For
Vicente del Bosque González (Salamanca, 70 years old) expands, spreads and spreads football in its wake. Wherever he walks with those lilting gaits inherited from his past as a good player, with a short trot and a lot of touch. Of precision in the pass and high head. His busy schedule as world and European champion keeps him hyperactive every month of the year, but much more so when a major football competition is approaching, as is the case.
Who does not want to know first-hand his opinion on the Eurocup that begins or review for the umpteenth time how was that exciting adventure of Poland and Ukraine initialed with 4-0 against Italy in the final. Possibly the best match of the National Team in its 100 years and 10 months of history. Vicente thinks like a coach and speaks like a footballer, but it is difficult to know when he is one and when he is another.
When a European Championship or the World Cup is approaching, does your heart race a little, your memories pile up and your soul accelerate?
“I am not nostalgic, I do not spend my life living from memories.”
No. I'm not nostalgic. I like the moment because we have the chance to see good football at the level of interesting teams and players. We cannot live a lifetime of memories, which does not mean that I am not going to see the whole Championship, that I am going to see it.
And as a former selector, how does he contemplate the controversy experienced when Luis Enrique gave the list, the current problems due to the damn COVID? The presences, the absences?
I see it from the maximum attention and the maximum respect to what the coach does, who, after all, is the one who has to do things, who has the responsibility and is sure that he is more aware of everything that happens with each player better than me and better than all of us in general.
Better not have had to make a decision like Sergio Ramos's. For a coach those are the worst moments. You were breaking down thinking that you might be hurting someone.
But I took others. A coach has to make these kinds of delicate choices at some point and it sure hasn't been easy for Luis. Coaches are here for this, to make decisions and some are understood, others less understood. You have to explain them and nothing else, but it is true that I had a hard time with the lists and in each game I had to choose an eleven. In addition, the coaches are not in possession of the truth. We can be wrong, but there is no other remedy, there is no other solution, we have to choose. And many times we will not be right, but we always have to do things from the point of view of what is best for the National Team.
You had to take a similar one. Wait or not for a player of the so-called fixed that came out of an injury.
Yes, but the circumstances are never the same. Each case is different. If you wait for a player to come out of an injury and the doctors give you a good prognosis, normally we would pay a lot of attention to them. We had enormous confidence in Juan Cota and Óscar Celada because they were as aware as we were of all the players and they set us the course to follow, what could we do. It always worked out for us.
“Ramos? You can't judge what you don't know and I don't know what happened “
In the case of Sergio Ramos with three weeks of preparation ahead of him, there are many who think that they could have waited a little longer to find out how he was recovering physically.
Yes, but that is judging a decision that does not occur to me to do so. I've never done it and I'm not going to do it now. It is about who it is. You cannot judge what you do not know. I don't know the details of the situation.
The situation created is possibly the reason that we resist seeing a National Team without Sergio, as before with Casillas, with Xavi, with Xabi, with Iniesta, with Villa, with Torres …
“We cannot fight against generational changes, they occur alone”
We cannot go against, or fight against, generational changes because they occur alone. It is true that every day there are fewer players than those who gave us those wonderful moments, but others of equal talent than we had have appeared or will appear. The youth has been asking for passage.
What Sergio Ramos is going to stay in your memory?
The Sergio that we caught on the right side, who went up and down the band and who made a great World Cup. Then we did a natural process, which was that he formed the central pair with Piqué before Puyol left and there he also gave us a great performance. The two center-backs and the two midfielders were vital to our collective functioning.
Of the ‘yours, yours’, now only Busquets remains, who is now with COVID and his continuity in the team is in danger.
The other day I was with him and we had a good time talking about everything. Hopefully he recovers and can be with the team soon because he is an important player. For all that he has contributed and, above all, for all that he can contribute. Busi is a current player. It is not on the merits of the past. It goes on the merits of the present. It is very important for the operation of the equipment. Interpret the game from that position like no one else. He's in a good physical moment and that's why Luis counts on him. There is also Jordi Alba, who is a little later than him, but who also gave us a lot at the time.
“The justifications are worthless. Defeat must be accepted, like victory “
Now that you have been out of office for five years and after everything that has happened in the National Team with constant changes of technicians, Lopetegui, Hierro, Luis Enrique, Robert Moreno, Luis Enrique again, do you realize more how difficult that is being a coach?
What you can't think is that everyone is going to agree with you. The results are what mark the opinions. If you win, everyone is more or less happy and if you lose, even if you do the same things, it is already known that you are marked. Justifications are useless. Defeat must be admitted with total normality. Like victory.
How do you see the team?
Well. Among the favorite teams I include Spain, but we have to realize who and how the rivals are. The important thing in these short championships is to finish well. That is why there have been champions who were not in the predictions like Portugal in the last one. It is always Portugal, but it was not the big favorite. It already happened with Greece in 2004. Let's not say Denmark in 1992, which was on vacation. Other teams reached the final such as the Czech Republic in England 96 or Croatia itself in the last World Cup… If you are good when you have to be, you have possibilities.
