Mendez: Spain are dreaming big

The smallest of margins cost Spain at this year’s FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup™. They led IR Iran by three goals but lost on penalties. They surrendered a three-goal lead again in defeat to Tahiti. Then they were edged 5-4 by Argentina.

Christian Mendez nevertheless accentuated the positives from the campaign. He is now ready to guide Spain through the European qualifiers for the next global finals in October, and mastermind big things in the Seychelles.

“Since the last World Cup, we’ve had 16 players in the initial squad,” Mendez told FIFA. “At the end of August, we will need to trim that number down to 14 before we travel to the Euro Beach Soccer League.”

In addition to key competitive outings, the next couple of months will also help to further the gradual generational shift within the Spanish squad. The aim, as Mendez explains, is to bring in fresh faces and young legs to keep building momentum.

“We are bringing in young players such as Ramy, a 17-year-old from Roses, and Riduan, who is also from Roses,” he said. “Both have been among the top goalscorers in the league this season.

“Then there’s 20-year-old Jose Oliver, and we’re also adding Soleiman Batis and Brian who are both 21 and have already been with us for three years or so. There are others as well. We will have an average age 23 or 24.”

Undoubtedly the date marked in red on the calendar is the UEFA qualifiers for Seychelles 2025 in October.

“The fact that qualification is in Cadiz in Spain doesn’t add any more pressure,” said Mendez. “But yes, I believe that the crowd can act as a sixth player and carry us forward. It’s fantastic to see the crowds. When we have been in Sanxenxo or more recently in Huelva, the stadium has been full two hours before kick-off. We have a big home advantage.”

Spain are coming off a group-stage exit at UAE 2024 Dubai. Despite losing all three of their games, Mendez took positives from the campaign.

“It was very close, but we didn’t do enough,” he said. “In the first match against a top team like Iran, we lost on penalties after being 3-0 and 5-2 up. The same thing happened in the second game. We were 3-0 up but in key moments but we lost concentration and ended up losing 3-5 to Tahiti, which left us unable to qualify.

“We were one of the most attacking teams in the group stage, one of the teams with the most chances, and we had lots of possession. Learning from that will allow us to continue growing and improving”.

It was back in 2013 when Spain came closest to winning a FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, losing to Russia in the final in Tahiti. A younger Mendez was a part of that squad and he carries those memories with him to this day.

“The closest we came was in 2013,” he said. “I’m the coach now, but at that time I was a player and we were World Cup runners-up.

“Now we’re working towards qualifying for the next World Cup. And we’re dreaming big. We have great potential and I am convinced that we’ll make it happen. When? I hope we manage to do it very soon, because we have a lot of great quality in our squad”.

Mendez’s first foray into the sport came back in 2011 when he was a football player in Spain’s Tercera Division, the national fourth division, and received a call from the region of Murcia, where he lived.

“The Murcia team put together a group of players who were in the Tercera Division, they got in contact with me and invited me to join the team and we went to Roses and played a good tournament,” he explained. “We were runners-up and it was June 2011 when the coach Joaquin Alonso showed an interest in me and then on 28 December 2011, I received a call where he told me that I had been picked for the team.

“From then until April 2018 I was a mainstay in the national team. In 2018 I became manager of the senior women’s national team and the men’s U-20 team, and then from 2020 I have been in charge of the senior national team.”