Santisteban aiming for more success

He may only be in temporary charge for the finals in Austria but Spain coach Juan Santisteban will look to draw on his incomparable experience in youth competition as he leads his charges into the UEFA European Under-19 Championship.

Personnel reshuffle
With usual coach Ginés Meléndez and a number of the squad who dispatched Iceland, Azerbaijan and Norway in the Elite round unavailable due to their commitments at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, Spain's 18-man squad is full of unfamiliar faces, but Santisteban is confident the holders can overcome those obstacles. "It's going to be very difficult without many players that in theory could have been available to us," he told uefa.com. "We're going to find it hard going but we'll try to put everything in place in order to lessen the impact of this problem."

'Hard task'
Historically Spain have been the team to beat at the U19 finals, winning three of the five finals since its inception in 2001/02, although their coach is reluctant to predict a fourth success in Linz on 27 July, saying: "Attempting to win this tournament is not going to be easy. There are some very strong teams with huge potential taking part. These are all very complicated teams who can make life impossible."

Vast experience
If anyone is capable of rising to that challenge it is the 70-year-old, who was part of the Real Madrid CF side that lifted the European Champion Clubs' Cup in 1958 and 1959 and as a coach has won eight UEFA youth competitions, including the UEFA European Under-17 Championship in May. He is therefore perfectly positioned to asses the significance of the event in terms of the development of his players, and has no doubt the role these finals are in that sense. "It's extremely important; they are going to learn things that will help to shape their future careers. They know the games will be televised, that a lot of people are going to be there watching them and that a lot of representatives from different clubs will be there too.

Recipe for success
"The term "stars" doesn't really apply at this level. There are players with considerable technical ability but it's very rare to find players at this age who are already world class." Yet Santisteban has no doubts why his country having enjoyed so much success at youth level, concluding: "We work hard all year round; the moment we receive news of a talented youngster we immediately go to see him. We also receive so much help from all of those working with players in the territorial leagues. These combined efforts have allowed us to be successful." He will hope that success continues over the next two weeks.