“I don’t want to end my statement without talking about Jorge Vilda. What we have endured has been a lot.” Word of Luis Rubiales, the president of the RFEF. The great supporter of the selector. The person who kept him in charge of the national team despite the tumultuous decision made at the end of September by up to 15 international players sending an email in which they declared they were not eligible.
“Too much has been said, personal issues of a man with a beastly capacity have been questioned. One of the best coaches in the world. A world TOP who had many offers but who has continued working. In the RFEF we have not paid attention to those who have not wanted to build. Yes with those who have valued what we have done”, the president deepened.
The maximum representative elaborated especially on the steps that, in his opinion, the RFEF has taken to promote women’s football. “The strategic plan that we designed five years ago has dedicated a lot of money to women’s football because they deserved it, they have tremendous quality and with the right tools they show us that Spanish women footballers are capable of anything,” he assured.
Far away, at least in Rubiales’ memory, are controversial moments experienced beyond Vilda in this 2023. Like the one that took place in January 2023 in the final of the Spanish Super Cup played in Mérica at 12 noon. No one gave the Barcelona and Real Sociedad players the medals of champions and runners-up respectively. The individual prizes were placed on a table that was located on the grass of the Romano José Fouto Stadium so that each of the soccer players could collect their souvenir. The image did not take long to go viral. The symbolic charge of the soccer players each taking their medal by hand without anyone hanging it around their necks was powerful. The Spanish Football Federation justifies in a matter of “protocol”.
Let’s go back to Oceania. Also to 2018. “When we arrived at the RFEF, there were 40,000 federated girls, now 100,000. There were no medical teams in the national team or technical teams with a contract,” said the president, who added: “The federation made the biggest investment of all the federations, we have given 15,000 euros to each player so that their families come and the bonuses are paid with joy, we have involved the coaching staff so that they have a part. They have given us much more, this is milk”.
For all this Rubiales revealed that “possibly” it is his “happiest moment or one of the happiest”. “Tomorrow is the birthday of my little daughter, who is federated, and it is the first time that I miss a birthday and I want to send a kiss to the people who have supported us from the heart,” she added. “Hate cannot be the engine in life, love can be. Vilda deserves it, she is top, she is the protagonist in the outcome of this World Cup,” she declared.
