Football
ESPN staff 8y

Julen Lopetegui hopes to usher in new era as Spain coach

Newly named Spain coach Julen Lopetegui said he plans to build upon the groundwork already laid by outgoing manager Vicente del Bosque but with an eye to the future and the challenges the team face.

Spain's football federation named Lopetegui as the new coach on Thursday for a two-year term, replacing Del Bosque. His first match will be Spain's friendly in Belgium on Sept. 1. Four days later, Spain begin their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with a home match against Liechtenstein.

Del Bosque stepped down after eight years in charge following Spain's elimination in the round of 16 of the European Championship last month.

"We must be proud of the past, but we will also adjust to the necessities of the new era, looking to the future to take adaptations necessary," the 49-year-old told reporters. "We will not be having a revolution, but rather an evolution."

"There is a lot of work to be done. The principal players will have to be chosen to compete in the best way possible. In all of this, the players are the most important priority."

Lopetegui had been without a job since January after being fired by Porto, his only head coaching job with a major club. He failed to win a title during almost two years in Portugal. 

Asked how he has changed, he cited the experience with Porto for helping shape him and prepare him for this job. He said: "I am better prepared to make better decisions."

One of Lopetegui's main tasks will be to rebuild the team as many of its top players have started to fade. His familiarity with some of Spain's younger players from his stint as its youth team coach could help him move on from an aging group led by the 32-year-old Andres Iniesta.

A former goalkeeper who started a handful of games for Real Madrid and Barcelona, Lopetegui played for Spain in the 1994 World Cup. He coached Spain's youth squads from 2010 to 2014 and admitted that his experience with the youth squads would help him to shape a new future for Spain.

"It is true I know many of them," he said. "I am convinced that Spain had a great generation and the next one is full of ambition and quality and it will bring us to win more titles with great pride."

Del Bosque left after leading Spain's most successful generation of players to titles at the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship. He wished his successor well on Thursday.

"He's a man with experience, well trained and with huge enthusiasm and lots of energy," Del Bosque told Radio Marca. "He will know how to manage [the team] like he has done brilliantly in the younger age categories."

Lopetegui had been linked with a move to Championship side Wolves, but said that the Spain offer overrode any other option, thus ending speculation that he would replace head coach Kenny Jackett.

"I want to thank Robin Li and those who have bought the team and who confided in me but before the call from the national team, I had to put that on the back burner," he said. "The timing was that we were talking about that when this offer came and this was my only choice."

He said he has not yet spoken with Del Bosque but plans to and that he is pleased with the team Del Bosque has left him and the groundwork that has been set.

Asked about Porto goalkeeper Iker Casillas' potential continuance with Spain, Lopetegui said: "Today is not the time or place to speak about individual players but any player who is in optimum conditions is a candidate for the team.

"There is nothing absolute right now, as we look at all the players we will evaluate with the idea of improvement."

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