“There’s nothing more to talk about” | Relay

Vicente del Bosque has come a long way. On the podcast Offsiders He discussed many topics, among which were his relationship with the parents of children from the Madrid youth academy, his attitude towards Raul Bravo or Carlos Aranda… but that’s not all, because the coach of the world champion in the Spanish national team in 2010 and the winner of the Euro -2012 was remembered for that time and for many other situations.

One of the players I remember best is Fernando Redondo. The Argentine was a European champion together with Del Bosque and one of the most charismatic players of this team: “Fernando Redondo was a complete player, he had the gift of command., the leadership may not have been one that had a lot of touch, control and passing, which was also trained. We had a guy who dribbled the ball in midfield and was capable of doing it. And Makelele. It was the players who counted the passes they gave to Figo and Roberto Carlos, and that was “the problem,” he explained.

But back in Redondo, there was a player that Del Bosque “tried to stop” but couldn’t. His idol was Redondo and, of course, he imitated his haircut: “Guti He looked a lot like Fernando Redondo, sometimes I caught him in the field above, in the sports city, and I told him, “Cut your hair a little.”But He very correctly told me: “When you cut your mustache, I will cut your hair,” and from then on I said: “There is nothing more to talk about.”“.

Del Bosque was not successful and Guti became a benchmark for Real Madrid fans thanks to his performance and blond hair. In this Madrid there was no shortage of people who wanted to become champions: “There were young people in Madrid. I had to dig for a long time to find people with enthusiasm. But usually these were people with desire.”

Spain national team and Xabi-Busquets debate

World champions in 2010, it was a national debate whether Xabi should play or Busquets should play as a supporting player. And Del Bosque explains why the two played and the pressure they felt: “From Madrid they told us that Xabi Alonso should play, and from Catalonia that Busquets should play.. The press and people influenced by the press. That we had to play with a midfielder. Also within the squad, yeah. But we thought our core was two midfielders and that rotation at the start and end worked out well for them. They were two outstanding team players, they played short and long, they were essential for us: one from Madrid, the other from Barcelona. In this case, the decision was to play both of them, which meant we couldn’t play Fabregas or Silva,” he recalls.

No favoritism

This Spanish team were one of the favorites, but it was clear in the dressing room that they needed to be careful: “It hurt me to say that we were going to become champions. You can’t be so vain in footballIt is arrogant and stupid to believe that we will become champions. But we are going to become champions, we will try, but it’s always okay. We thought about it, but without being picky, we had to fight it because it’s not good because it gets absorbed and when you’re sent home all hell breaks loose. For this we had a team ready in this sense.”

His departure after Euro 2016

Del Bosque and his coaching staff left the national team after the failure at Euro 2016, and the coach recalled this moment: “Before the start of the Eurocup in France we knew we were going to leave, I told the president and he tried when we finished in France to come come to my house and talk. That we probably should have done this earlier? Well, it’s possible. Many people told me that I should have left after the World Cup, and we became European champions. We left the moment we thought we didn’t have to be

. In 2016, I was already determined to stop training. We had the opportunity to go somewhere to train, but we didn’t want to. “I was already introduced to football with such passion, but the last time was on the field and in a tracksuit.”