The 36-year-old midfielder was part of the squad for the tournament and he’ll never forget their 1-0 extra time victory over the Netherlands.

Discussing his memories of Andreas Iniesta scoring the winning goal, he told FourFourTwo magazine: “When he scored, those on the pitch and those of us on the bench all ran the fastest 100 metres in history, beating Usain Bolt’s record!

“It was total ecstasy.

“We were shouting in that corner of the pitch, hugging each other, but all around us you could hear silence because we were in the Dutch fans’ area.

“Between the goal and the end of the game, I asked the ball boy to give me a ball as a souvenir.

“He told me he couldn’t give it to me as the game wasn’t over yet, but I took it out of his hands and tucked it under my shirt. Now I have it at home.”

Juan recalled being like a “zombie” by the time he’d finished celebrating the historic win.

Asked how it felt to be a world champion, he said: “One word comes to mind: history.

“Spain had never won a World Cup before and we weren’t the favourites, so we didn’t have the pressure of other teams. Winning it was the ultimate expression of happiness. It was an explosion of feelings.

“I remember that after Howard Webb signalled the end of the game, Pepe Reina said, ‘What a mess we’ve made.’ That was a good summary.

“It was a 48-hour day after that – first in South Africa, then in Madrid, and later for each of us in our home towns.

“Nobody slept on the plane. Pepe was the king of the party, with drinks in his hand and a loudspeaker.

“In Madrid we had the official visit to the royal family and the official dinner.

“Those of us who made it to the second night were zombies.”