Two of Spain's World Cup winners came home to a hero's welcome this week — and left with their body weight in tomatoes.

Fabián Ruiz and Gavi, both midfielders in Spain's 2026 World Cup-winning squad, returned to their hometown of Los Palacios y Villafranca on Wednesday for an official reception at the town hall. They wore their gold medals. Then they stepped onto a pair of weighing scales.

Fabián Ruiz, who plays his club football for Paris Saint-Germain, weighed in at 85kg. Gavi, who plays for Barcelona, registered 68.5kg. Those numbers determined exactly how many tomatoes each player received — the town's distinctive way of celebrating its champions. The tomatoes are a typical local product of Los Palacios, a town south of Seville with fewer than 40,000 residents (BBC Sport).

The tradition is not new. Jesús Navas — a former Manchester City forward and the first player from Los Palacios to win a World Cup, back in 2010 — was honoured the same way. Navas and Fabián Ruiz also received tomatoes after Spain won Euro 2024. Local officials say the tomato-giving "has become a hallmark of the municipality for honouring its great athletes," according to a town council statement cited by the BBC (BBC Sport).

The town is making the celebrations permanent. Football fields in Los Palacios will be renamed after Fabián Ruiz — full name Fabián Ruiz Peña — and Gavi, whose legal name is Pablo Páez Gavira. The town hall will also promote the construction of a monument dedicated to all three World Cup champions from the municipality: Navas, Fabián Ruiz, and Gavi (Los Palacios town council).

The sports pavilion in town already bears Navas's name. Soon, the pitches will carry the names of the next generation.

What makes this stand out is the scale of it. A town of under 40,000 people has produced three World Cup-winning footballers. Two of them — Fabián Ruiz, 30 in April, and Gavi, 22 in August — were central figures in Spain's latest triumph. Fabián Ruiz, a former Real Betis player who moved to Napoli and then PSG, has become one of the most complete midfielders in Europe. Gavi broke into Barcelona's first team as a teenager and has been a Spain regular almost since.

For the people of Los Palacios, the tomato harvest will never look quite the same again.