De la Fuente, a bench man

I remember that at the end of that after-meal I asked our guest if making a declaration of intent of this caliber could cause him problems at the club, considering that next season will work he is also a first-team delegate. De la Fuente was just as determined when the band went up to the old San Mamés: “This is what I think, this is what I want and what I am”, he settled.

The following year, as agreed, he returned to act as Athletic’s delegate with Caparrós, the coach he had worked with during their time at Sevilla. No other third year has occupied a place on the field, the bench and the offices that has not responded to his true vocation as a football professional when his boots are hung up.

De la Fuente managed Bilbao Athletic again, left Lezama, had a short spell at Alavés and lost his job for a few hours before heading to the Spanish Football Federation to start working as a coach in the lower categories. During that stint without a team, the now coach of Spain received an offer from the Second A team, yes, from Second A, to take over his bench at a rate of 600 euros per month plus the rental cost of the house at his expense. “The worst thing of all was not the proposal itself, but that I thought of it,” he told a group of friends.

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The new head of La Roja has already shown during his time as Lezama’s coach a special sensitivity to certain players. One day, after a training session, he told a journalist friend to see if he could give one of his injured football players a little because, after going through the operating room, he was suffering unspeakably in stretcher in the hands of the physio and no one noticed.. Another teammate who went through a similar incident, but already made his debut as a first-team player, did not lack love or extra support.