Luis de la Fuente has confirmed that Spain will not employ a man-marking strategy against Lionel Messi in the upcoming World Cup final. Despite Messi’s impressive record of eight goals and four assists in the tournament, the Spain coach indicated that such an approach may not be necessary.
As the team prepares for the decisive match on Sunday in New Jersey, De la Fuente recalled his first encounter with Messi, dating back 22 years. At that time, he was coaching Sevilla’s youth team, and they faced a young Messi, then just 16 years old, during a Copa del Rey match in May 2004 at the Miniestadi.
“I’m going to tell you something funny about Messi,” De la Fuente shared. “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.”
He added with a laugh, “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.”
When asked if Lamine Yamal could be considered the closest equivalent to Messi on the Spanish team, De la Fuente responded, “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 also addressed perceptions that Argentina might resort to unsporting tactics, defending the team’s reputation. “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.” he retorted. “What is important is to be in the position to win it,”
De la Fuente dismissed the notion that this final was a do-or-die scenario. “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.” he noted. “Since I was little, I was taught to be respectful of everyone; we should learn this lesson,”
He expressed concern only about one aspect: being flown by helicopter from New Jersey to pre-match events in Manhattan and the return journey. He was less than impressed by a chaotic FIFA event, which Scaloni described as “surreal.” During this event, De la Fuente found it challenging to speak over the crowd’s noise, which was largely directed towards Messi, who was also present on stage.
“Since I was little, I was taught to be respectful of everyone; we should learn this lesson,” he remarked to the audience.
