Listen to the fascinating interview via the podcast.
It's hard to imagine that just six years ago the Spanish national team was in the midst of a crisis.
Then-record goalscorer Raul had just been dropped and the manager Luis Aragones was on national television being asked if he was too old to take the team to Euro 2008.
Fast forward to the present and La Roja won that tournament, before going on to retain the trophy last year, sweeping Ireland aside along the way.
And in between those triumphs, there was the small matter of a World Cup victory in South Africa.
Our European football correspondent Graham Hunter has been close to the scene of those wins and charted Spain's rise in his new book Spain: the inside story of La Roja's historic treble.
Tonight he joined us on the show to provide some of the less well known insights and anecdotes from that tome.
Graham told Joe Molloy about the team talks, the surprisingly muted dressing room celebrations and the moment when he and Barcelona's Gerard Pique scoured Johannesburg's Soccer City Stadium in search of goal nets after the World Cup win.
But first he started off with the man who proved crucial in implanting the embryo for the era of success.
"I probably had a one-dimensional view of Luis Aragones up to 2008," said Hunter, citing his eccentric nature and the unacceptable language used by the former Spain coach when evoking Thierry Henry in an attempt to motivate Jose Reyes.
"And then meeting him and researching him, you find out that this is an odd, eccentric, anarchic, funny, generous man whose fought off fairly serious mental health difficulties at several stages of his life - some of which have cost him employment," explained Graham who revealed that during the build up to the Euro 2008 final against Germany, Aragones kept calling Michael Ballack "Wallace" which bemused his players.
"When I speak to the players who were at all three tournaments, irrespective of how much affection and respect they have for Del Bosque, the guy that still makes them reverent with awe is Aragones - partly because of the situation he was in when the nation seemed wholly against him and the [tiki taka] style of play.
"He was booed all the way from Windsor Park after the defeat to Northern Ireland right to the last week before Euro 2008. The country and media didn't have faith but the players already knew he was right and he almost bullied them into believing that they were the best team in the world."
Hunter also discussed how Spain's work at youth level and the way in which the federation identify the 55 best U14 and U15 players every summer (5 players per position) and get them together regularly, build bonds and a philosophy.
"The national association select those 55 excellent kids from all around the regions in Spain using completely unpaid scouts who have talent and evidently get it right. These guys work on a voluntary basis and are instructed by the federation about the type of players who fit the spectrum of what the federation wants and it's not about height but intelligence, dribbling skills and technique."
Spain's clubs are forced to release these players to the national federation which would never happen in the Premier League and that has forged a club structure at international level.
Indeed Fernando Torres revealed that those bonds of friendship cultivated from a young age has been the glue that has blended players from different regions together.
The team faces many challenges to retain the World Cup in 2014 and Graham looked ahead to the pitfalls they could face which you can listen to in the podcast of the interview.
Iker Casillas and Xavi's friendship was built in the Spain's youth teams despite being based on opposite ends of the El Clasico divide
