Roberto Soldado has reflected on the value of playing well to make things difficult for Vicente del Bosque and to help in the striking debate.
The Valencia forward is up against Fernando Torres and David Villa for a place in La Roja’s attack heading out to Brazil for the Confederations Cup, which starts this weekend.
During Spain’s two warm-up games played in the past seven days against Haiti and Republic of Ireland, it has been the 28-year-old to have featured in both.
And, out of the three strikers, he has been the only one to have scored, with the opening goal against the Irish in New York.
“What we all have to do is work hard and make life difficult for the Coach,” Soldado commented to reporters this week in travelling out with the squad to Recife, Brazil.
“You must be competitive to create those doubts for Del Bosque and we are all doing our job in the best way possible.
“Scoring a goal means a lot and above all, with all the debate that there is, it was important for me to score.
“I’m happy to play in the Confederations Cup and to finish this round of preparation with a goal, it is what I was after and what was asked of me.
“Hopefully in the Confederations Cup I can continue the same.”
Soldado was asked of his place in the squad, which sees him take Xabi Alonso’s usual squad number of 14.
“There was no other shirt. It was either 14 or 5 and 5 does not strike me much, so I took 14.”
