The Best awards crowned Aitana Bonmatí who has won all the titles (except the Queen’s Cup) and individual recognitions of the last year. The FC Barcelona midfielder reigned in London, but she was the only one who saw her great season recognized by her. Neither Cata Coll, nominated for best goalkeeper, nor Jonatan Giráldez (coach) took the trophy in their categories. The coach who won the League, the Champions League and the Super Cup with FC Barcelona last year was surpassed by Sarina Wiegman, runner-up in the World Cup with England.
“I’m calm,” Giráldez acknowledged this Tuesday: “The objectives as a team were extremely important and I am very happy and proud of what we achieved,” he stated. Of course, he did not deny being “disappointed” with the absence of many of his players in the ideal eleven: “On a personal level I am a little disappointed. People decide to assign their vote to who they think deserves it, it’s not my place to question it, but analyzing the players that are there, I wonder ‘Why aren’t Patri, or Caro, one of the most unbalanced in the world?’ Mapi or Irene , Frido… they also deserved to be there. There are things that at a professional level are very clear, but I am not the one who has to respond to this,” he confessed.
The choice of the ideal eleven was more than controversial. An award voted on by the captains of each team, the selectors and a journalist from each country. In a year in which several Barça players won the Champions League with their club and the World Cup with the Spanish team, there were only two Spaniards (Aitana and Olga Carmona) and three FC Barcelona players (Aitana, Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze) . In the eleven, however, there are up to seven British soccer players (Mary Earps, Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh, Alex Greenwood, Lauren James, Alesia Russo and Ella Toone).
“On a sporting level there are things that are difficult to explain. If you vote, I will ask you to find out what your reasoning was for voting for me or not voting for me. I think you have to ask them. If they are just sporting reasons, if there are more things…”, she added. Giráldez also had words of recognition for Aitana Bonmatí for her award: “I am very happy for Aitana. I want to congratulate her because she has been more than deserved.”
With few hours of sleep, Giráldez led the last training session at the Ciudad Deportiva before traveling to Madrid today to play the Super Cup semi-final against Real Madrid tomorrow (7pm). For the Galician coach it is important to focus on sports: “We have to recover because today is an important session, it is the day before a semi-final. When your daily life is altered due to emotional issues, you have to try to focus on what is important.”
Finally, the Blaugrana coach does not believe that the culés’ absences in The Best awards are going to affect the performance of his team: “The lack of recognition is not more motivating. The message to the players will not be that. Motivation is always group, never individual. The key to achieving individual recognition is having a good season collectively. Give your best version to try to win games.”
