After the dismissal of Jorge Vilda, for the first time a woman takes over from the bench of the absolute Spanish team. The chosen one is Montserrat Tomé Vázquez (Oviedo, 1982). The 41-year-old Asturian will be the fifth figure to sit on the bench since the creation of the women’s soccer team always led by men: Rafael Muga (1971-1980), Teodoro Nieto (1981-1988), Ignacio Quereda ( 1988-2015) and Jorge Vilda (2015-2023).
Montse Tomé is not unknown to soccer players. She has always worked in the shadow of Jorge Vilda since he landed in the RFEF in 2018 after hanging up his boots. As a player, she was formed in the lower categories of Modern Oviedo. In the 2006-2007 season she arrived at Levante, where she won the League in the 2007-2008 academic year. In the summer of 2010 she signed for Barcelona, ??with whom she also won the league championship in the 2011-2012 season, the first in the history of the club’s women’s section. Two years later, in September 2012, she returned to Oviedo to hang up her boots the following year. She got her coaching card and some voices suggest that her father’s good relationship with a territorial federation helped Tomé land in the RFEF. She was chosen by Vilda himself in 2018. She was also named U-20 and U-17 coach when Toña Is left office in 2020.
His relationship with Vilda was always good. In fact, the former coach always thought of Tomé as his successor after the 2024 Olympic Games. Tomé has also had a good relationship with Luis Rubiales. The still president offered her the position of sports director in the last assembly that he presided over. Later Rubiales assured that he would not resign. And Tomé, sitting in the front row, applauded. She, like other members of the coaching staff of the national team such as Sonia Bermúdez, former soccer player and U-19 coach.
That same day, the 23 internationals created a WhatsApp group to discuss what to do. Neither Tomé nor Bermúdez were in that group. From that initiative was born the forceful statement in which the players not only supported Jenni Hermoso. They also assured that they would not return to a call “if the current leaders continue.” The statement was not only signed by the current world champions. He was also seconded by other internationals who gave up going to the World Cup such as Mapi León, Patri Guijarro or Claudia Pina and 30 other players and former players who wanted to express their support.
Tome reacted to the tsunami. And, like Bermúdez, she was one of the eleven people who signed a statement on Sunday, August 26, making her position “available” to the RFEF. The locker room appreciated the gesture. They understand the pressure that Tomé may have felt. His figure generates much more consensus than Vilda, but there are also those who consider that he is not the best alternative to lead a total change.
In this sense, they point out that the interim president Pedro Rocha has opted for the easy and continuous alternative, promoting a person who knows the federative system, its methodology and the players. The new coach has two challenges ahead: convincing that it is the expected change and preparing her first list. The women’s Nations League begins on September 21, a competition that opens this year and in which two tickets for the 2024 Olympic Games will be distributed. Spain debuts against Sweden on September 22.
