Spanish Luis de la Fuente, coach of his country's national football team, revealed his intention to pay special attention to star Lionel Messi, captain of the Argentine national team, during the World Cup final on Sunday, but ruled out resorting to man-marking. De la Fuente confirmed during a press conference on Friday in Manhattan, New York City, that he knows the challenges involved in man-marking the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner. He recalled an experience from when he oversaw the youth team at Spanish club Sevilla when Messi was a youth player at Barcelona. He said: 'I faced him for the first time when I was coaching the youth team at Sevilla, we went to Barcelona, and I had heard wonderful things about a boy named Messi.' He explained: 'So we assigned a player to man-mark him, but in the 70th minute I substituted that player because he had a yellow card; the score was 0-0, and within 15 minutes Messi scored four goals against us, so we will not rely on man-marking this time; we must remain vigilant and give him special attention, definitely.' The Spain coach described Messi as a 'unique case' and added: 'He is an example for young athletes in terms of his behavior and conduct, especially given the exceptional World Cup he is having at this age.' Sunday's final, hosted at MetLife Stadium in New York, will also be a personal confrontation between De la Fuente and his Argentine counterpart Lionel Scaloni, as a friendship developed between them in 2017 when De la Fuente was a lecturer while the latter was studying for his professional coaching license. De la Fuente strongly rejected suggestions that Argentina might resort to underhanded tactics or tricks on the field to disrupt Spain. He said: 'Please, no, no... I would never dare say that,' adding: 'I have the utmost admiration for this national team; they have won the World Cup, two Copa América titles, and the Finalissima. And here they are again in a World Cup final, and no one else in history has achieved that, and they are led by a close friend of mine; I feel nothing but admiration for them, and even more admiration.' The European champion coach expressed his belief that both sides will enter the match with a plan based on 'talent and beautiful football above all else.' He mentioned that his player Lamine Yamal received a hard blow against France in the semi-finals at the moment he earned a penalty. He explained: 'It was a very painful bruise on the thigh; he endured the whole match, and felt slight discomfort, so he rested yesterday; today he trained with the rest of his teammates completely normally, and he is fine and in his best physical condition.'