Vicente Del Bosque believes Iker Casillas deserves more ‘respect’ for all he has achieved and says he’ll pick the team on ‘merit.’
Del Bosque was speaking to the Daily Telegraph and was probed on the decision to persist with captain Casillas over David De Gea, who has been in good form at Manchester United.
“You can’t compare Casillas with anybody else,” Del Bosque said.
“For a start he is a goalkeeper and secondly because he has played 160 international matches and has lifted great trophies for his club and his country including three Champions League, one World Cup and two European Championships.
“He deserves our respect. I read somewhere once that to treat everyone the same is the biggest injustice of all. I agree with that.
“Age has no merit. It doesn’t matter whether you are young or old, the merit is how well you do things.”
Del Bosque added that in recent years he has attempted to blend the experience of the players successful in 2008, 2010 and 2012 with the newer generation.
“I’ve been forming a team that has brought in new young blood, but without assuming that this is the best we can do,” he continued.
“Experience and an element of continuity matters. There are players who are on the frontier of being 30 who cannot be thrown out into retirement, not least those players who play in major clubs.
“Take for example [Andres] Iniesta in Barcelona, [David] Silva in Manchester City, [Santi] Cazorla in Arsenal, [Cesc] Fabregas in Chelsea, [Sergio] Ramos in Real Madrid.”