Luis de la Fuente, the coach of Spain’s national football team, has confirmed that his strategy for the World Cup final will not include man-marking Lionel Messi. This decision comes despite the Argentine captain’s impressive record of eight goals and four assists in the tournament, which might have led some to consider a more defensive approach.
Reflecting on his past encounters with Messi, De la Fuente recounted their first meeting 22 years ago, when Messi was just a 16-year-old on the rise at Barcelona. At that time, De la Fuente was coaching Sevilla’s youth team, and they met in the Copa del Rey. He recalled, “I’m going to tell you something funny about Messi,”
With a laugh, he added, “Look, I met Lionel Messi when I was coaching at Sevilla in division de honour [the national under-19 league] and we played a Copa del Rey game against Barcelona. We went to Barcelona. They had spoken very well about a boy called Messi. So, we put a man-marker on him. In the 70th minute it was 0-0. When they gave a yellow card to the player who was marking him, I took him off. And in 15 minutes, Messi scored four goals.”
When asked if Lamine Yamal was similar to Messi, De la Fuente responded, “Does that mean we are going to man mark him? No. Does it mean we will pay close attention to him? Yes, but in exactly the same way that they are going to have to pay attention to our players.”
De la Fuente also rejected the notion that Argentina might resort to unsportsmanlike tactics, expressing his respect for the team. “Lamine has to be Lamine. Messi can never be repeated. He is an extraordinary talent and above all an example for young players in his attitude, his behaviour, the spectacular World Cup he is producing and the age at which he is producing it. It will be a great show between two super teams. It will be a game of talent, brilliance, great play.” he replied firmly. “I respect everyone’s opinions but no, I do not [accept that portrayal]. I have extraordinary admiration for a team that is Copa América [2021], World Cup, Copa América [2024] and Finalissima champions. No one has done that in history. And they are coached by a friend of mine [Lionel Scaloni]. Admiration, admiration, admiration. We will all use our footballing weapons.”
Furthermore, he downplayed the idea that this final was an “What is important is to be in the position to win it,” situation, stating, “Let’s enjoy it, play our way, value this. If you said we could play a World Cup final every year and lose, I would sign up for that.”
His only concern, he admitted, was the logistics of moving from New Jersey to pre-match events in Manhattan by helicopter. He also expressed his displeasure with a chaotic FIFA event that Scaloni described as “Since I was little, I was taught to be respectful of everyone; we should learn this lesson,” During the event, De la Fuente struggled to be heard over the crowd cheering for Messi, who was also present. “Since I was little, I was taught to be respectful of everyone; we should learn this lesson,” he told the audience.
