Spain boss Luis de la Fuente shuts down calls for Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal to be rested

Spanish national team head coach Luis de la Fuente has on Saturday responded to calls for young winger Lamine Yamal to be afforded a rest in the country’s next outing.

Lamine’s name has taken its place front and centre in the headlines in Catalunya’s capital once more over the course of the last couple of days.

This comes amid mounting concern on the part of the Barcelona faithful.

The attacker, still just 17, currently finds himself in the thick of something of a hectic stretch of fixtures.

After following up a 50-appearance breakout season at senior level with a triumphant campaign with Spain at Euro 2024, Lamine has since been afforded starts in all four of Barca’s La Liga outings to start the new term, too.

The prodigious starlet was then in from the off once more on Thursday, seeing out the full 90 minutes of his country’s Nations League stalemate with Serbia.

Calls, as a result, have begun to mount back at the Camp Nou, for Lamine to drop to the bench for Spain’s next fixture.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of as much – a crunch clash with Switzerland on Sunday – La Roja headmaster Luis de la Fuente was therefore drawn on the possibility of shaking things up on the right flank.

Safe to say, however, that the tactician’s response proved a definitive one:

“If we can’t play our players for 180 minutes in September… get out of here! We will do what we have to do. We have to represent our country, play the best players, and win to defend our prestige.”

Conor Laird | GSFN