It helps that Barca have a lot of Spanish players: Spain coach Luis de la Fuente

MADRID: Spain national team head coach Luis de la Fuente says the fact that FC Barcelona have so many players who are eligible for Spain will make his job a lot easier. The 61-year-old former Spain under-21 coach, who replaced Luis Enrique after La Roja's disappointing 2022 FIFA World Cup, looks likely to follow his predecessor's path, after Luis Enrique took eight Barcelona players to Qatar.

"You don't know how happy I am when I go to a ground and see so many eligible players. That's the best news for me," De la Fuente told Barcelona-based newspaper El Mundo Deportivo.

He said he understood that sometimes "circumstances rule", and "each club and each coach does what they have to do to meet expectations, but I want people to have opportunities and I know that when you give them to young people, they don't fail," he added.

De la Fuente will have to work without Barca veteran Sergio Busquets, as the 34-year-old retired from international football after Qatar 2022, a Xinhua report said.

"He is a great player and he is still playing at a top level. He called to tell me about his decision and I can only respect and support him," commented De la Fuente, who highlighted "Rodri [Hernandez], [Martin] Zubimendi and Marc Roca" as possible replacements. Spain's main issue in Qatar was the failure to turn possession and control of matches into goals.

"There are very few of those players, they have that level higher than the rest," De la Fuente explained, before adding there were "other types of footballers who are very important in their clubs and who are still outside or working in the shadows."

"I think they can contribute a lot to us, they are decisive and they will be. They must take that step, feel convinced and prove it," said the coach.

De la Fuente's first game in charge will be a European Championship qualifier against Norway on March 25, followed by a visit to Scotland three days later. (IANS)

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