De la Fuente vs Scaloni: The Master and the Pupil
Atlanta, AFP – A unique bench duel will take place on Sunday in the final of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in New York, as Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente (65) faces one of his former Argentine students, Lionel Scaloni (48). Like his former teacher, Scaloni has dispelled initial doubts and awakened the giant from its slumber.
The two managers share a common story, intertwined paths, and some personal traits, and they are now set to clash on the world’s biggest stage, at MetLife Stadium.
Their first point of intersection was Spain, where Scaloni played for nearly a decade for Deportivo La Coruña, Racing Santander, and Real Mallorca. He still resides there with his Spanish wife, Elisa Montero, and their children.
It was also in Spain that Scaloni obtained his coaching licenses, with Luis de la Fuente being one of his instructors in 2017.
Smiling after the thrilling 2-1 victory over England in the semi-finals, the Argentine said, “In addition to being my teacher during my coaching career, I have a special relationship with Luis because, frankly, I appreciate his closeness and his way of handling things. Fate willed that we meet in the final.”
Despite his modest coaching resume, the former defender succeeded in transforming the Argentine national team, which suffered from shaky morale and was accustomed to losing finals, into a winning machine (2022 World Cup, 2021 and 2024 Copa America).
When he arrived in 2018, the former assistant to Jorge Sampaoli had no experience as a head coach at the club level, and his appointment was initially seen as temporary, raising some doubts.
Even the late football legend Diego Maradona criticized his appointment as coach of the Albiceleste, saying at the time, “He is a wonderful young man, but he can’t even organize traffic.”
For his part, de la Fuente joked during the 2024 European Championship: “Initially, he faced a lot of criticism because, as some said, he also came with limited experience, but he had the bad luck of becoming champion of America and champion of the world with Argentina.”
Like Scaloni, de la Fuente had to struggle to dispel the doubts surrounding his appointment as head coach of La Roja after the 2022 World Cup and the departure of Luis Enrique.
Although de la Fuente was relatively unknown to the general public, the Spanish Football Federation was fully aware of him.
This friendly man, whose experience as a head coach did not exceed 11 matches (in the second division with Alavés in 2011), joined the Spanish Federation’s structure in 2013, after coaching youth teams at Sevilla FC and the reserve team of Athletic Bilbao.
The officials made the right assessment. De la Fuente won the European Championship with the under-19 national team in 2015, and then with the under-21 national team in 2019.
Many of the players in the World Cup final were part of that latter squad, including Fabián Ruiz, Dani Olmo, Mikel Oyarzabal, and Mikel Merino.
All these players were also part of La Roja, which won the 2024 European Championship by defeating England in the final.
Thus, de la Fuente is the coach who ended Spain’s long trophy drought since the golden generation that achieved the historic treble: Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and Euro 2012.
