The coach of the Spanish soccer team, Luis de la Fuente Castillo, responded to an atheist who questioned him about God and faith, before the Euro 2024 final that he will play with England this Sunday, July 14 in Berlin, Germany.
“Those of us who are atheists respect but do not fully understand the relationship of those who have faith with God. “Where is God and faith when there is a final and absolutely everything is required to win?” an atheist journalist from the BBC questioned the Spanish coach, in a recent press conference, within the framework of Euro 2024 that this Sunday comes to an end with a new champion: Spain or England.
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“I understand you perfectly because the same thing happens to me with atheists, exactly the same,” responded de la Fuente Castillo, causing laughter from those present.
“Faith is something personal and transferable, in this case it is not non-transferable, it is transferable, but it is personal. (…) Since I am free and I can choose what I think I have to do, based on my intelligence and my experiences (…) well, they invite me to believe in God and give me a lot of security and a lot of strength,” continued the Spain coach.
Luis de la Fuente later said, remembering what he had told Helena Condi of the COPE network, that this “has nothing to do with superstition. I am zero superstitious.”
“I pray every day, I don’t wear a yellow shirt the day I win. If I pray today and tomorrow, I have also done so for a long time. “They are not superstitions.”
There have been several occasions on which Luis de la Fuente has spoken openly about his faith. During an interview with a Spanish newspaper The worldstressed that if one does not believe in God, life “would have no meaning.”
“There are not one, but a thousand reasons to believe in God. Without God, nothing in life has meaning,” he stated on that occasion.
Likewise, in an interview with The newspaper, noted that he has “a good relationship with God.” “So I ask Him, San Fermín and the Virgin of La Vega to help us, to be close,” she commented.
Who is Luis de la Fuente Castillo?
Luis de la Fuente Castillo is a former footballer and coach who is now in charge of the Spanish national football team. He is 63 years old and has been a coach since 1997.
In 2015 he won the European title with the under-19 team; and in 2019 the same with the sub-21.
A few years ago he was a teacher of Lionel Scaloni, current coach of Lionel Messi’s Argentina, which this Sunday plays the final of the Copa América in Miami against Colombia, which reaches this stage after 23 years.
In statements to the press, Scaloni, the leader of the so-called “Scaloneta”, was the one who remembered the bond with de la Fuente and thanked the Spanish coach for his teachings. “Part of my family is Spanish and logically I am going through Spain,” he added.
In this regard, Luis de la Fuente said of Scaloni that “he is great. He has demonstrated exceptional preparation and mastery of his work. He has won everything with the National Team and has the possibility of repeating the title. I celebrate him because I have great appreciation, I have a great relationship with him.”
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.