Del Bosque Appointment Era

Lore & Background

After taking over from Luis Aragonés – who had led Spain to European success at UEFA Euro 2008 – del Bosque led the national team to their first FIFA World Cup in 2010, and then to retain their European Championship in 2012. Del Bosque coached Real Madrid from 1999 to 2003, one of the most successful periods in the club's modern era. During his playing career, del Bosque made over 400 appearances for Real Madrid, winning five La Liga titles and four Copas del Rey. He played internationally with the senior Spain national team on 18 occasions.

In Their Own Story

The rain in Johannesburg had turned the pitch into a slick mosaic of green and mud, but inside the circle, the Spanish midfield was a metronome. Xavi Hernandez received the ball, his body angled perfectly to shield it from a lunging defender. He didn't look up; he knew where Iniesta would be. A single touch, a whisper of a pass, and the ball rolled into space that shouldn't have existed. The crowd roared, but for Del Bosque on the sideline, it was just another Tuesday morning in Barcelona. There was no panic, only the rhythm of possession, the beautiful, suffocating certainty that Spain would not lose.

Reader's Guide

On 11 March 2008, del Bosque announced that he would replace Luis Aragonés as head coach of the Spain national team; it was confirmed on 15 July 2008. On 9 June 2009, in a friendly against Azerbaijan in which Spain won 6–0, del Bosque became the first manager in all of football history to win his first ten games as debut manager of a national team, the previous record being nine held by João Saldanha of Brazil. The record currently stands at 13 successive victories, with the last winning match being a 2–0 win against South Africa in the 2009 Confederations Cup, followed by a 2–0 defeat in the semifinal stage of the same competition against United States. On 14 October 2009, Spain joined the very small number of teams to have won all their World Cup qualifying games in a single campaign, achieving a record-breaking ten wins in ten games. In Spain's first game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on 16 June, they lost 1–0 to Switzerland.

Did You Know?

• Del Bosque is the only football manager to have won the World Cup, Champions League, European Championship, and Intercontinental Cup.
• He made 441 La Liga appearances as a player, scoring 30 goals.
• He won five La Liga titles and four Copa del Rey titles with Real Madrid as a player.
• He managed Real Madrid to two UEFA Champions League titles (2000 and 2002) and two La Liga titles (2001 and 2003).
• He became the first manager to win his first ten games as debut manager of a national team.