“He has had no luck at all”

Luis de la Fuente, a Spanish coach, responded to criticism from Jon Uriarte, the president of Athletic Club de Bilbao, directed at the Spanish federation. He stated that “they did not know how to protect Nico Williams” and stressed that the leader “has not been lucky at all.”

“Nico is a very dedicated footballer for Athletic who has been bombarded with questions about his future in an excessive and uncontrolled way, while he is focused on playing in the Euro Cup with the Spanish Football Federation. In our opinion, they have not protected him well,” Uriarte said during a press conference.

Luis de la Fuente responded from the Spanish team’s training camp in Donaueschingen. “That statement was not happy at all,” he criticized on RNE.

“We fully and absolutely support the footballers, but they are free individuals. We understand that, regardless of their professionalism, external situations can occur and we consider these situations as normal,” he added.

De la Fuente assured that he is having talks with Nico and other footballers who have made decisions about their future during the Euro Cup. He defended that the forward is only focused on the Euro Cup.

“We communicate with the players and they focus on the task at hand. How they handle those questions in interviews, how they navigate those moments, depends on the player. They have the freedom to decide whether they want to discuss certain topics or not,” the coach explained.

“Their freedom, maturity and professionalism are key. I have no doubts about them. They do not discuss external matters because we operate as a close-knit group, but external events occur that we must consider as normal,” he concluded.

This content has been translated and adapted from the Spanish version of the digital newspaper