The demise of Iker Casillas and the rise of David De Gea have been very much linked over the past couple of years.
Against the opinion of the vast majority of people who watch football, Vicente Del Bosque insisted on continuing to pick Casillas ahead of De Gea, and then moved to rotating the pair, before finally giving in and choosing De Gea as his first choice for Euro 2016.
At club level, Casillas was bombed out of Real Madrid, in tears, to FC Porto, largely because the Spanish club were confident they could tie up a deal to sign De Gea from Manchester United.
New Spain manager Julen Lopetegui decided not call Casillas up to his squad, and De Gea has been asked about the situation. AS newspaper quotes the Manchester United goalkeeper as saying: “He was the captain and it’s a bit strange to be without him.”
It’s probably also something of a relief.
