{"id":565368,"date":"2025-11-12T09:20:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565368\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:20:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:20:53","slug":"barcelona-star-lamine-yamal-is-the-main-victim-of-club-versus-country-row-admits-spain-boss-luis-de-la-fuente","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565368\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona star Lamine Yamal is the ‘main victim’ of club versus country row, admits Spain boss Luis de la Fuente"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luis de la Fuente says the relationship between Spain and Barcelona can be improved by \u201cboth parties\u201d and insists Lamine Yamal is the \u201cmain victim\u201d of the current disagreement.<\/p>\n

Yamal was sent home from the national team camp yesterday<\/a> after it was revealed a medical test carried out by Barca \u2013 without the knowledge of the Spain medical team \u2013 meant he required up to 10 days\u2019 rest, ruling him out of the World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and Turkey.<\/p>\n

It was the latest twist in a saga that has been running for several weeks and had previously included\u00a0 Barca boss Hansi Flick accusing Spain of \u201cnot taking care of the player\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yamal flew back to Barcelona yesterday and De la Fuente said he was upset at how the situation had played out.<\/p>\n

He told the El Larguero programme on Cadena Ser<\/a>: \u201cHe is the first victim. He always wants to come. He has left sad and hurt. If anyone says otherwise, they are lying or have bad intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Barcelona<\/p>\n

De la Fuente: Yamal was excited to play the games<\/p>\n

Spain claimed they were aware Barca had carried out a medical procedure on Yamal\u2019s troublesome groin early Monday afternoon but only when the full medical report came through that night did it become apparent the winger would have to leave the squad.<\/p>\n

Asked how Yamal himself found out, De la Fuente said: \u201cWe went to his room and I talked to him. He was incredibly sad and very hurt. He was fine when he arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a player involved with the National Team and very much loved. He has left very sad, he was excited to play these games. He wants to do a great season with his club and also has the Finalissima and the World Cup to look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain are highly likely to secure their place in the World Cup over the next week but the stand-off over Yamal threatens to overshadow the build up to the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico next summer.<\/p>\n

It has been left to the national team\u2019s technical director Aitor Karanka to hold talks with Barca to ensure the relationship improves.<\/p>\n

De la Fuente said: \u201cI know that Karanka has been in contact with [sporting director] Deco and Bar\u00e7a. A lot. We\u2019ll have to talk even more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only is there Lamine, there are more Bar\u00e7a players and there is no problem. The relationship is not deteriorated, but everything can be improved by both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want controversy, insists Barcelona president Laporta<\/p>\n

Speaking on Catalunya Radio this morning, Barca president Joan Laporta defended the club\u2019s actions and insisted everything was done by the book.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe told them [the national team medics] when we had the answer from the doctor who examined him. Our doctors transferred it to those of the Federation. We don\u2019t want controversy. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn Monday the specialist came, made the diagnosis and did the treatment. Bar\u00e7a wants to have him in the best condition and we want to have him available. It happened like that and it has coincided with the match of the national team, but the national team already has things on track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luis de la Fuente says the relationship between Spain and Barcelona can be improved by \u201cboth parties\u201d and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-565368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115535995400341966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}