Sergio Camello on ending Spain’s 32-year wait for football gold: "I believed it so much, I made it happen"

When Sergio Camello went through on goal at the Parc des Princes, he knew his moment of destiny had arrived.

The Paris 2024 men’s football gold medal match had gone to extra time, after hosts France had come from behind to level the game with Spain at 3-3 on a warm Parisian afternoon.

In a Spanish squad stacked with talent, from FC Barcelona to the senior men’s European Championship-winning team, it was the self-proclaimed “kid from the block” from Madrid who put his name up in lights.

“I'm still processing it after all this time,” Camello tells Olympics.com in Spanish of his gold medal moment. “I didn't quite believe it, but in football, as in life, it's all about being in the right place at the right time, being ready for when it's your turn.”

The striker scored two goals in extra time to seal a stunning 5-3 victory at the home of French giants Paris Saint-Germain. It was Spain’s first Olympic football gold since their home Games of Barcelona 1992.

“Both the coaching staff and the players made me believe that I was going to be the one to win it for Spain,” Camello beams. “When you hear that so much and they're repeating it to you every day, it sparks something in you. You say to yourself, ‘You're good, you can do it’.

“I think I believed it so much that I made it happen. Those two goals changed a lot in me; it seems that day I was touched with a wand to be the protagonist.”

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