Haro was the place that saw Luis de la Fuente take his first steps in football. He marked the beginning of a career that led him to wear the shirts of Athletic, Sevilla and Alavés and win two leagues and … a Copa del Rey with the Bilbao team.
José María Ibáñez witnessed those beginnings. “Luis arrived at Haro when I was starting to train and was first with Ramón Arízaga in the youth team and then with Valentín Corcuera,” he remembers. “He was here for a few years because he immediately left for Athletic,” adds the coach, who defines Luis de la Fuente as a “very good” footballer who was already showing signs of success when he was very young. “He was a left wing player, a winger who made the difference,” he summarizes.
De la Fuente, in various interviews, has always said that he was self-taught in football. The street was his school in sports until he arrived at Haro Deportivo and discovered the sports discipline. “And that was when Athletic noticed him and they were not wrong at all,” considers Ibáñez.
He arrived in Bilbao, according to the coach, “supported by a relative named Pedro.” Even so, those who lived through that time with him assure that those first months away from home were not easy. “We must keep in mind that the 14 years of before are not like those of now and he had to leave his family and friends, to whom he was very close,” says Rodolfo Merino. “People may think that he had it all, but those beginnings were not easy,” he adds.
He overcame that stage and took steps until the current moment, that of coach. Still, humility has always been part of his DNA. “He always tells us that he envies us because he goes from the plane to the hotel and from the hotel to the field, in addition to watching many soccer games every weekend,” explains Merino. “He has never believed himself more than anyone else,” he concludes.
#Argentina
