Cesc Fabregas last night pledged to help turn Arsenal into the Spain of the Premier League - and start adding silverware to style.
The Gunners midfielder emerged from Spain's Euro 2008 triumph as one of the stars of the tournament, showing a maturity beyond his years.
And after another season of near-misses at club level, as Arsenal's brilliant football ended up counting for nothing, the Barcelona-born 21-year-old promised to take the confidence of his success back to Arsene Wenger's squad next season.
Fabregas said: "Winning the European Championship was the happiest day of my life as a professional footballer. I've won the FA Cup, so this is my second trophy, but it's not quite the same!
"But this is also for the Arsenal fans who have been suffering a lot this year. For them, at least one player has won something. It is for them."
With Emmanuel Adebayor and Alexander Hleb set to join Mathieu Flamini in quitting the Gunners, Fabregas's vow of continued loyalty was a massive boost for Wenger and the Arsenal fans.
He added: "Next year I want to win trophies with Arsenal, this is my target. I finally made something at a young age, I never expected it to be with Spain. Now I want to do it with Arsenal.
"I haven't seen for a very long time a team playing such nice football as we did with Spain, playing the ball around and playing beautiful football and also winning a trophy as big as this one.
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"But at Arsenal we have more or less the same quality of game and players who also play this way. Hopefully the football will also get better and better for Arsenal and next season we will add the trophies that our football deserves."
Fabregas added that the thrill of beating Germany finally allowed him to put to one side the bitter memories of Arsenal's 2006 Champions League final defeat by Barcelona.
The midfielder, who joined his team-mates for an open-air parade in Madrid when Luis Aragones' squad flew back from Austria last night, said: "This was a dream come true for me, so it definitely makes up for what happened in Paris two years ago.
"Even if they say being a finalist is important, there is no way you can replace the feeling of winning. It will take a while for us to come to terms with what we have done. There were many fans who wanted us to win, but didn't believe we could do it.
"Now we have shown they should trust us in the future. We are very young and of course now we will go for the World Cup."
Fabregas's colleagues were equally overjoyed. Liverpool's Fernando Torres pledged to try to become the best player in the world after adding a European Championship Final winner to similar lone strikes at Under-16 and Under-19 level for his country.
And his Anfield team-mate Xabi Alonso, who came on for Fabregas for the final 27 minutes, believes the frontman can fulfil all those ambitions.
Alonso said: "Fernando showed he is the man who performs on the great nights.
"He can be the best in the world. He has all the qualities to get that award and he has a bright future in front of him. Winning the Euro was a massive step for him and for us.
"It's a different feeling to winning the Champions League with Liverpool but I'm just as excited and delighted to have won both trophies. Now I would like to win a league - somewhere."
Having dangled the worm, Alonso tried to wriggle out of the next question about his own future but he held out the possibility that England could, like Spain, cast aside the burden of under - achievement in the coming years.
"We've done it, so why can't England? Why not?" he asked. "Of course to reach a final and to win it is a long way, but why not England too? They could do it.
"They don't play the same kind of football as Spain. It's different. They have different players, different manager, a different kind of football. But why not?"
Back in the real world, Barcelona midfield pair Xavi and Andres Iniesta, who tormented the Germans all night, were determined to make the most of their achievement.
Xavi said: "We knew what to do when we were suffering in the game and just to ok control of the ball again. That was the key. But we could only do that because we have been a band of brothers for a long time."