A priori, it seems that France, above all, and other teams arrive at a better time than Spain. They have a more or less fixed eleven, more cache, more curdled players …
That must be seen playing. France cannot be argued with, but they have a very tough group. Italy is good too. I do not rule out England, Germany, Portugal, Belgium … I do not know if the Netherlands. The competition format this year allows four third parties to pass and the room for maneuver for these teams in their group is great. I don't see any favorites, I said seven and maybe I fall short. What I have clear is that in today's football there are no longer souls of charity. The uncertainty is as great as the equality. The game of favorites a priori does not lead to anything.
Do you put Spain among them out of conviction or out of desire?
Because I believe it. Of course. Without a doubt. It has given us proof of security, of being able to have confidence in them and we must be optimistic.
Which Spain do we trust, the one that thrashes Germany and scores six or the one that later suffers against Greece, Kosovo and Georgia?
Well, in the middle term there will be virtue, for sure. What is needed is little by little to build a team. Surely it is not easy to make an eleven, but it is to have a group of players who can form a team. I have confidence in Luis and in the players.
What is happening in goal is difficult to explain. All their lives the National Team has had world-class goalkeepers who have covered decades and decades: Iribar, Arconada, Zubizarreta, Casillas …
So it has been. Opinion from the outside is difficult. Maybe those who have been there have not earned it, but you have to have confidence and security in those who are. The goalkeeper position is key in a team and now other qualities adorn him, such as handling the ball at the back, the start of the game … but mainly what is interesting is that he is a goalkeeper, although now we force them to do more things than they did before .
That two days before the Euro Cup we do not have a starting goalkeeper is not normal …
That we do not have, maybe Luis has it very clear and decided. The last matches have been played by the Athletic goalkeeper and if he has, it is because he will believe that he is the best. And if you have brought these three, it is because they believe they are the best. I am a stalwart of Luis.
The reality is that when we talk about the National Team, almost all of us continue to think about the past and we continue to compare them with the present. It would be good for the mental health of Luis Enrique and his players if we did not splash so much in the three titles.
I think neither Luis nor the players think and take that into account. On the contrary, it should not be a slab, it should serve as an incentive and think that if we could why they will not be able to. The bad thing is when years and years go by without winning anything and then it is possible to think that we are incapable of winning anything.
Man, we've already had three big blank championships …
Well, it hasn't been too bad. In France 2016 we reached the quarterfinals and a strong Italy eliminated us. They were better than us and nothing more. We left the 2018 World Cup without losing any game. We lost to Russia on penalties. It's not that disastrous either. In Brazil 2014, still with me, it was when we did not achieve the planned objective. We were below our means, it is said, period.
Who will catch a forward Mbappé-Benzema-Griezmann?
We have players who have qualities, I don't know if to reach that level, but… If we don't have those individuals, the important thing is to have a team, a block and play as such. It really gives me the feeling that we have a good team and that we are going to know when to push forward, when we have to come back, when we should go on the counterattack… I am optimistic. We must qualify in the first phase and more playing in Seville and then step by step.
Luis Enrique thinks like you do, that, in the absence of a great director, the National Team has to reach the goal through play. It is something similar to what you did with the false '9', reaching the top through the pass and the collective game.
Each competition is different, each team is structured differently. And you have to trust what we have. There are good people upstairs. We had them too. That Villa and that Torres have been magnificent. We have Morata, Gerard Moreno, the people from the bands. I also like to get to the goal through the game. Surely we will know how to attack a static position of the opposing team and also take advantage of the counterattack. Arguments we have.
How football changes. Historically, Barcelona and Real Madrid were the clubs that contributed the most players to the National Team. Now there are none of the whites.
“There are not so many Spanish indisputable starters in Madrid, that has to do with it”
It's reality. In these clubs there are many foreigners … It is not easy. If we look at the squad… Carvajal, Nacho, Sergio Ramos have been coming… Sometimes Lucas and Asensio. There are not so many indisputable starting Spanish players at Real Madrid and that has to do with it. Then injuries and other causes like COVID. In our time Liverpool became a bit of the base team or Valencia. Then Barça and also Madrid. On the one hand, it is positive that there are players from other teams, even those who play abroad. That means that the footballer has been enriched, has less complex to leave, than we had before. There is no need to panic. If Madrid have Benzema, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Valverde, Casemiro, Varane, Modric, Kroos, Mendy… how are they going to play. It is not a cataclysm either. It is natural. You have to be calm, prepare well, be a team and every time you play one of them, have the maximum performance.
Luis Suárez Miramontes said the other day in AS that Luis Enrique does well to keep his ideas, that he has done well and must continue to bet on it.
Well of course. Each one has its method. His way of being. And you have to work in consequence of what you believe, nobody can impose on you how to do things or what you have to do. You have to be yourself personally and in football. His way of understanding football has perhaps led to an evolution in some concepts, but he has not broken with the past and if he had, nothing happens either. The important thing is to iron out the bad and take advantage of the good, like anyone who takes a new team. Everyone has to do things as they see fit without looking back much.
A curiosity, doesn't Kanté remind you of ‘su’ Makélélé?
Yes of course. Makélélé was my trusted man. He brought the jug to all of them. He covered Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Salgado … I see Kanté and I see him. This Kanté is good. He defends, but with the ball he faces and leaves. His energy infects Chelsea.