Julen Lopetegui: ‘Going to the World Cup just for the sake of going is stupid’

Published 12 June 2026 · sports

Eight years on from being sacked by Spain on the eve of the World Cup, Julen Lopetegui will get his chance on the big stage

Eight years on from being sacked by Spain on the eve of the World Cup, Julen Lopetegui will get his chance on the big stage as head coach of Qatar When the Qatari national team’s flight from Dublin touched down in Los Angeles at 2.12pm on 30 May there was applause on board the Boeing 777‑300ER.

For the 26 players arriving in America, this represents the first time they have qualified for a World Cup. For the coach who has led them there it is the third, but this time is different; this time he will get a game.

“Football didn’t owe me anything,” says Julen Lopetegui in the dining room at the team hotel in Montecito, Santa Barbara, yet maybe he owed himself a moment like this. And, he says, if there were many reasons to answer the call from Doha 12 months ago, the simplest stood out most of all: this is the World Cup.

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