For several decades, Athletic at Lezama had a treasure of few words, feline gaze, and precise aim. His name was Piru Gainza and it was he who received the tip that he might want to travel to Haro in La Rioja to keep a close eye on a 15-year-old boy, the son of an Athletic member, who was doing wonders on the left Side. Gainza arrived, saw and decided that Luis De la Fuente (Haro, 61 years old) was ready to test at Lezama. Much of his family lived in Bilbao and he himself regularly went to San Mamés with his father and kept the signed photos of the players, including that of Javier Clemente, at home.
In the Bilbao factory, De la Fuente grew and became part of the last legendary team to be remembered in Bilbao. That was in 1982/83. He took turns with Núñez on the left. That Athletic won back-to-back leagues and the Copa de Rey against Maradona and Schuster’s Barcelona.
De la Fuente was a winger with a long run, interesting dribbling and a good pass. He held the band for seven seasons. Then he went to Seville, where he began two of his three courses. He left a fond memory and returned to Athletic in a late return operation. In 1993/94 he played his last games as a professional at Alavés.
De la Fuente closed that book and turned to the next, as a coach. After Lezama, the youth academy of Seville and Alavés, he found a place in the association, again as a training coach. He took over the U19 with which he won the European Championship. In this team they formed, among others, Simón, Vallejo, Merino, Ceballos, Rodri, Asensio, Mayoral or Carlos Fernández. Three of them played this World Cup. He also led the U18s to Spain’s win at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in June. A month later he succeeded Albert Celades at the Under-21s and the following year he added European Cup success to his record after defeating Germany. With Oyarzabal, Simón, Vallejo, Olmo, Merino, Zubeldia or Junior Firpo. His latest achievement, the silver medal at the Tokyo Games.
Now he is chosen for the Absolute. It is the second time that he replaces Luis Enrique, whom he already replaced on June 8 last year in the 4-0 match between Spain and Lithuania, in which the Asturian coach was low due to Covid.
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According to his Athletic teammate Andoni Goikoetxea, “It is a great pleasure for me that they have chosen him. He is tremendously capable. He is a serious man who knows a lot about it. He’s going to have a very difficult job.” And he adds: “You’re going to look at it with a magnifying glass.”
His ideology? “What I’m trying to do is teach everyone a responsibility and a demand. A mentality that makes it clear to the players that you can achieve anything with effort,” he says. Although he has never made it into the First Division, Luis De la Fuente has the advantage that his time in all the lower categories means that he knows all those eligible very well. “He’s a very good person,” says Clemente, former Spain coach and De la Fuente coach at Athletic. “He knows the youngsters well and has also achieved very good results in all the lower teams,” concluded Clemente.
A more flexible choice is expected from him. “The systems I like the most are 1-4-4-2 and 1-4-2-3-1, but the most important thing is to have players who adapt to this type of development of the system you want” , he said in an interview. What will of course subside is the tension in the press rooms. De la Fuente avoids tension, he’s always polite, he answers football questions at length and, as a field manager who was at Athletic, knows that containment is a value in the world of football.
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