Spain boss Luis de la Fuente has been quizzed about Hansi Flick’s recent criticism of his treatment of Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal.
Flick said he felt Spain hadn’t been looking after Yamal properly
after he returned from the last international call-up with an injury and missed games for Barcelona.
De la Fuente says he was surprised by Hansi Flick’s comments
and felt he would have more “empathy” as a coach.“There’s no conflict, but what he said surprised me. I thought he had more empathy, having also been a coach. I don’t have any problem with him,” he told reporters.
“You know we have two very important games, that we’re playing the World Cup. It seems like they’re in the background, or in the background, and we’re talking about Flick. He said one thing, and I said another. There’s nothing else to talk about.”
The Spain boss was then asked if he felt Spain had made any mistakes with Yamal and offered up the following response.
“No, zero. Here, the risk is zero. Whoever comes here, comes healthy. In condition to play if they’ve done so with their club. And when they go home, it’s because we’ve assessed that they couldn’t be here because they were taking a risk,” he said.
“We talk to all the players; we know how they’re doing firsthand. If a club informs us that a player has any issues, we assess them. We’ll see how Lamine develops this weekend and see how much participation he has.”
Yamal is in the latest Spain squad along with Barcelona team-mates Pau Cubarsi, Pedri, Ferran Torres and Dani Olmo for World Cup qualifiers aganst Georgia and Bulgaria.
