Luis de la Fuente has appreciated the Spain squad for believing in him after they won the Euro 2024 championship.
La Roja overcame England 2-1 in Sunday’s final to lift their four Euro title.
Spain’s style of play under De la Fuente was able to get victories against every opponent they faced including previous champions Italy, hosts Germany and favourites France.
“Well, I was sure my players believed in me because they proved it. Not now, but all along this journey that year and a half, they’ve been infallible. They we have practically done everything right,” he said.
“Every step we took was in order to keep growing and keep learning and and get stronger. All I wanted is my players to believe in me and to be convinced of what I told them, not only me, also the whole technical staff. It will be easy for me now to reproach other people, but I won’t do that. If you need to review any of your comments, that’s that. Of course everything is there.
“But all I can say now is I feel happy, I feel proud. We have we have earned this. Nobody gave us anything for free. Whan harder things are to get the more valuable they are.”
🇪🇸 Luis de la Fuente 🏆#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/FnVAQlfqy5
— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) July 15, 2024
De la Fuente added: “Sport also means values. And I think this generation of footballers sets an example in society. It’s young people, veteran people with ambition, willing to work, willing to show companionship, soli-darity.
“All this gave us the possibilities to try to compete and to win something. But I insist that the result is not only what is important, but also the whole process matters. And I understand, as I’ve been talking, as I’ve been saying for these 54 days that we’ve been here, I’ve been saying that these footballers are an example for this society because of the values they represent, values that we need to stress. And allow me to be redundant.
“And I hope you, make you convey that mes-sage. I don’t know if we will change society, but especially with younger people, young people who see this, players not just as spoiled brats, but as people who work really hard, who live everything on the pitch, who set an example. And it will be very nice to show the youngsters the kind of thing you could do in life. At least that is my opinion on how you should behave in life.”
De La Fuente has now won every Euro title across all age grades at U-19 and U-21 as well Olympic gold medal at U-23 level.
He also led Spain to the UEFA Nations League title last year.
