"I would have been fired if we had not won that Georgia game"

Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente said that if he had not won the match against Georgia on September 8th, 2023, the qualifier for Euro 2024, the trophy that Spain lifted this summer, he would have been “fired”.

“After coming from winning the Nations League there were many unpleasant events that happened and there was a persecution towards me. We played a game in Georgia and if I hadn't won it I would have been out because I was probably playing for my job. In the press conference before the match I told the journalists what would happen if we hit them for seven and the match ended 1-7,” said De la Fuente, this Thursday, in a talk at the CEU San Pablo University in Madrid, who told an anecdote of that match.

“At 12 p.m. the equipment manager called me and told me that we had left our boots in Spain. The players could not train with the boots, but they did arrive for the match. Before training I told the players about the situation and told them that we were not going to criticise anyone and that we were going to encourage that person. We made an impressive team with him,” he explained.

That match against Georgia was Spain's first after the meeting in which Luis Rubiales, former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), declared that he was not going to resign.

Finally, he addressed the issue of the mental health of football players: “Everything is important in sports. You have to be physically well, but the mental issue is decisive. We have a psychologist who participates in everything and they also have a psychologist in their private lives. We have to treat these issues with sensitivity and help them and, above all, listen to them.