Spanish people love sport. Football is a national favourite: it features on prime time television and is given a lot of media coverage. Footballers are treated as celebrities and heroes. Top league soccer teams include Barcelona, which heads the table, Real Madrid, and Atlético de Madrid. The Spanish national team is also well respected and known all over the world.

Golf is very popular. Spain has nearly 200 courses. Most of these are located around the Mediterranean coast and are as busy with tourists as with locals.

Fishing is a common sport for many Spanish people because Spain has 75,000km of rivers where you can find trout, salmon and pike. Even the royal fish, sturgeon, can be caught in some areas. Sea fishing has become more widespread, and the fish caught from each coast differ greatly. You can find anything from mullets to sharks.

Basque handball is a hard-hitting ball-game played in the Basque country. It is an age-old sport which has become integral to Basque culture. There are a variety of ways of playing it. The ball is either hit with the hand or a range of bats or paddles.

One of Spain’s most famous sportsmen is Miguel Indurain, the cyclist from Navarre. He has won the Tour de France an amazing five times in a row – a world record.