With Spain due to play France in the World Cup semi-final on Tuesday, the man in charge will be once again drawing on his faith to provide him with strength and inspiration during the  clash between two of Europe’s footballing giants. 

Spain manager Luis de la Fuente, who hails from Haro in northern Spain, is open about his Catholic faith and how it inspires him during his country’s bid for a second World Cup. 

He recently reaffirmed his faith in an interview with the website El Resurgir de Madrid. “Yes I do believe. I am a Catholic,” he stated.

“In my experience, I’m happy. I love it, it gives me a lot of strength, it gives me a lot of confidence. It has allowed me to be the person I am today,” he added.

De la Fuente in the same interview also expressed surprise at how his faith was such a talking point. 

“I don’t understand why some people, after those public statements I made about my creed and religious beliefs, now approach me in the street to thank me for that testimony,” he said. 

“Nothing is more valuable than my freedom. I respect everyone who respects me. In other words, I demand respect. I think diversity is great; there has to be everything, all kinds of thoughts, beliefs, ideologies… But I also want to be included, and we Catholics want to be there,” he went on to say.

Before Spain’s final with England during the European Championship in 2024, which Spain eventually won 2-1, de la Fuente also spoke about his beliefs.

“God gives me security and strength,” he said. When asked where God was during a high-stakes football game he said that “I am free and I can choose what I have to do, and both my experience and my intelligence invite me to believe in God.”

While it is quite ordinary for football players to have a superstitious routine that they follow before every game, for de la Fuente, prayer is enough. “I’m not superstitious at all. I pray every day. I don’t wear a yellow shirt on the day I win. If I pray today and tomorrow, it’s because I’ve been doing it for a long time,” he said.

Catholicism at the World Cup

Given the international scope of the World Cup, de la Fuente is not the only one whose faith has provided solace during the tournament. Croatia – finalists in 2018, semi-finalists in 2022, although they crashed out in the round of 32 this year – is a team full of Catholics. 

The manager Zlatko Dalić undertook a walking pilgrimage to Međugorje ahead of this year’s World Cup and in 2023 spoke at the youth festival there.

It is not a rare sight to see pictures of the Croatian team at Mass together and Igor Matanović recently said “I think faith is very important to me. When you pray to God, you feel like someone is listening to you, and that gives me a lot of strength.”

Brazil’s manager Carlo Ancelotti, who also happens to be one of the most successful managers of all time, is a Catholic, too. 

“Religion has taught me good things like how to conduct myself in life, how to respect others,” Ancelotti recently told The Guardian. “I am Catholic and religion has been very important to me and has taught me to be a good person in the world.”

Lionel Messi, the Argentine superstar who is often considered the best player of all time, is also a baptised Catholic. Although he and his wife didn’t get married in the Catholic Church, his children are all baptised. 

He described his otherworldly talent as a gift from God.

“Obviously he [God] gave me that gift,” Messi said a few years ago in widely quoted remarks, “I have no doubt about that. He chose me and, obviously, I then did everything possible to try to improve myself and achieve success. But without his help, I would not have gotten anywhere.”

If Argentina beat England on Wednesday, and if Spain get past France on Tuesday, then it will be Messi’s God-given talents that de la Fuente will be most focused on stopping.