Luis de la Fuente condemns Argentina's post-final clashes
The World Cup trophy was barely in Spain’s hands when the mood around New York New Jersey Stadium turned sour.
As Spain’s players celebrated a second world title in the country’s history on Sunday, tempers flared. Nahuel Molina and Leandro Paredes moved to the centre of the storm, clashing with Rodri and Eric García amid the chaos of the immediate aftermath. Paredes also confronted Gavi in the melee.
What should have been a clean handover from contest to coronation instead left a bitter aftertaste.
Luis de la Fuente did not see it live. Lost in the euphoria, the Spain head coach was wrapped up in embraces and celebrations as his squad soaked in the scale of their achievement. Only later, watching the footage back, did the full picture hit him.
“At the time, I didn’t realise it. I was celebrating, hugging teammates,” he told Spanish television. “But in any case, it is intolerable, unacceptable, it cannot be allowed.”
The words were measured, but the message was sharp. De la Fuente had gone out of his way before the final to praise Argentina’s players and their coach, stressing the respect between the two footballing giants. That made the scenes he watched back all the more jarring.
“Players of that stature, whom I praised in the days leading up to the match and continue to praise, who are great players with a tremendous coach, surely they must have felt just as bad as we did seeing those reactions,” he said.
The images showed Molina and Paredes moving aggressively towards Spain’s celebrations, targeting Rodri and García as emotions boiled over. De la Fuente did not dress it up. He called them “acts of aggression” and “provocations” and made it clear he felt the line had been crossed.
The Spain coach, though, was just as quick to turn the spotlight on his own dressing room. For him, the key detail was not that trouble flared, but that it did not escalate.
He highlighted what he described as the exemplary restraint of his players in the face of confrontation, convinced that a different reaction could have turned an ugly flashpoint into something far more serious. In a night loaded with history, he wanted Spain to be remembered for the way they played – and for the way they carried themselves when the whistle had gone.
On the pitch, Spain left New York as world champions again. Off it, De la Fuente has drawn a firm line in the sand about how that status should be defended.
