Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has urged Marc Cucurella to keep the unique promise he made before the World Cup final. The former Chelsea defender lifted the iconic golden trophy after helping his country defeat Argentina at the weekend. This is his second major international honor in recent years, having won Euro 2024 with La Roja.
Before the World Cup final, Cucurella pledged to retire from international football if Spain made it all the way to the end. He suggested that there would be nothing left to accomplish for the country by lifting the trophy. He also promised to pay tribute to his manager by getting a face tattoo to celebrate the breakthrough win.
“If we win the World Cup, I’m going to call Luis the next day and tell him that he can’t count on me anymore and that I’m retiring from the national team,” Cucurella said. “We can’t do anything better because we have the European Championship and the World Cup.”
In another interview, the defender claimed: “If I could win the World Cup, I would get a small tattoo of Spain coach Luis de la Fuente’s face on my bicep.”
Now, Mr. de la Fuente has suggested that others have made similar pledges and is asking them to keep their word.
“They made a mistake, but they are men of their word and they will keep their word,” the Spain coach said.
“I’m not that ugly. They just need to find the less visible parts of my body. If I say something, I need to keep my word.”
Since taking over as coach in 2022, de la Fuente has worked with Spain’s age groups and successfully returned the country to one of the world’s leading teams.
When asked how he was able to achieve that, the 65-year-old explained that prioritizing the collective over the individual was crucial to the team’s success.
“We are where we want to be and it’s an honor to represent our country with a great national team with great players.”
“I believe that real success depends on having the right traveling companions – people with values and principles. Our only benefit is that we are looking for good people who put the collective interest above the individual.”
