Spain’s World Cup secret weapon? Coach De la Fuente says trust and ‘family’ come before tactics

MADRID, June 5 — Spain’s 64-year-old manager Luis de la Fuente looks like a man who has made peace with football’s chaos.

Kind, warm, smiling and armed with the serene certainty of someone who has spent more than a decade building his team piece-by-piece, he heads to the World Cup with a side many regard as the one to beat.

De la Fuente, who spoke to Reuters before travelling to North America, said the secret of the European champions’ rise was more than a clear tactical path, a motivational speech or one man’s genius but something simpler and warmer.

“Some time ago, we began to emphasise a word that gave us a great deal of security, confidence and strength - family’. We want the Spanish national team to be a family,” he said.

“From the first player to the last, we all work with that idea in mind and that makes me feel very calm, very serene. It makes me work knowing that I am in good company and that gives me a great deal of confidence.”

De la Fuente’s long and unusual route to the top

It has been a long and unusual route to the top for De la Fuente, once a hard-working full back who made his name in the Basque Country with Athletic Bilbao and built his coaching career largely away from club football’s glare, spending a decade inside Spain’s youth system.

When he was appointed Spain manager over three years ago, parts of the media mocked him as “Luis de la Who?” He was seen by many as a low-key federation man, orderly and diligent, but lacking the glamour usually demanded of such a job.

His answer has been emphatic: Nations League glory in 2023, the European Championship in 2024 and a Spain side arriving at the World Cup carrying the confidence of a team that knows exactly what it is.

A practising Catholic who strives to live according to his faith, De la Fuente said he had no interest in settling old scores.

“Time proves you right and proves you wrong. Time puts everyone in their place. I knew what I had to do,” he said.

“I’m not vindictive and I believe everyone should reflect on what they may have said or done and weigh it up. I haven’t changed a bit since then. I’m still the same person, believe me ... My life hasn’t changed.

“I’m still doing exactly the same things I was doing three and a half years ago. I go to the same places, I go to the same restaurants, the same cafes, I walk down the street calmly doing exactly the same things.”

De la Fuente’s greatest advantage

If others needed convincing, his players did not. De la Fuente’s greatest advantage was once treated as a weakness: he rose step-by-step and took many of this generation with him.

Mikel Merino played under him in back-to-back European Under-21 finals against Germany, losing in 2017 but winning two years later. Mikel Oyarzabal, Dani Olmo and Fabian Ruiz were also part of that 2019 success and became senior European champions.

Merino’s first international title with De la Fuente came even earlier, in 2015, when he played alongside Rodri and goalkeeper Unai Simon in Spain’s 2-0 win over Russia in the European Under-19 Championship final in Greece.

From those older figures to Pedri, Martin Zubimendi and Marc Cucurella, players who were part of Spain’s Olympic silver-medal campaign in Tokyo, De la Fuente has a squad that often appears to understand him before he finishes a sentence.

“Our relationship goes beyond the purely professional,” he said.

“With Rodri in particular, we’ve known each other for more than 10 years; since 2015 we’ve been through a lot.

“So I’m sure that in his life, and in the lives of many of the players who are with me today, there hasn’t been a single coach who’s been able to tell them things the way I’ve told them. I guarantee it.”

For De la Fuente, that intimacy is not just sentimental but them an edge.

“They know that what I tell them comes from honesty, from integrity, and always with their best interests at heart, because they know me,” he added.

“When someone speaks from a place of confidence, from that conviction, knowing that it will get through to you, touch your heart and convince you, well, I think we’ve already won a great deal.

“Then, out on the pitch, put all your talent at the service of that idea. And at the service of your teammates - that’s your job.”

Their job will be to first get past debutants Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group H as they bid to win the country’s second World Cup title after Spain’s 2010 triumph. — Reuters