In recent weeks, the world of women’s football has been immersed in a climate of vindication, in which various players and various teams have stood up in order to obtain improvements. Some, such as Canada and France, have seen how their requests have been heard: in Canadian soccer an agreement has been reached in principle for the economic equalization of men and women, and the galas, who blamed the problems of the selection on their coach, Corinne Diacre, they have managed to get her removed.
In Spain however, one of the countries where the conflict in the national team first broke out, things have not changed. Four months after the start of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, players like Aitana Bonmatí and Patri Guijarro have broken their silence.
The Sant Pere de Ribes midfielder did so in an interview with Laia Bonals in the ARA newspaper. “I would like to approach positions with the Federation and that this is not a war,” she said.
Regarding a possible dialogue with the Federation, Bonmatí has ??assured that “everything is the same and continues to stop”. She also wanted to make it clear that both she and the 15 teammates she asked not to be called up to the national team are “super-professionals and super-ambitious”. “What we want is the best for the good of women’s football. I don’t think that the improvements that we are asking for and that we have asked for are for no reason. It is not because we have had a day just like that,” she explains.
The Barça midfielder, who has been seeing a psychologist since she was 13, acknowledges that they have been “very difficult” months. “For us, going to the national team is basic. It’s part of our career, part of our life. By not going, we’re losing more than winning. In every way,” she says.
To cope with the situation, he assures that focusing on Barça helped him a lot. “Here, when we arrive at the Ciudad Deportiva, everything is Barça, Barça and Barça. The issue of the national team is a matter that has taken a lot of energy out of us and, in the end, we must focus on what we have now, which is Barça” , Explain.
Regarding her role at the Catalan club, Aitana Bonmatí feels freer than other years on the pitch. “This year we have a profile of players like Patri [Guijarro], Keira [Walsh] or Ingrid [Engen], more positional, and that allows me to have more freedom. Other years perhaps there wasn’t that player profile so much and I had to help in other facets,” he says.
During the interview, the midfielder also spoke about the professionalisation of the league, of which she believes that “only the name has changed”. “I have only noticed it in the name and, at most, in that we now have television, which was something basic, because if not, how do we continue to move forward? If people cannot follow us… But otherwise we are very far of leagues like the English one”, he assures.
“We live in parallel and very distant realities. One day we played in the field of Levante Les Planes, Alhama or Sporting de Huelva, where the grass is horrible, and then we played in the Camp Nou. It is necessary to put some minimum conditions so that there’s less chance of injuring yourself,” he says.
In addition to being a benchmark on the field, Aitana Bonmatí is also a benchmark outside, where she is dedicated to various social causes. In the interview she claims that facet and defends herself. “There are people who will say that footballers shouldn’t talk about anything that isn’t football and others complain when we only talk about football. Well, I don’t care what people say and I say what I want, always, obviously, with respect “, he concludes.
