The absence of Atlético de Madrid players in Luis Enrique's call-up has been surprising. When pressing the reaction of the rojiblanco club to the absence of their own footballers in the National Team list, As has learned that Atlético de Madrid requested by letter to the Royal Spanish Football Federation not to summon any player for the matches against Germany and Ukraine. The RFEF has confirmed to this newspaper the receipt of that letter, but ensures that the coach's decision not to name any Atlético footballer has not obeyed this request from the rojiblanco club and has been based on strictly sporting criteria.
Atlético requested in their letter that none of their players be called ups recalling the agreement with AFE (Association of Spanish Footballers) by which footballers must spend three consecutive weeks of vacation. With the Atlético players, these conditions were not met and with more players from Luis Enrique's list, but the mattress team is the only one that claimed it in a letter to the RFEF and the rest of the federations in which its players are international.
There were four Atlético de Madrid players in the list of 56 players that Luis Enrique had made a few days ago (this list is mandatory for clubs to release their players if they are finally called up). These four players were Álvaro Morata, Saúl Ñiguez, Koke Resurrección and Marcos Llorente. Any of the four could have been called by Luis Enrique.
Federation sources confirm that they received this request from Atlético, but they assure that Luis Enrique did not take it into account when making the list. The Federation consulted UEFA and FIFA if there were any restrictions when making this call and they replied that they could summon any eligible footballer on this date of national team commitments, something that the ECA (Association of European Clubs) also agreed with and did not put any restrictions.
Therefore, in Luis Enrique's call there is no Atlético player due to the decision of the coach based on sporting criteria, in no case due to the request of the rojiblanco club not to mention any player. In fact, if there were casualties from here to the internationals to concentrate, Luis Enrique could call any of the pre-list, including the four Atlético de Madrid players.