Hugo Guillamon was the latest in a long line of Spain debutants to come out of the Paterna academy in Valencia and did not disappoint on his debut.
Of course, this technically wasn’t his debut. During the build-up to Euro 2020, a Covid scare meant that the under 23 Spain side took to the field against Lithuania in a friendly instead of the squad at Luis Enrique’s disposal. That was Guillamon’s first cap and he scored just four minutes in on the way to a 3-1 victory.
On Tuesday night however, he had the chance to play under Luis Enrique for the first time and with the whole of the senior squad. Speaking to Valencia’s official media channel in an interview that was picked up by SuperDeporte, Guillamon revealed what Luis Enrique said to him before the match.
“Luis Enrique told me to stay calm and to keep doing what I had been doing at Valencia. And that he trusted me.”
It clearly worked as Spain kept a clean sheet against Iceland in a 5-0 victory with Guillamon at centre-back. He even laid on an assist for Alvaro Morata. Luis Enrique had praised the young defender before the match and Guillamon was happy to admit it did him a world of good.
“For a manager to speak so well of you, it gives you a lot of confidence. But not only yesterday, in all of the training sessions he was clear with me and with what he wanted from me. It went very well with him, as much as with any other manager [he has had].”
Guillamon has mainly been used in a holding midfield role at club level this season, but Luis Enrique saw fit to return him to centre-back, where he grew up playing.
