Spain coach Luis de la Fuente extends contract through Euro 2032

Luis de la Fuente has signed a six-year contract extension with Spain that will keep him in charge until the end of the 2032 European Championship.

The Spanish FA (RFEF) confirmed the agreement on Monday after it was ratified at an executive meeting. The deal, originally agreed during Spain’s successful 2026 World Cup campaign, represents the longest tenure ever approved for a Spain head coach.

It will take De la Fuente through the 2028 European Championship, the 2030 World Cup and the 2032 European Championship.

Sources close to the federation say the new contract also includes a considerable pay rise, rewarding a coach who has guided Spain to the most successful period in generations after years of work within the national academy system.

De la Fuente has won the 2023 Nations League, the 2024 European Championship and the 2026 World Cup. Spain’s only failure in that run came in the 2025 Nations League, when they were beaten by Portugal on penalties.

The team are also on a record unbeaten run of 38 matches.

When De la Fuente took over, he was viewed as a relatively unknown federation coach following the high-profile Luis Enrique era. Some supporters had to search for information about him, while sections of the media referred to him as “Luis de la Who?”.

Since then, he has overseen 50 matches and won three major trophies, transforming that early scepticism into a clear belief that he is central to Spain’s future.

The 64-year-old was presented on Monday at the RFEF’s Ciudad del Futbol training ground in Madrid, sitting alongside federation president Rafael Louzan and the trophies accumulated during his rise from youth-team coach to leader of the world’s leading side.

De la Fuente’s route to the senior job was built away from the spotlight. A former hard-working full back with Athletic Bilbao, he joined the RFEF in 2013 and progressed through Spain’s youth teams rather than establishing a career in club football’s public eye.

That experience later became a major advantage. Rodri, Unai Simon and Mikel Merino were members of his European Under-19-winning team in 2015. Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal, Dani Olmo and Fabian Ruiz subsequently worked with him in the successful Under-21 side, while Pedri, Martin Zubimendi and Marc Cucurella were part of Spain’s Olympic silver-medal team in Tokyo.

By the time he replaced Luis Enrique in December 2022, following Spain’s disappointing World Cup in Qatar, De la Fuente already knew the character and footballing development of many of the players he would lead.

“During the 2024 Euros, we began to emphasise a word that gave us a great deal of security, confidence and strength family. We want the Spanish national team to be a family and that is honestly how we feel,” he said.

Despite Spain’s achievements, De la Fuente said the new contract should mark the beginning of another phase rather than the conclusion of his work.

“We are not content with what we have achieved so far. The best is yet to come.”