De la Fuente, Scaloni & Southgate – could England follow the trend?

Lee Carsley’s chances of becoming permanent England manager appeared to have been dented by Friday’s defeat to Greece – but it was not for nothing that he was given the chance to impress.

The recent success of national teams gaining promotion from their own ranks means his appointment is likely to remain an attractive prospect for many in the football association.

Carsley, who led the England under-21 team to the European title last year, has lined up to replace Gareth Southgate for the six Nations League group games in 2024.

After two wins in September, Carsley was widely expected to lose the job, but an experiment without a striker in the 2-1 Wembley defeat to Greece may have hurt those prospects.

There also remains uncertainty over whether the former Everton midfielder even wants to take the job full-time, with Carsley steadfastly refusing to put himself in or out of the running.

However, Spain and Argentina have shown what can happen when you promote from within instead of going for a bigger name.

Luis de la Fuente led Spain to Euro 2024 glory by beating England in the final, and Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina are world champions and two-time Copa América winners.

De la Fuente briefly served as head coach of then third division club Alaves in 2011, but that was the biggest club job he or Scaloni had before managing their countries.

Both were active in their national organizations before being given the leadership.

There are other notable cases: the recent winning coaches of the Africa Cup of Nations, the Oceanic OFC Cup and the Concacaf Gold Cup all had success at international youth level before gaining promotion.

The dilemma for England

Southgate followed the same path as Carsley, rising from the U21s and initially leading England on a temporary basis, although he had also previously coached Middlesbrough.

Carsley’s managerial experience included spells in Coventry, Brentford and Birmingham.

Many England fans wanted Southgate to leave and criticized supposedly negative tactics. Nevertheless, he will go down in history as the second most successful men’s coach in the country.

He led the Three Lions to European Championship finals in 2021 and 2024 – losing both – and only Sir Alf Ramsey has led England to a men’s final before, the 1966 World Cup, which remains their only trophy.

“Southgate’s achievements were seen as a testament to the years of work he had done in building a national coaching system after he finally took over in November 2016,” BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty said.

“The idea of ​​promoting within their system is understandably attractive to the FA as it would be clear evidence of their coaching development success, following in Spain’s footsteps.”

“The FA also liked Carsley’s rise because he worked so closely with a group of young development-level players such as Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Marc Guehi and others. De la Fuente was a similar example. He built Spain’s newest strong team.

“This was all part of the St George’s Park strategy put in place by the FA.”

But some England fans may prefer a bigger name – like Eddie Howe, Graham Potter, Pep Guardiola’s dream if unlikely option – or the new bookies’ favorite, Thomas Tuchel.

“Lee Carsley’s ill-fated selection game against Greece has thrown a wrench into the Football Association’s preferred path for national team manager,” said McNulty.

“It has reignited the debate over whether Carsley has the qualifications and experience to lead England to the 2026 World Cup, although the FA would have much preferred a smooth transfer of power, with another graduate of the St George’s Park system imbued with it “They like to name their DNA at the helm after Southgate.

De la Fuente provides England with first-hand evidence that the model works

Spain were the standout team at Euro 2024 despite lacking the household names of England. On paper, not many of their players might have made the England team – yet they proved to be a much better team.

The man who made this possible was De la Fuente.

After the disappointing 2022 World Cup in Spain, former Barcelona coach Luis Enrique resigned and was replaced by the then-unannounced 61-year-old.

For the past nine years he has worked as manager for the Spanish U19, U21 and U23 national teams.

He has never managed a top club and was released by Alaves after just four months.

Six months into his career as a Spaniard, they won the UEFA Nations League.

“Spain’s appointment of Luis de la Fuente was a logical decision after Luis Enrique left because the association was run like a football club,” said Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague.

“Many people are now copying this idea.

“The reaction was, ‘Who is De la Fuente?’ And he felt that he lacked self-confidence right from the start until the European Championships, even though he had already won the Nations League.

De la Fuente won the U19 and U21 European Championships with Spain.

Euro 2024 heroes who had played in one or both of these winning teams included Rodri, the player of the tournament this year, joint top scorer Dani Olmo, goalkeeper Unai Simon and Mikel Oyarzabal, the scorer of the winning goal in the final against England.

