World Cup Final Set: Argentina's Scaloni Faces His Old Coaching Teacher De la Fuente Sunday at MetLife Stadium

Since Argentina's 2-1 comeback win over England and Spain's 2-0 win over France, both on July 14-15, the World Cup field is down to two teams and one final storyline. Lionel Scaloni's Argentina plays Luis de la Fuente's Spain on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, according to Dawn.

The stakes are straightforward. Argentina wants to become the first nation since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups. Spain wants its second title, 16 years after winning it all in South Africa in 2010, according to Reuters reporting carried by WKZO.

What makes this matchup singular is what happened before either man became a national team manager. In 2017, two years after Scaloni retired as a player, he enrolled in Spain's pro coaching license program at the Spanish Football Association's academy in Las Rozas, outside Madrid. De la Fuente, then running Spain's youth teams, was one of his instructors, according to Dawn and WKZO.

Nine years later, the student is trying to beat the teacher for the sport's biggest prize.

De la Fuente said after Spain's semifinal win over France that he'd be glad to draw Argentina, not because he saw them as a weaker opponent but because of the friendship, according to WKZO. "I am very excited to face Argentina because I'm a very close friend of Lionel Scaloni," de la Fuente said, as reported by the New York Post. "It will be a head-to-head match between two great teams."

Scaloni has returned the sentiment repeatedly over the past two years, not just this week. At the 2024 Copa America, he credited de la Fuente directly: "Luis has been a huge help to those of us who did the coaching course in Las Rozas. I've had chats with him and I wish him all the best," Scaloni said, according to both WKZO and tbsnews. After Argentina's semifinal win over England, he put it more bluntly: "He's my mentor. He taught me everything I know. Now we face each other in a final," Scaloni said, per the Post.

That friendship has its limits. Scaloni made clear it stops at kickoff. "On Sunday, I'm very, very sorry," he said. "I'm going to try to beat him."

Scaloni's ties to Spain aren't just professional. He played several seasons there at Deportivo La Coruna, Racing Santander and Mallorca. His wife, Elisa Montero, is Spanish. They live in Mallorca with their two sons, according to Dawn and the Post.

Scaloni has acknowledged the divided loyalty before. At the 2024 European Championship, he said, "Part of my family is Spanish and, naturally, I'm supporting Spain," per WKZO's reporting. That kind of admission, from a manager about to coach against the country his own family roots for, is the sort of thing that would get mocked as disloyalty in a lot of sports. In this case it reads as exactly what it is: a guy who's spent half his adult life in Spain, married a Spanish woman, and still built Argentina into the best team on the planet. Nobody's questioning his commitment to La Albiceleste. He won the 2021 Copa America, the 2022 World Cup, and the 2024 Copa America under Scaloni's watch.

De la Fuente's own resume is no less serious. He took over Spain in December 2022 after the team's flat last-16 exit to Morocco, won the 2024 European Championship, and reached the UEFA Nations League final last year, according to Dawn. Tuesday's 2-0 dismantling of France put him one win from a second World Cup title for Spain.

Both men have publicly credited the Las Rozas coaching course as the place these threads first tied together, and both have said on record that the mentorship was real and mutual, not manufactured for the cameras this week. De la Fuente called Scaloni's man-management a big part of why he admires him: "I like the way he manages things and how the players give their all for him," he said in 2024, according to tbsnews.

Sunday's final at MetLife Stadium will settle it on the field. Spain is chasing a record seventh clean sheet run through the tournament and its first title since 2010. Argentina is chasing history nobody has managed in over 60 years. Kickoff details and broadcast coverage run through FOX and FOX Sports 1, per the Post's listings, with the friendship between the two benches now a footnote everyone will be watching for during the handshake.