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Graham Hunter, Spain writer
It’s time to introduce you to the man with the most insolent and provocative hairstyle in the world of football.
His name is Dani Olmo and he’s a player of devastating, catalytic creative impact for both Barcelona and Spain. I’ll get back to his tonsorial taunting in just a second but, first, the context.
Olmo seems to carry a Bermuda Triangle effect around him on soccer pitches. Every opponent knows he’s the jack-in-the-box creative threat who’ll spring their defensive traps, who’ll open up an apparently opportunity-free midfield and then do rapier damage where others see nothing but dead-ends, impenetrable walls and over-congestion.
Every opposition coach wants his players to shut Olmo down. To mark him more tightly than a mollusc on a rock. Zero creative space. Yet up he pops. Perpetually.
Olmo’s initial task-in-hand, given he possesses vision, daring, fine technique plus laser-guided shooting and passing, is to carve out free space for himself. Given that he’s almost always the opposition team’s “most wanted,” “be-on-the-lookout-for” player that shouldn’t be easy: sometimes not even possible. Yet, I stress … up he pops.
The Bermuda Triangle thing is that he’s gliding along, in plain sight, amidst a clutch of players then, suddenly, it would appear, none of the rival midfielders or defenders can see him at all. He vanishes.
And then he promptly re-appears in a lovely patch of green space — unmarked, unobserved, unmolested.
Seconds later, a teammate will slide a simple pass into Olmo’s territory and, with an agile flip of his body direction, or by letting he ball roll in front of him — without a controlling touch — the 26-year-old Croatia-educated Catalan will unleash a killer-pass or shot.
Just like he did for Spain’s winning goal against Denmark last Friday — the one which guaranteed the Nations League holders will have second-leg home advantage in next March’s playoff to reach the 2025 semis and, potentially, become the first country to retain that trophy.
The haircut? The tonsorial taunting? I’ll explain.
Olmo, just in case you haven’t seen him lately, dyed his hair peroxide blond a few months ago — as if to say to opposition markers on the pitch: ‘Look, look … HERE I AM! Can’t you see me? Really?!?’
From Jean Harlow via Marilyn Monroe or, I feel obliged to mention, Rutger Hauer as the replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner, the peroxide blonde look across generations has always screamed: ‘LOOK AT ME … notice me! I want your attention!!’
Yet it’s still the case that Olmo’s ingenuity, daring, and relentless pacing around the most dangerous third of the pitch regularly combine to leave him unattended, in big free space and ready to do the most malicious damage to those who are supposed to be extinguishing his threat. It really must drive opposition coaches mad.
I rest my case on the taunting nature of his hair-colour choice and, honestly, you have to love him for his “I’m going to leave clues … catch me if you can!” insolence.
His record, since turning his head into a shimmering warning sign for would-be spoilsport rivals has been pretty sensational.
For Barcelona, he’s scored five times in six matches — a goal every 63 minutes. For Spain, his three goals and three assists in the last six months amount to a goal contribution every 95 minutes: and, I believe, crucially, he did not play in the only matches Spain have lost (Colombia and Scotland) since Luis De la Fuente took over La Roja nearly 30 matches ago.
Within those Spain stats are moments of ecstasy which demonstrate his huge importance.
Olmo was recovering from injury when the European Championship started. But, from his first appearance against Albania, he provided the winning goal assist.
Then, once back in the team following Toni Kroos’ ruinous and vindictive challenge that forced Pedri out of the tournament, Olmo scored the quarterfinal opener against Germany and made the last-minute winner for Mikel Merino.
In the semifinal, defeating France, he was the one who cracked home Spain’s winner — their second goal in four blistering minutes having gone 1-0 down and looked like they were in trouble.
By the final, against England, it was Olmo’s run and dummy that fatally exposed Kyle Walker and allowed Nico Williams to put Spain one-nil up. Then, late on, Olmo was in that perennial Bermuda Triangle of green space he creates, unmarked, to make the pass down the middle towards Mikel Oyarzabal, whose one-two pass with Marc Cucurella led to the winning goal. Olmo to the rescue, always.
There was another key in the final, but because the modern way is to think only about the goals and the creative spectacle many outside Spain and England will already have forgotten it. To explain it properly, it’s worth going back to the fact that Olmo left his native Barcelona to move to Zagreb when he was 16 and underwent a competitive indoctrination: He had it drilled into him that winning is everything. And that to win, you always need to want it more than the enemy. And then you go out and prove that fact.
Back in 2022 when I asked him whether it had taken extraordinary maturity to choose to leave Barcelona’s academy as a teenager and move to Croatia, Olmo told me: “I can imagine that’s what those who don’t know me, or my story, believe.
“But I had clarity. I was certain this would be a good path for me, a one-of-a-kind opportunity, and a project no other team had offered me.”
Then, early at the Euros, he expanded on the appreciation for what life in Croatia (six years at Dinamo Zagreb, nine trophies) imbued in him.
“Something I learned from the Croatian mentality is to never give up and to know that, until the referee blows his whistle, there’s always still a chance to win,” he said.
“It’s in those final minutes of pressure that I believe the most in myself.”
So it was in the 90th minute of that glorious final in Berlin, when Marc Guéhi headed towards what seemed like an open goal for what also seemed sure to be the equaliser, it was Olmo who appeared, as if from nowhere, to leap up and head the ball off the goal-line.
His convulsive, joyous, defiant reaction, immediately after Declan Rice headed the rebound over the bar was probably as ecstatic as any celebration Olmo has given after scoring a goal — that’s how important the moment was.
And he was ready. Again, Olmo’s explained some of these ideas to me in depth. He is a big believer in the power of his mind, and being prepared for any high stress, but high-potential, situation which football might throw at him.
“It always helps to visualise beforehand so that when you’re on the pitch you’re familiar with situations,” he said.
“Because you’ve already lived them, you’ve already seen them before, in your mind’s eye, so when a threat or opportunity actually arrives on the pitch you already know what to do.
“Of course, in the game it’s another world, it’s different, but if you’ve ‘seen’ it before it all helps.”
This guy is so good, so supernatural at finding space, and then so punishing, ruthless and thrilling in what he does with that freedom that I really believe he transcends club or international team loyalties.
Go out of your way to find him. Watch him. Delight in his technique his determination, his perpetual ability to instantly create calm and intelligence out of chaos and madness.
Olmo is on your screens every week — do not, on any account, miss an opportunity to watch him.
Him and his insolent hairstyle.