Luis Enrique's love story with the Spanish team will continue in Qatar, where he will make his debut as a coach at a World Cup. The Asturian aspires to emulate the success achieved last year in the Eurocup, his first major tournament as head of the red -Nations League aside-, when he reached the semifinals, in which penalties deprived him of fighting for title.
But regardless of the sporting successes he may reap in the Qatari desert, Luis Enrique will have already set foot in the history of Spanish football by sitting on the bench at the Al Thumama stadium in Doha to lead his team against Costa Rica.
In this 2022, Luis Enrique will become the fifth Spanish professional to lead the red team in a World Cup, having previously defended the team's shirt in the soccer event par excellence.
Before the Asturian streamer, Jose Emilio Santamaria, Luis Suarez, Jose Antonio Camacho and Fernando Hierro had achieved this milestone.
Santamaría played in the 1954 World Cup with Uruguay but in 1962, in Chile, he already did so defending Spain after being nationalized. In 1982, he sat on the Spanish bench in a World Cup to forget.
Luis Suárez was international as a player in the 1962 and 1966 appointments, later going to the bench in the 1990 World Cup, in Italy.
For his part, José Antonio Camacho was one of the main threads of the red fury in the eighties, playing as a player in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.
Last on the list so far is Fernando Hierro, an institution in the Spanish team, a shirt that he represented without interruption during four World Cups, from 1990 to 2002, saying goodbye at the Korean event. Four years ago, in Russia, he had to sit on the bench after Julen Lopetegui's stormy goodbye.
Luis Enrique will be one more on this select list this Wednesday.
