De La Fuente's Spain built on family, faith and long road from 'Luis de la Who?'

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.”

That word has become the spine of his Spain outfit: a group bound not only by talent but by years of shared dressing rooms, junior tournaments, disappointments, trophies and trust.

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