<p>Kind, warm, smiling and armed with the serene certainty of someone who has spent ⁠more than a decade building his team piece-by-piece, he heads to the World Cup with a side many regard as the one to beat.</p><p>De la Fuente, who spoke to Reuters before travelling to North America, said the secret of the European champions' rise ‌was more than a clear tactical path, a motivational speech or one man's genius but something simpler and warmer.</p><p><strong>"Some time ago, we began to emphasise a word that gave us ‌a great deal of security, confidence and strength - family'. We want the Spanish national team to be a family,"</strong> he said.</p><p>“From ‌the first player to the last, we all work with that idea in mind and that makes me feel very calm, very serene. It makes me ‌work knowing that I am in good company and that gives me a great deal of confidence.”</p><p>That word has become ‌the spine of his Spain outfit: a group bound not only by talent but by years of shared dressing rooms, junior tournaments, disappointments, trophies and trust.</p>

De La Fuente's long and unusual route to the top

<p>It has been a long and unusual route to the top for De la Fuente, once a hard-working full back who made his ‌name in the Basque Country with Athletic Bilbao and built his coaching career largely away ⁠from club football's glare, spending a decade inside Spain's youth system.</p><p>When he ‌was appointed Spain manager over three years ago, parts of the media mocked him as "Luis de la Who?" He was seen by many as a low-key ​federation man, orderly and diligent, but lacking the glamour usually demanded of such a job.</p><p>His answer has been emphatic: Nations League glory in 2023, the European Championship in 2024 and a Spain side arriving at the World Cup carrying the confidence of ​a team that knows exactly what it is.</p><p>A practising Catholic who strives to live according to his faith, De la Fuente said he had no interest in settling old scores.</p><p><strong>"Time proves you right and proves you wrong. Time puts everyone in their place. I knew what ⁠I had to do,"</strong> he said.</p><p>"I'm not vindictive and ​I believe everyone should reflect on what they may have said or done and weigh it up. I haven't changed a bit since then. I'm still the same person, believe me ... My life hasn't changed.</p><p><strong>"I'm still doing exactly the same things I was doing three and a half years ago. I go to the same places, I go to the same restaurants, the same cafes, I walk down the street calmly doing exactly ‌the same things."</strong></p>

De La Fuente's greatest advantage

<p>If others needed convincing, his players did not. De la Fuente's greatest advantage was once treated as a weakness: he rose step-by-step and took many of this generation with him.</p><p>Mikel Merino played under him in back-to-back European Under-21 finals against Germany, losing in 2017 but winning two years later. Mikel Oyarzabal, Dani Olmo and Fabian Ruiz were also part of that 2019 success and became senior European champions.</p><p>Merino's first international title with De la Fuente came even earlier, in 2015, when he played alongside Rodri and goalkeeper Unai Simon in Spain's 2-0 win over Russia in the European Under-19 Championship final in Greece.</p><p>From those older figures to Pedri, Martin Zubimendi and Marc Cucurella, players who were part of Spain's Olympic silver-medal campaign in Tokyo, De la Fuente has a squad that often appears to understand him before he finishes a sentence.</p><p><strong>"Our relationship goes beyond the purely professional,"</strong> he said.</p><p>"With Rodri in particular, we've known each other for more than 10 years; ‌since 2015 we've been through a lot.</p><p><strong>"So I'm sure that in his life, and in the lives of many of the players who ​are with me today, there hasn't been a single coach who's been able to tell them things the way I've told ‌them. I guarantee it."</strong></p><p>For De la Fuente, that intimacy is not just sentimental but them an edge.</p><p><strong>"They know that what I tell them comes from honesty, from integrity, and always with their best interests at heart, because they know me,"</strong> he added.</p><p>"When someone speaks from a place of confidence, from that conviction, knowing that it will get through to you, touch your heart and convince you, well, I think we've already won a great deal.</p><p><strong>"Then, out on the pitch, put all your talent at the service of ⁠that idea. And at the service of your teammates – that's your job."</strong></p><p>Their ⁠job will be to first get past debutants Cape Verde, ‌Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group H as they bid to win the country's second World Cup title after Spain's 2010 triumph.</p>