Qatar 2022: Spain sack Enrique name replacement
His successor is the current under-21 coach Luis de la Fuente, who has been in charge of development and youth teams since 2013
SPAIN coach Luis Enrique has been sacked after his country’s World Cup flop.
The former Barcelona boss had see-sawed on his position after hinting he planned to quit ahead of the penalty-shoot-out defeat by Morocco and then suggesting he wanted to stay instead.
But just two days after Luis Enrique and his squad landed back in Madrid following their frustrations in the desert, the coach was handed his marching orders by Spanish FA chiefs.
In a statement issued by Madrid bosses, they said: “The sports management of the RFEF (Spanish FA) has transferred to the president a report in which it is determined that a new project should start for the Spanish Soccer Team.
“The aim is continuing with the growth achieved in recent years thanks to the work carried out by Luis Enrique and their collaborators.
“Both the president, Luis Rubiales, and the sports director, Jose Francisco Molina, have transmitted the decision to the coach.
“The Asturian coach managed to give a new impetus to the national team since his arrival, in 2018, through a profound renovation that has consolidated a generational change in the team and in Spanish football.”
That generational change - with the retirements of the remaining members of the squad that dominated European and world football from 2008 to 2012 - was not enough to save Enrique.
Spain have now gone out of their last three tournaments on penalties, losing to Russia in 2018 and Italy in the Euro 2020 semi-finals with criticism that Enrique’s teams controlled possession but lacked a cutting edge.
His successor has been named as current under-21 coach Luis de la Fuente, who has been in charge of development and youth teams since 2013 and who won both the European under-19 and under-21 titles in that period.
