De la Fuente explained his own case in particular, noting that “faith is personal and transferable,” and that “because I am free and can choose what I think I have to do, based on my intellect and my experiences… they inspire me to believe in God and give me great conviction and great strength.”
This public declaration of faith reminded the prelate of the words of Leo Messi after winning the soccer World Cup, when Messi admitted: “I didn't do anything. God made me play like this.”
Commenting on these two testimonies of faith, Pastor Munira added: “How can we not be reminded of the words of Jesus: 'He who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father' (Matthew 10:32).”
In a post by X, Bishop Juan Carlos Elizalde of Vitoria congratulated the Spanish team together with Carlos Alcaraz, winner of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, wishing “many young people to follow your example and use their free time in sport, teamwork, healthy competition and striving and improving to be better every day. You gave us an unforgettable afternoon!”
Other Catholic aspects of the Spanish team
Among the players making up the winning Spain national football team was long-time veteran Jesus Navas, 38, whose family is known to have ties to the Neocatechumenal Way.
When the Spain national soccer team became world champions in 2010, Navas wrote “God is love” on his cleats.
One of de la Fuente's youngest picks was Nico Williams, whose parents were from Ghana and traveled undetected across the Sahara to the Spanish territory of Melilla on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, arriving in Spain in 1994. His mother was pregnant with his brother Iñaki, also a footballer.
They were eventually sent to Bilbao in northern Spain, where they settled with the help of Caritas and where the eldest of the Williams brothers, a player for Bilbao's Athletic Club, was born.
According to Iñaki Mardones, the volunteer who worked closest with them from the beginning, the Williamses “have lived their faith very vigorously. First of all, their parents entrusted, lived and bestowed upon their children the gifts of Baptism and the Eucharist. In this way they have lived their faith. Moreover, they have a firm grasp of their faith, which accompanies them in their lives.”
