2023-09-02 19:45:39
TorellóSmurfette’s pleasant appearance and tender voice – that’s what they called him when he played with the Spanish national team because of his height – they disappear when Luis Rubiales is mentioned. Then she speaks angrily. “I have an immense, giant, serious regret. Because instead of talking about them and what they have achieved, it’s the opposite: they only talk about this very unpresentable gentleman. I call him sir to say something,” sighs Elisabet Sánchez (Barcelona, 1955). He played with the first unofficial selection, in the early 70s, and played the first match of the first official selection, in 1983 against Portugal in Galicia: “It was a dream”. He still has the shirt from that day – the shirts were from the men’s youth team. The selector had been appointed a fortnight before: he was the men’s futsal team and the federation chose him because he had the least amount of work, without having seen a single women’s match. Sánchez also remembers that a colleague did not shower because her boyfriend had forbidden her to do so in front of other girls.
Sánchez is also one of the footballers who a few days ago signed a statement of support for Jenni Hermoso. The text, with more than eighty signatures, expressed “a firm and resounding condemnation of conduct that has attacked the dignity of women” and the world champions renounced continuing to play with the national team as long as there were no changes in leadership in the federation “I will go to death with them. And not so much for them or for us, the ones from before, but for those who will come. So that they will have respect. And it is no longer just something in the world of football, but much more general: in all sports and for all women,” says the former Barcelona player.
“This wasn’t born today or yesterday. We’ve been fighting for many years. It’s already fifty-two. They’ve never taken us into account, they’ve always taken us as a joke,” he says. In 1971, the first women’s championship was played in Catalonia, the Pernod Cup, with Espanyol de Sánchez winning in the final. Her mother, Pepita, signed her up for the tests by secretly calling her father, Antonio. He didn’t want her to play football, ever since she was little: he always scolded her because he didn’t want her to be with children, because he told her that “he was ugly”. He could never have balls. He played in hiding from his father in Plaça del Rellotge—the one in Vila de Gràcia—. If he saw her coming, he would run home or hide to continue playing later.
Shortly after the Pernod Cup, the first matches of the unofficial Spanish national team would be played: unofficial because it did not have the recognition of the federation. In fact, it did not admit women’s football until 1980, due to pressure from Europe and with Franco already buried. In that match, played in Murcia, the footballers could not wear any shield representing the country and the referee had to wear tracksuits, to reduce the significance. The field was surrounded by Civil Guard officers. Sánchez also remembers that a colleague was asked in an interview “if it was easier to score a goal or an omelet”. “It came out in a No-Do report. I still have the video, huh! I would upload it every day, and now more, to say how little has changed all this. Sometimes I think that we do not evolve, that instead of going forward we go backwards. It’s a shame.”
From the World Cup boycott to tears of joy
She points out that, in the world of football, masculinity has changed since she was called xicotot and maybe female footballers no longer have to hear “go to the kitchen”, “women are not good for playing football” or I’m sorry, but there are still plenty of them. His generation suffered a lot, although he admits that they had already accepted this suffering if it was the toll so that their heirs could enjoy it. But that’s not the case yet. He also emphasizes that the resignation of Rubiales is necessary and to go much further: “It is not only him. There are many Rubiales in the federation. Let’s see if once and for all the sewers are cleaned and all this changes from one once and for all. It needs a full cleanup.”
Sánchez smiles again talking about the day of the final against England, with his eyes fixed on the TV at home. She didn’t want to watch the World Cup because she was angry about the absence of players like Mapi León and Patri Guijarro, but she ended up giving in. “I was moved and I cried. Because it took a lot to get here. A lot. A lot,” he says. “It took a lot,” he reiterates, looking back. “We planted a little bit of the seed of what’s happening now. We put blood and sweat into it for years, insisting on it without anyone’s help and paying to play. Part of all of this is a little bit of us. We’ve made a lot of sacrifices, but they are welcome for everything that has happened to live now,” he smiles. He regains his sour tone to regret that the federation has never had a gesture with the first official selection, the one that paved the way in 1983. And he concludes: “Some colleague always says that I wish we had been born now. But I don’t feel that way . I feel healthy envy. We are a small part of history. We planted the seed. It took time, but it has arrived.”
#asked #easier #score #goal #omelette