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COOL: Spain coach Vicente del Bosque. PHOTO: Kai Pfaffenbach/ Reuters

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Nonetheless, Vicente del Bosque was being hailed yesterday as one of the greatest football coaches, after his superlative Spain team won the admiration of Planet Football for Sunday's 4-0 destruction of Italy in the Euro 2012 final.

Sunday's triumph, which was Spain's third consecutive major trophy, meant that the taciturn, understated Del Bosque was the first coach to have won the Champions League, the European Championship and the World Cup.

Madrid sports daily AS hailed him as "one of the all-time greats", and Radio Marca saluted his "tactical know-how" and "ability to motivate players".

Cadena Cope described him as a "modest genius, able to get a little bit extra from his players", while Cadena SER praised him for "never wanting to steal the limelight from the players". He is more popular now in Spain than after guiding La Roja to their first World Cup two years ago, when a grateful King Juan Carlos gave him the noble title of "The First Marquis of Del Bosque".

During Sunday's celebrations in Kiev, Del Bosque characteristically stayed in the background, letting captain Iker Casillas and company enjoy the media attention and the applause of the crowd. With his trademark humility and serenity, the quiet 61-year-old said: "I understand the joy of the people at this. I'm pleased that we have given Spain a little bit of happiness.

"I have not spent much time in the dressing-room because so much euphoria is a bit too much for me."

When asked whether his experiment of playing without an out-and-out striker should be considered a success, Del Bosque refused to gloat or score points.

"That's not for me to say. We have just done what we thought was best. We probably would also have won playing a different way," he said.

Yesterday several Spanish media outlets apologised for having doubted the wisdom of his 4-2-4-0 (or 4-6-0) formation without a real striker, which seems to have been inspired by the experiments of Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.

Comments

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Tue May 21 11:53:52 SAST 2013 ::

Jul 3, 2012

lucky7

Del Bosque is one of the best coach Spain has evwer produce....I remember him back in the days when he was still a Madridista coach with players such as Raul, Redondo, Makelele, Hiero. They won Eufa Champion league and trhespotlight was on the players....after winning the World Cup in South Africa he kept a low key and let player be on the spotlight....i respect him and admire what he did for "La Furia Rojas".
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Jul 3, 2012

KingMay

Now he must come and coach Banana-Banana.
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Jul 3, 2012

sakhomba

forget total football.ghost number 9 is the future of the game.
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Jul 3, 2012

Skomoro99

No ways,best coach my foot,i respect Jose Mourinoh better than this guy.Even Skomoro can coach Spain coz it only consists of players from two teams who alredy understand each other.Barca players influence the type of soccer played by Spain.Del Bosque has never coached n ordinary team n won anything.He succeeded with Madrid coz they had the best players at the time but when they lost form,he also lost his job.When we talk of best coaches,the likes of Alex Ferguson,Jose Mourinoh,Guus Hidink,Steve Khompela,Muhsin Ertugral,ODG,etc these guys can turn a simple player into a world class star.I still want 2 c a match btwn current Spain against those young Brazilians n sparks wil fly there.
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Jul 3, 2012

Stumaeza

I'm not sure if Spain players listen to their coach or they just do what they do best...even Pitso Mosimane can win the world cup with those players.
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Jul 3, 2012

Kasiologist

He was short changed at Madrid, had he stayed, he probably would have won a lot more for that team.

Brilliant coach indeed.
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Jul 3, 2012

Flemza

Give this guy Spain coach Vicente del Bosque a double Bells , if only our national coaches could learn from , him picking players from two best teams in the league , if this happens here we will be unstoppable just like Spain in Europe , what a coach with a great vision no wonder no team can beat Spain in the world , this Spain coach Vicente del Bosque is great
Brilliant coach indeed
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Jul 3, 2012

dzembe

He is the best,one thing that is working to his favour is their effective development,you can see from the amount of quality they are bringing through the ranks.we need to start doing the same concetrate more on development surely we can concure the world.
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Jul 4, 2012

mathopeed

@I'm not sure if Spain players listen to their coach or they just do what they do best...even Pitso Mosimane can win the world cup with those players.
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Nah unless if he doesnt take Torres to Goalkeeping position, Xavi, defender. with Pitso, anything is possible bra
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