Luis de la Fuente has suggested that the media are overlooking Arsenal’s David Raya in the controversy about Spain’s first-choice goalkeeper for the World Cup.
Spain have a wealth of goalkeeping options ahead of this summer’s World Cup with Raya competing for a spot alongside Athletic Bilbao’s Unai Simon, Barcelona’s Joan Garcia and Real Sociedad’s Alex Remiro.
Simon, who was Spain’s goalkeeper for his or her successful Euro 2024 campaign, was given a full 90 minutes on Friday night as La Roja sealed a 3-0 friendly win against Serbia. Raya and Remiro were each on the bench, while Simon didn’t make the squad.
Spain are on account of play Egypt of their next friendly on Tuesday but De la Fuente has refused to substantiate whether Raya, Remiro or Garcia will get a probability to impress.
Speaking after the victory against Serbia in Villarreal, De la Fuente made some extent of highlighting how highly regarded Raya is within the Premier League and questioned why he has not received more calls from the media to begin the Arsenal goalkeeper for the national side.
‘I can’t clear up any doubts for you. The perfect news is that I actually have no doubts in any respect. I actually have complete confidence in them. There’s something special about them,’ De la Fuente said when asked about his goalkeeping situation.
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‘The perfect news is seeing that every one 4 goalkeepers, no matter who was disregarded, embraced one another and are encouraging each other.
‘Unai Simon is Unai Simon, Raya is a unbelievable goalkeeper, and Alex Remiro is just nearly as good.
‘We’ll see what happens between now and Tuesday, but I actually have no doubts. My only regret is leaving one out. Let’s wait and see, don’t be in such a rush, and revel in not only these 4 goalkeepers but additionally a number of the others we have now.’
When asked if the choice to offer Simon a full game against Serbia reaffirms his position as Spain’s first-choice goalkeeper, De La Fuente replied: ‘I don’t must reaffirm Unai’s place.
‘It could be unfair if we didn’t value Unai’s quality, class, profession, and skilled experience. It could be absurd for me to have to return here and reaffirm it, simply because he’s Unai Simon. When a goalkeeper is at this level, you’ve gotten to respect his standing and his profession.
‘Besides, we have now David Raya, who I’m longing for you to ask me about. In England, they consider him the perfect goalkeeper on the earth, and here no one talks about him.
‘The identical goes for Joan Garcia and Alex Remiro, let’s be fair. But Unai Simon is indisputable. The others have lots of talent and sophistication, but every part in its own time.
‘We haven’t modified the goalkeepers because we understand that they’re special positions and should be treated in another way, but I insist that we have now three other impressive goalkeepers besides Unai.’
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