"I never dreamed I'd be here. But I do believe it can be achieved." That's Luis de la Fuente summing up Spain's World Cup ambitions in one breath — humble enough to stay grounded, confident enough to mean it.
Sitting down with AS at the Spanish Football Federation's training complex, the Spain head coach covered everything: a genuine injury scare with Lamine Yamal, the painful calls to leave out Carvajal and Morata, and whether La Roja deserve to be considered the tournament's top dogs.
His answer on that last point was telling. "Being a favourite isn't a disadvantage," he said, "but are we bigger favourites than France, Brazil or Argentina?" For a coach who has just delivered a Nations League and a European Championship, that's not false modesty — it's the kind of clear-eyed realism that stops squads from sleepwalking into disaster in the group stage.
Lamine Yamal: the scare they didn't show
Spain's most important player almost didn't make it. De la Fuente didn't hide it: "We were very concerned. We felt it was an injury that could have extended beyond a month and a half." That would have changed the picture entirely — Yamal isn't just Spain's best attacker, he's the player opposition teams build their defensive game plans around.
The recovery has outpaced every projection. De la Fuente confirmed he'll be available for the opener against Cape Verde, though whether he starts immediately is a separate question. At 18, managing his minutes across a tournament with compressed schedules, travel, heat and altitude isn't optional — it's the whole game.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint," De la Fuente said. Physical condition, he believes, will be the decisive factor at this World Cup more than at any previous one. Spain's title chances hinge largely on keeping Yamal functional through the knockout rounds, not just launching him from minute one.
Carvajal, Morata and the decisions that hurt
Morata came to Las Rozas in person. De la Fuente described the mood in the dressing room — the memories, the emotion — before making clear the decision was final. "They leave behind an unforgettable legacy," he said, "but they knew that when the time came to make a decision, we would make it."
The omission that cut deepest for De la Fuente wasn't tactical. It was Fermín López's injury. "This could have been his World Cup," he said of the midfielder, who was in the form of his life before getting hurt. That kind of loss doesn't show up in squad lists but it shapes how a tournament unfolds.
On the debate around Gonzalo as a selection surprise, De la Fuente batted it away with a point worth taking seriously: Mikel Merino, Europe's best aerial threat, has played centre-forward for Arsenal this season. Spain's contingency planning goes deeper than the names generating column inches.
The collective remains the philosophy. De la Fuente has built a culture where, by his own account, certain players perform better for Spain than they do for their clubs — and he selects with that knowledge built in, not as an afterthought. That's what won Euro 2024. The World Cup, as he keeps saying, is something different. Cape Verde first.
