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Call for Spain: Luis de la Fuente introduces 15 novelties in his first list and recovers Aspas and Nacho | Sports

Luis de la Fuente began the new era of the Spanish soccer team this Friday, still clearing away the last rubble of the past. With 15 news regarding the World Cup in Qatar, the federation published the first list of the coach at 11:30 a.m., for two qualifying matches for the 2024 Euro Cup: on Saturday, March 25, against Norway in Malaga (8:45 p.m., La1) and on Tuesday, March 28 against Scotland in Glasgow (20.45, La1). An hour after the announcement, when De la Fuente sat down before the media, he found himself with the embers of the absence of Sergio Ramos.

Almost a month ago, the PSG central defender announced that the coach had called him and told him that, regardless of his performance, he did not plan to have him. De la Fuente was upset this Friday with the player’s movement: “It was a private conversation, and I have a good habit of not airing them. There is a new coach, with a new project and new ideas, and with some players who are what they are ”, he tried to settle the first attempt by the journalists. “The one who says that he is saying goodbye to the national team is him.” But neither did the questions stop there nor did De la Fuente want to go further: “It is not opening or closing the door. I trust a series of players, and those players are these. Is Sergio Ramos here? Well, it will be that I trust these more”.

The coach understands that in the project that has been proposed to build it is essential to build a cohesive group: “Team is the key word. Generate a team feeling now”. To lead the group, he relies on veterans as captains, following the tradition. On this list, Morata, Rodri and Carvajal, with whom he says he feels comfortable, although he could add someone to the group of bosses: “A captain is the leader who emerges spontaneously. If we meet in terms of the number of caps, we want to look for that natural leadership. The locker room naturally chooses leadership. The same is not the one that is international the most times ”. He is also clear about what he expects from the wearer of the bracelet: “He has to add up, be an example. He is the first to make an effort ”.

He has an urgency to start building those structures and those balances, and he seems less concerned about the difficulty that it might entail to transfer his idea of the game to a group in which only 11 players who played in the World Cup under the command of Luis Enrique remain. . “The main drawback of a selector is the lack of time. We are used to handling these situations. We know what strategies to use,” he said. “We have chosen the profile of players that we know will assimilate it.” The idea is above the organization for De la Fuente: “There are some systems that I like more, but more than the system is to be faithful to the idea.”

De la Fuente has put together a list that represents a forceful leap in the areas, with central defenders like David García or Íñigo Martínez, and strikers like Joselu. But one of the aspects that the coach wanted to highlight the most was the versatility of the chosen footballers, something that Nacho particularly personifies, who at the age of 33 returns to the national team, with whom he had played for the last time on September 11, 2018 against Croatia in Elche (6-0): “He is in a great moment. In addition, it is that he fits perfectly into what we are going to demand in those demarcations, not to mention his versatility ”.

Another return that Luis Enrique had resisted is that of Iago Aspas, 35, who last wore red on June 7, 2019 in the Faroe Islands (1-4), under the orders of Robert Moreno. “Long time without going, but hope was the last thing to lose,” said the Celta forward when he found out. “Very happy to see the work reflected in the field.”

De la Fuente drew up his first list and immediately experienced the first setback: Pedri does not recover from his injury, he is ruled out for Sunday’s classic and the federation finally decided to call him off and will consider calling other footballers in his place.

The work begins on Monday at 7:00 p.m. with a training session open to the public at the Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas: “It’s a new stage. We want to walk a path, and that happens because the fans feel very close to us”, said the coach.

These are those called up by the coach who replaced Luis Enrique in December after Spain was eliminated in the round of 16 of the World Cup against Morocco.