Spain are bidding to become just the fourth team to hold both the World Cup and European Championship crowns simultaneously. Should they lift the trophy, they would join their compatriots from 2010, France in 2000, and West Germany in 1974 in achieving that rare double.
Manager Luis de la Fuente is now into his fourth year in charge, having won the Euros two years ago. He has lost just three times since taking over in January 2023 and is currently on a 35-game unbeaten run. That form has carried Spain to a quarter-final against Belgium on Friday, with France waiting for whoever comes through.
De la Fuente, 65, has spent decades working within the Spanish federation and has been coaching within that system since 2013. His success is rooted in that long-term investment — shaping players, instilling values, and building a collective identity that he describes as controlling possession but with alternatives. Alongside the tactical framework, he has created something harder to define: a culture.
At the heart of his approach lies a straightforward conviction. “Those of us who have been in a locker room know what it means to be a good person,” he said in an exclusive interview ahead of the Belgium game. “Almost every squad has had the opposite, the player who disrupts harmony, who puts himself first.” For De la Fuente, talent without generosity does not go far — his Spain is built on players who give before they take.
The passing, the possession, the positional intelligence that define Spain’s style are, in his view, technical qualities but social ones too. What sets De la Fuente apart, beyond any football philosophy, is his way of understanding people — and that, more than tactics alone, appears to be the foundation of everything Spain have built under him.
Image credit: BBC Sport / BBC Sport
