By Ewah Chika.
Vincent Del Bosque might have thought twice about taking the Spanish national team job in 2008 after Luis Aragones stepped down from his role after winning the European Competition in 2008 which was Spain's first major trophy . At the time, Aragones had achieved massive success where
others had failed as Spain announced themselves to the world.
Del Bosque himself at the time of his appointment by the Spanish FA wasn't a rookie after winning the Champions League and Spanish La Liga with Real Madrid before his sacking by Florentino Perez in 2003. Del Bosque quickly revolutionised Spain football, playing possession based football as Spain not only won their first ever FIFA World Cup in 2010 but also defended and retained their European crown in 2012 becoming the first and only nation to win the Euro's successively . Things gradually fell apart for Del Bosque as Spain were embarrassed in 2014 during the FIFA World Cup (failing to make the second round) and also bowing out to Italy in the quarter-final of the just concluded Euro's in France. After the defeat by Italy it was clear to all that it was an end of an era as fresh changes needed to be done. Del Bosque stepped aside after winning an impressive 75% of his 114 games while in charge which is difficult to come by.
"There won't be a revolution, there will be an evolution.
"The base of the national team is clear and still in it's best moment. We are not thinking about a transition. Instead we are thinking about how to resolve each match ahead," were the words of the Basque born Julen Lopetegui on his unveiling as the new Spanish national team coach last week.
In came Julen Lopetegui who was recently sacked by FC Porto in January after recording poor results in the league. The 46-year-old was a goalkeeper and played for the likes of Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid and Barcelona in his playing days. Lopetegui has also coached various youth Spanish teams with exceeding success which most prominent of them are the U-21 team which he led to victory in the European U-21 tournament in 2013 with the likes of Isco, Thiago Alcantara, Koke and David de Gea and also the European U-19 tournament win with Spain.
The Basque, won one cap for the Spanish national team although he was part of the Spanish team for the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
One flaw of the coach is his inability to remain in his job at club level for more than 18 months as he was sacked by Rayo Vallaceno after taking charge of his tenth game in 2003/2004 campaign in the Segunda division. Although he recorded success with both the Spanish U-19 and U-21 sides, history was repeated when Porto sacked him after 18 months of taking over in January. The Spanish coach failed to win any trophy with the Portuguese side despite boasting Porto's biggest budget ever and after signing seven Spanish players. Lopetegui in his debut season led Porto to the quarter-final of the Champions League where they lost to Bayern Munich after equalising the club's biggest defeat in European competitions (6-1 against AEK Athens) and also suffering the biggest defeat in the competition (6-1 against Bayern Munich) in the same season 2014/2015 season.
Club football is quite different from international football and from his records it seems Lopetegui is more suited to the latter than the former considering his great success with Spanish youth teams. The Basque coach was earlier reported to be hours away from being appointed the new manager of English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers before his appointment by the Spanish FA and such reports if true shows how international football has fallen as top managers seem more comfortable with club management hence reluctant to take up national team jobs judging from the likes of Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho.
It is still too early to predict how well the former Porto boss will fare but what is clear is that
Lopetegui is expected not only to win his World Cup qualifying group which has the likes of Italy, Albania, Isreal and FYR Macedonia but also reach the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup in Russia considering the pool of talent in the national team.
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