“We have a selection of the present and of a great future”

The good role of Spain in the European Championship is the result of years of work in the Federation. Almost all the members of the list (21 of 24) went through the inferiors, which since 2018 have Francis Hernández (43 years old) as coordinator. He was not surprised by the performance of the Olmo, Ferran, Pedri and company: “We are lucky that Luis Enrique does not look at the DNI, only the performance. That is very important to us. Internally, we never had any doubt about the very high level of these players ”, analyzes Francis for AS. “It is a pleasure to have an absolute coach of that level, both sportingly and personally,” he deepens.

Now, in the Olympic Games, those who are called to be the future of Spain in the short term come together: among the 22 summoned there are 134 caps with the Absolute. Getting six of those who were in the Eurocup to repeat at the Games is, to a great extent, a merit of Francis, who obtained the full support of the Federation: “The work of Luis Rubiales, the president, and José Francisco Molina, the sports director, is essential for us to have been able to make this list. With the players it was very easy, their predisposition has been maximum. And I must be grateful for the work of the clubs, which, although they were obliged, have had the necessary empathy to understand that it was a unique opportunity ”, he explains. Hernández, yes, flees from the excess of euphoria: “I don't like to say if we are the best, our feet must be on the ground. We saw it in the last European Championship with some teams … ”.

Future

One of Francis's goals has been “to implement tools to modernize the department. It is information that we share. If we add to that the communication that exists between the coaching staff of the Absolute with all the lower categories, it is something very important. It facilitates the work, because for us it is essential that the players who come know how to represent the idea of ​​the game that we have ”.

This makes it possible to accumulate data that are useful later for Luis Enrique: “Our job is to train players for the Absolute. We have a selection with a present and a great future “. Recent titles in the inferiors invite you to think about successes for the Absolute. “It would be the logical thing to do, although in football two plus two are not four. But if you form well, you will be closer to the results ”, he concludes.