014, football practice dropped to 14% of the population and was overtaken by other sports such as running, cycling and swimming for recreation. In this survey, however, football was still the sport that interests the majority of the Spanish population (48%). 67% of the population said they were fans or sympathetic to a particular club. In addition, 74.9% said they watched the televised games of their favorite teams whenever possible. and 42.4% had flags, badges or items from their favorite teams. Data from this survey confirmed the widespread belief that most Spaniards are supporters of Real Madrid (32.4%) or FC Barcelona (24.7%) and that the other teams have fewer supporters nationwide, such as Atlético de Madrid (16, 1%), Valencia CF (3.5%), Athletic Bilbao (3.3%) or Sevilla FC (3.2%).

A link between football, politics, identity and attitude to regionalism in Spain has also been reported.

The Spanish team is commonly known among fans as "La Furia Roja", which means "Red Fury" in Spanish. However, there are other unofficial nicknames related to the Spanish national team.

The other most common nickname known to fans is "Los Toros" (fighting bulls), since the Spanish bull is one of the most famous national treasures of Spain and is often used to define Spanish culture and is often portrayed by Spanish followers alike. Because of this cultural heritage, the Spanish football team is sometimes called bulls.

The Spanish team also received other nicknames, mainly "Toreros" or "Matador". Both meanings are bullfighters in Spanish to describe the passionate and romantic nature of the football game.

With 167 appearances since 2000, Iker Casillas holds next to Sergio Ramos the record for most of the missions of the Spanish team. He is one of thirteen Spanish players who have played 100 internationals. Xavi is second and has played between 2000 and 2014 133 games.

David Villa is Spain's top scorer with 59 goals since 2005. During this time he played 98 times for Spain. Raúl González is the second-highest scorer, scoring 44 goals in 102 games between 1996 and 2006.

Between November 2006 and June 2009 Spain lost 35 consecutive games without defeat before losing to the United States in the Confederations Cup, a record shared with Brazil football. At the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Spain became the first European national team to win the World Cup Trophy outside of Europe. In addition to Brazil, Germany football and Argentina football, Spain is one of four national teams that have won the FIFA World Cup outside their home continent.

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