Luis de la Fuente wins coaching Ballon d’Or and pays tribute to the collective

“Individual success makes us visible; collective success makes us invincible.” Luis de la Fuente summed up his football philosophy as he received the coaches’ Ballon d’Or. The Spain coach collected the award on stage in London and put his team at the heart of his speech.

At 65, De la Fuente became the oldest coach to be crowned world champion, surpassing Del Bosque, who was 59. The award also recognises the coach of a Spain side with 42 matches unbeaten, a tally that becomes one higher if friendlies are excluded.

De la Fuente began by lowering expectations about his English: “Don’t be alarmed, my English isn’t very fluent, but I hope to speak it better in the future.” He then accepted the honour with gratitude: “Receiving this award is an honour. Being among the nominees was already a prize, and I want to congratulate the other candidates.”

The coach rejected the idea that the achievement belonged to him alone. “This is an award for a collective, a great team, players it is an honour to coach, and a staff that is the best in the world,” he said, before thanking the federation, Louzán, the sporting director and his agency. He also thanked his family, “those who are here and those who are not.”

He described success as a matter of putting the group first: “The secret is having a group that puts collective good ahead of individual good. They are delivering this approach much better than we had imagined. This is their success.” De la Fuente said he felt “privileged to lead a team of this quality, both in sporting and human terms,” adding: “There may be other winning methods, but what we know for certain is that ours works.”

The previous edition of the award went to Luis Enrique. De la Fuente closed his speech with a line attributed to Marcus Aurelius: “Individual success makes us visible; collective success makes us invincible.”