Balague said: “De la Fuente had players who were important to him in the first team like Dani Olmo, Fabian Ruiz and Unai Simon and he knows what they can give him. This is such a valuable asset.”

“[He says] “I know the personalities, they may not be the best players, but I know what they can give me.”

This gives England food for thought as Carsley fielded six of his Under-21 European champions – including Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Levi Colwill – in his first three games as manager.

Scaloni ends Argentina’s long losing streak – with three trophies

Scaloni had a solid but unspectacular playing career – winning seven caps for Argentina – and played for clubs such as Deportivo La Coruna, West Ham and Lazio.

When he took over, he served as Argentina’s U20 coach and assistant to the senior team, initially as interim champion in 2018.

This was his first leadership role.

Balague said: “Argentine director Cesar Luis Menotti felt that the team needed a new regime and that Scaloni – with the help of other former players who had joined, such as Walter Samuel and Pablo Aimar – could bring about further change.”

“He was the only one who defended it. It was neither part of tradition nor politics, but a response to a crisis, and then everything worked very well.”

At that point, the country had not won a trophy for 25 years.

In less than six years under Scaloni, Argentina has won the World Cup and two Copa America trophies. He will go down in history as the man who finally found a way to win at international level with Lionel Messi.

If England follow a similar path, they will hope that Carsley, with his many Premier League stars, could be the man to get it done.

Who else has done it?

Ivory Coast won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, held earlier this year, under the leadership of Emerse Fae.

Fae took over during the tournament following the surprise dismissal of Jean-Louis Gasset following a disappointing group stage.

The former Ivory Coast midfielder was Gasset’s assistant and, in addition to that role, was also the country’s U23 coach.

There are other examples too.

Mexico defeated Panama in last year’s Gold Cup final, the continental competition for countries from North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Jaime Lozano was interim coach after Diego Cocca was fired a few days before the start of the tournament.

Lozano was coach of Mexico’s under-23 team from 2018 to 2021, although he led the Necaxa club for a while before returning to the national team.

New Zealand won the OFC Nations Cup in June this year under the leadership of Englishman Darren Bazeley.

The 51-year-old former Wolves and Watford player has been involved with the New Zealand team on and off since 2008, holding roles with the U17, U20 and U23 teams.

The only continental championship currently run by a manager who could be considered an external hire is the Asian Cup.

This year Qatar, whose manager is Tintin Marquez, won.

He had previously worked at the country’s Aspire Academy but joined Qatar in December 2023 after a spell as Al-Wakrah boss.

When Qatar won the last Asian Cup in 2019, their Spanish coach Felix Sanchez had previously been their youth team manager.

And if the idea of ​​promoting from within and reaping the benefits is extended to the reinforcement of assistant managers, then the 2014 World Cup-winning German coach Joachim Löw is another to join the list of success stories can be added.

Does it always work?

Of course, appointing your old youth coach won’t always work – but it does seem to have a good success rate.

Since 2010, there have been four further cases in which national teams from the current Fifa top 20 ranking hired their former youth coach to coach the senior national team – with the exception of coaches whose previous tenure was more than a decade ago.

• Julen Lopetegui coached Spain’s U19, U20 and U21 at various intervals between 2010 and 2014 before spending two years as Porto coach. He served as Spain head coach between 2016 and 2018, going unbeaten in 20 games – before being sensationally sacked on the eve of the World Cup when it was revealed he had agreed to subsequently take the job at Real Madrid.

• Niko Kovac was promoted to the top job by Croatia U21 coach shortly before the 2014 World Cup play-offs. He led his country to the tournament, but the team was eliminated in the group stage. He was released the following year.

• Sergio Batista led Argentina to Olympic gold in 2008 before being promoted to the top job in 2010 – initially as interim coach, succeeding Diego Maradona. A year later, he lost his job after Argentina were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Copa America.

• Hajime Moriyasu has been Japan coach since 2018, promoted from his role as coach of the Olympic team. Moriyasu was also Japan’s assistant coach at the 2018 World Cup. He led the team to the 2019 Asian Cup final and the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup after defeating Spain and Germany in the group stage.