SPANISH ALARM
AT MIDDAY on Tuesday, Spain’s biggest worry heading into their crucial World Cup opener with Portugal tomorrow was who would make their talented team.
Yet, less than 24 hours later, coach Julen Lopetegui had been sacked by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and Fernando Hierro, the former Real Madrid player, appointed to replace him. While not a first foray into management for Hierro, the RFEF’s Sporting Director, it is nevertheless a tough task.
Local media reports suggest the majority of the squad were fiercely opposed to RFEF president Luis Rubiales’s decision to dismiss Lopetegui for agreeing to become Real Madrid’s new manager after the World Cup without permission.
In particular, the core of Under-21 players he helped bring through the ranks, including David de Gea, Dani Carvajal, Isco, Thiago Alcantara and Koke, were said to be among the most vocal for keeping the coach in place.
Other players were said to be uneasy at the thought of being managed by Real’s new coach.
Hierro’s first task will be to unite the group. It is times like these when countries sink or swim. Spain’s Euro 2008 winning coach Luis Aragones signed a deal to take over at Fenerbahce on the eve of that tournament’s semi-final and that did the national side no harm.
A peer of Lopetegui’s, Hierro was a goalscoring midfielder who played 601 times for Real, captaining club as well as country.
He had spells in Qatar and England before retiring and has held a number of roles, including Sporting Director at Malaga and the Spanish FA as well as serving as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant at Real in his final season.
Already part of the back room staff in Russia, he is understood to have a good relationship with the squad, and as an 89-cap veteran of the national team nobody can suggest he does not know how tournament football works.
Will merely his aura and experience be enough to inspire a squad many consider to be the best group at the tournament? His only previous experience as a head coach was leading second division Oviedo to an eighth-placed finish in 2016/17, missing out on the play-offs.
Meanwhile, the pressure on Spain to make a winning start to their World Cup campaign is higher than ever after Lopetegui was fired.
Lopetegui (51) had coached Spain since 2016 and only signed a two-year contract extension to 2020, at the end of May.
But he will now not make a single tournament finals and it will be played out amid accusations that the announcement of his decision to quit after the World Cup – leading to his dismissal – has severely jeopardised Spain’s chances.
“We cannot have an employee negotiating a contract with another team and only find out about it five minutes before the announcement,” Rubiales said. “We have to remember all the good things he has done to get us here. But there are certain rules to follow and they have not been followed and we felt we had no choice.”
Spain’s opener against European Champions Portugal was always going to be tough and has seemingly just got harder. The Spain squad is always only ever one spat away from being divided down Real Madrid/Barcelona lines.
Now the former national team coach is about to become a Madrid employee. Lopetegui was asked about Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Real in an interview with Spanish TV this week. His answer that the matter was “not his concern” is no longer accurate.
Ronaldo is in a contract dispute with Real and Lopetegui will now play a part in deciding if he stays at the club beyond this summer.