NFL hosting game in Spain in 2025

Two months ago, the NFL announced that it plans to play a regular season game in Sao Paolo, Brazil in 2024. On Monday, the league said that it will be the season-opening game, one played by the Philadelphia Eagles.

England has been a regular destination for the league while Germany and Mexico have also hosted games in recent years. The Buffalo Bills played several games in Toronto in the 2010s as rampant talk of their potential relocation to Canada swirled around them due to the aging of Highmark Stadium. (The Bills are building a new venue and remaining in Buffalo.)

The NFL has been committed to expanding its international footprint for years. Two years ago, it launched the Global Markets Program, which allowed individual franchises to select countries outside of the U.S. and build fan engagement and sponsorship programs. As of last May, 21 teams selected 14 different international markets, and it would be safe to assume that every team in the league will participate at some point. No team has selected Spain as of yet.

Spain is not a totally new territory for the NFL or American football, although Madrid itself is. The Barcelona Dragons played in different incarnations of the World League of American Football and NFL Europe from 1991 until 2003. That team played in the World Bowl four times, winning just once in 1997.