The tarmac photograph told the story: Joan Capdevila, the left-back who started every minute of Spain’s 2010 World Cup triumph, grinned alongside former teammate Marcos Senna as they prepared to board a flight to New York. After a week of bureaucratic limbo, the electronic travel authorisation (ESTA) that had threatened to keep him from the 2026 final was restored, allowing the pair to make last-minute plans to cheer on a Spanish side chasing a second star.

Capdevila’s ordeal began on Friday when his ESTA application was rejected, apparently because of an exhibition match he played in Tehran a decade ago. Spanish media quoted the player telling radio network Cadena Cope that the 2016 La Liga all-star game in Iran had triggered the US travel screening system. The same fixture also featured Senna, though the Brazilian-born midfielder, now a Spanish citizen, did not encounter similar obstacles. With the MetLife Stadium final just days away, Capdevila turned to social media, addressing his message directly to the US president. “I need help, Donald Trump,” he posted on X. “They just told me I can’t travel to the final with my children because my ESTA has been denied.” The plea, layered with the frustration of a father and a champion, rippled across international football communities.

The intervention that followed came from an unexpected corner. José Andrés, the Spanish-born chef whose World Central Kitchen operates in disaster zones worldwide and who is a well-known figure in American public life, called publicly on Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and FIFA. “Can you help @capde11, a world champion, get to the final?” he wrote. The appeal, amplified by outlets from Madrid to Buenos Aires, appeared to accelerate a review. By Sunday, the Spanish International Athletes’ Association posted the photo of Capdevila and Senna on the runway, with the caption “heading for the second star.”

Iranian coverage recalled the 2016 match in Tehran as a routine exhibition, while Brazilian reports noted Senna’s dual-national journey from São Paulo to Villarreal and the Spanish national team. Viewed from European capitals, the episode highlighted the unpredictable crosscurrents that can entangle even celebrated sports figures when visa-waiver databases intersect with decade-old travel histories. Capdevila, now 48, will take his seat at the final not as a player but as a fan, seven years after his last professional appearance. His presence completes a circle: a defender who held the left flank in Johannesburg, now a spectator in New Jersey, his children by his side for a contest set to define a new generation of Spanish football.