Hinting at Retirement, Del Bosque's Legacy Already the Stuff of Legend

In his excellent history of Spanish football, author Jimmy Burns describes Vicente Del Bosque’s Madrid residence in almost austere terms.

But, he adds in La Roja – How Soccer Conquered Spain and How Spanish Soccer Conquered the World, “it was also taken up with simpler pursuits, like the computer course in basic English belonging to his beloved youngest son who has Down’s syndrome, and surprising touches of humour such as a cartoon effigy of Joan Gaspart, one of the most disastrous presidents in the history of FC Barcelona, smiling like a Goya witch.”

In other words, the sitting room in which Burns found himself was Del Bosque to a tee: simple, family-oriented and accented with a straightforward sense of humour appropriate to what he, himself, told Burns was an “august, cold and quite serene” Castilian upbringing.

Now 62 years old and into his 26th year of management, Del Bosque—the son of a staunch Republican once imprisoned by Franco’s forces—is contemplating retirement. He admitted as much in a Monday press conference ahead of this week’s international friendly against Ecuador in Guayaquil.

“I will decide [if I will retire] in due course,” he answered a question about his future after the 2014 World Cup. “That could well be the case.” (Eurosport)

If he made his exit following the World Cup, he would bring to an end one of the most incredible, unlikely careers in football history.

Sacked by Real Madrid just days after delivering the club the 2002-03 Primera Division Title (Madrid president Florentino Perez didn’t believe he could manage the egos of players such as David Beckham, whom he was about to buy from Manchester United), Del Bosque took some time off before accepting an offer from Besiktas ahead of the 2004-05 campaign.

He lasted only seven months in Turkey before a record of eight wins from 17 matches saw him lose his job toward the end of January. He would not manage a single football match until taking over the Spanish national team—reigning European champions—in the summer of 2008.

What followed made, and continues to make, history.

Adopting the template set out by former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, Del Bosque played to the strengths of the football already being used at the continent’s most successful club, plugging in the likes of Madrid stars Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa and allowing Meringues icon Iker Casillas to retain the captain’s armband.

Masterfully, he massaged what during the Guardiola-Jose Mourinho years had become a vicious Barcelona-Madrid rivalry, relying on long-time friends Casillas and Xavi Hernandez to bring a historically divided squad together.

Together, they delivered some of the most dominant football in the history of the sport. And providing his calm, honest guidance through it all was Del Bosque.

Currently, Spain are in a fight with France for first place in European World Cup Qualification Group I and automatic passage to next summer’s finals. Get there and La Roja will have participated in every World Cup tournament since 1974. Win it and Del Bosque will become just the second manager to oversee more than one world championship (Vittorio Pozzo is the other.)

That would make quite the exit for the wise, quiet man from Salamanca. Wise, quiet—yet with a flourish. Classic Del Bosque.

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