Monday, October 14, 2024, 8:36 p.m.
| Updated 9:55 p.m.
At 17 years old, Lamine Yamal has become the name of the Spanish team. Luis de la Fuente‘s press conference prior to the duel against Serbia in Córdoba gave good proof of this condition. The Barça winger, who returned to Barcelona on Monday due to an overload, monopolized the intervention of the Riojan, who attributed the decision to release the player to the footballer’s opinion and not to pressure from his club to do so.
«Zero pressure, I have not spoken to anyone from Barça and I also have a very good relationship with them. There has simply been honesty from the footballer and I appreciate the gesture of recognizing that he is not fine. The possibility of qualifying for the quarterfinals of the Nations League is important enough to be grateful for that sincerity,” he explained, visibly annoyed by so many questions about the very young Barça talent.
«I’m not going to tell you my version, I’m going to tell you the truth. Lamine had a problem, I spoke to him to find out how he was, if he could be 100% on Tuesday (for today). “I had doubts and that’s why we opted for the option of him resting,” he added in relation to this episode that marked the second leg of the Spanish concentration.
«If you tell me that there are angry people, that’s how it will be, but no one has conveyed it to me. I tried to explain what football is, those who have to defend it are the referees, applying the regulations, because the rival will logically use all weapons to defend themselves against the best. Have you played soccer? Have you ever been kicked? “It’s football,” he then noted in reference to his words after the victory against Denmark, in which he naturalized the tough play of the Nordic team on Lamine Yamal.
«Football is football and what has to happen happens. You may have some discomfort like anyone else. If other colleagues had had those discomforts they would not be here either. “This is football and there are no more debates,” he tried to settle unsuccessfully, increasingly angry at the insistence.
The man from La Rioja came forward to confront the accusations against the national teams due to the plague of injuries in recent times and he did so with data, which gave the impression that he had the answer ready: “I feel sorry for the fact that these comments are being played into the game.” . The other day something came out and I’m going to make it clearer to you, in case there is any doubt. Last year we played 17 international matches because we were lucky enough to reach the final of the Euro Cup, but this year we are going to play ten, less than one match a month, so we are going to stop thinking about it and getting dizzy.”
“The best have to play”
«The best have to play, if Lamine didn’t come I’m sure you’d put me to work. All coaches want those who are very good to play,” he concluded, before highlighting the alternatives he has to alleviate such an absence. «They are irreplaceable but in the end we play with eleven, those who enter will knock on the table to say that they are here. These variants that occur due to the situation of the footballers give other records. We don’t have footballers with the speed and overflow of Nico or Lamine, but we do have a different type. It seems that we can only play what these footballers play and no, we have other options,” he said.
Despite the criticism and partisanship in Spain resulting from the preeminence of club football, De la Fuente continues to believe in the increase in interest in the national team beyond particular interests. «You just have to look at all the footballers, they all want to come to the national team and 100% of Spaniards want the national team to win with the best on the field. “We are in that fight because Spain is a country of clubs, but I also tell you that what we saw in Murcia and will see in Córdoba confirms that people feel more and more identified with the national team, as happens in other countries,” he analyzed as a point. climax of his appearance.
