Spain's World Cup-winning team arrived home ahead of a glittering parade through historic Madrid.
The victorious squad were welcomed by airport staff decked out in the famous red and yellow of the national side at Madrid's Barajas airport.
They will travel to a hotel to rest, before being received by King Juan Carlos in the Royal Palace and a meeting with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
But the highlight of their homecoming will be a 3-mile open-topped bus ride through the Madrid streets teaming with hundreds of thousands of fans celebrating Spain's first World Cup title.
World champions: Spain's captain Iker Casillas lifts the Jules Rimet trophy as the team arrives back in Madrid this afternoon
Captain fantastic: Casillas emerged from the Spanish team's plane alongside manager Vicente del Bosque to thunderous applause from airport staff
Celebrations: Pilots inside the Spanish team plane wave flags out of the window with the message 'proud of our national team champions' on the fuselage
As the squad touched down in Madrid, captain Iker Casillas emerged from the plan clutching the Jules Rimet trophy, closely followed by the Spain manager Vicente del Bosque.
A special slogan printed along the fuselage of their Iberia plane read 'Proud of our National Team Champions.'
The crowd of airport workers then broke out into a chant of 'Campeones, Campeones,' - meaning champions.
The players, wearing their team shirts, walked from the plane to a waiting Spanish football federation bus.
Sheer joy had reigned in Spain last night as fans took to the streets to celebrate as their country scored four minutes before the end of extra time of the World Cup final to win 1-0 against Holland, sparking carnival-like scene across the country.
They lit flares and flocked to fountains – a favourite celebratory tradition among Spaniards – after Andres Iniesta sealed a victory that had been long denied to this football-loving nation.
Flying high: The Spanish squad poses for a group shot with the trophy on board their flight from South Africa
Match winner: Andres Iniesta, scorer of Spain's goal in their 1-0 win over the Netherlands, smiles as he arrives back in Madrid and, right, Xavi Hernandez and Carles Puyol make their way off the plane
Celebration: Spanish football fans celebrate their team's triumph in the streets of Madrid last night
Spanish invasion: Fans climb and cover almost every inch of the Eros statue at Piccadilly Circus, central London
They even sang the praises of Paul the 'oracle' octopus who successfully his eighth accurate win in a row at the match in Johannesburg watched on TV by 750million.
Here in Britain, Spaniards headed to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus in central London.
But where rapture reigned in Spain, heartbreak filled the streets of Holland, where expectant fans clad in orange watched their team lose in a third World Cup final.
Goal! Spain's Andres Iniesta (right) shoots the ball past Netherlands goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg in the second half of extra time
Champions: Spain's goalkeeper Iker Casilla lifts the World Cup after beating the Netherlands 1-0 in a bad-tempered final at the Soccer City stadium outside Johannesburg
He faced angry remonstrations from the Dutch after last night's match for some of his decisions.
They argued that he should have sent off Spanish defender Carles Puyol for a tackle and failed to award their side a corner moments before the goal when a free-kick took a deflection off Spain's Cesc Fabregas.
Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk said of the former police sergeant: 'I don't think the referee controlled the match well.'
But his team were also roundly criticised for what appeared to be dirty tactics, including a gruesome kung-fu-style kick by Nigel de Jong at Xabi Alonso's chest.
And Mr Webb, who was the first Englishman to referee a final since 1974, was largely praised for his conduct.
Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder vents his frustration as he is penalised by English referee Howard Webb
Jubilation: Cibeles square in Madrid is a sea of happy people after Spain's long-awaited first World Cup win
The evening of drama at Soccer City, Johannesburg, had begun with a spectacular closing ceremony which was followed by an unexpected appearance by Nelson Mandela.
The frail but ecstatic former South African president had earlier braved the winter chill to make his first appearance at the tournament.
The iconic statesman, in a fur hat to keep out the evening cold, cast a dignified shadow in contrast to the motley selection of other African leaders including Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe, who had flocked to the clash between Holland and Spain in their private jets.
Mr Mandela played a crucial role in bringing the World Cup to Africa, but had yet to make an appearance.
Earlier in the day, his family had hit out at 'extreme pressure' from the sport's governing body FIFA. They had warned that attending the evening spectacular would prove 'too strenuous' for him.
The spectacle of him riding on to the Soccer City pitch on the back of a golf buggy, flanked by his third wife Graca Machel, prompted a deafening blast of vuvuzelas and cheers from the 85,000-strong crowd.
Pain: Two distraught Dutch fans lie amid a sea litter and discarded vuvuzelas at Museumplein, Amsterdam
Smiling broadly, his thin frame muffled in a scarf and coat, Mr Mandela waved to the crowd and shook hands of starstruck well-wishers.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is rarely seen in public these days and is in increasingly fragile health.
Mr Mandela’s grandson today lashed out at Fifa's controversial president Sepp Blatter in particular for putting too much pressure on him to attend.
Plans for him to be at the opening ceremony and game were cancelled after his 13-year-old great granddaughter was killed in a car crash the night before.
On the morning of the final, the former South African president's grandson Mandla Mandela told the BBC: 'We've come under extreme pressure from Fifa requiring and wishing that my grandfather be at the final.
'I think people ought to just understand the family's traditions and customs and understand we've had a loss in the family and we are in mourning and that for me would be enough reason to leave the family to be for now.'
Although pundits will never record the tournament as the most successful in footballing terms, the month-long event has had a hugely unifying effect on South Africa which continues to be dogged by racial divisions, 16 years after the end of apartheid.
last night’s final will certainly prove to be the noisiest match of the entire competition with fans enjoying their last chance to blast the controversial vuvuzela, which has become synonymous with the tournament.
And the sight of the legendary anti-apartheid leader gave South Africa a chance to relive the 'Mandela moment’ from the 1995 rugby World Cup, when the country’s first black president donned the captain’s jersey of the winning rugby team.
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