NEW YORK: Spain swept aside France, Argentina scrambled past England and the World Cup final has been handed a scriptwriter’s dream: European champion against world and South American champion, with a teacher and his old pupil in opposite technical areas.
Luis de la Fuente’s Spain will try to deliver the country’s second World Cup, 16 years after its first in South Africa, while Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina is seeking to become the first nation since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back world crowns.
Yet beyond the familiar heavyweight billing, Sunday’s final carries a more personal twist.
After Spain’s 2-0 victory over France on Tuesday, and before Argentina had completed its comeback 2-1 win against England in the second semifinal the following day, De la Fuente raised eyebrows by saying he would be “delighted” to face Argentina.
It was not because the 65-year-old viewed them as an easier route to glory. Quite the opposite. His answer was rooted in friendship and a relationship forged years ago at the Spanish Football Association’s (RFEF) coaching academy in Las Rozas, where De la Fuente was a tutor and Scaloni one of his students.
It happened in 2017, two years after Scaloni ended his playing career. De la Fuente, then in charge of Spain’s youth teams, was among the figures who helped guide a recently retired player taking his first steps towards management.
Neither man could have imagined the lessons of Las Rozas would one day echo all the way to a World Cup final.
Scaloni spoke warmly about that period and his bond with De la Fuente at the 2024 Copa America.
“Luis has been a huge help to those of us who did the coaching course in Las Rozas. I’ve had chats with him and I wish him all the best,” Scaloni said before Argentina’s Copa America quarterfinal win over Ecuador.
The admiration has not flowed only one way. De la Fuente has described Scaloni as a master, an unlikely title for a former pupil but a fitting one for the man who guided Argentina to global and continental success.
“I want Spain to do well (at the Euros) and he helped us lads who did the (coaching) course in Las Rozas a great deal. I like the way he manages things and how the players give their all for him,” Scaloni said during the tournament, which coincided with the 2024 European Championship.
Both managers would go on to lift the respective continental trophies. Now they meet again, not in a classroom, but with the biggest prize in football at stake. Agencies
Also Read: From Baby in a Tub to World Cup Final: The 2007 Messi-Yamal Photo Comes Full Circle