“We play in Primera, but we don’t even have a gym”

2023-05-05 14:00:19

Sant Joan DespíThey play in the First Division, they are professionals, but to be able to do gym exercises they have to take the machines out to the artificial turf of the small municipal field in the neighborhood where they play. “You see Barça’s gym when you go to play at the Johan Cruyff stadium and it cannot be compared to ours, which is directly the pitch. We are waiting for help from the Superior Sports Council (CSD ) to have a gym, but until it arrives we have to do it this way,” Núria Garrote (Badalona, ​​1997), player of Llevant Les Planes, a team from Sant Joan Despí that is fighting to stay in the League F. The CSD’s help, according to club sources, is to improve the facilities, and they have been waiting for it since the start of the season. Most likely they won’t get it until the current one is over.

This is the flip side of state girls soccer. Clubs such as Llevant Les Planes coexist in the highest category (from a legal point of view, professional from this season) with giants such as Barça, League champion and Champions League finalist, with whom they share a population when the Blaugrana play at the Johan Cruyff Stadium. “You can’t ask much from a club that has climbed to the First Division without any help. It’s clear that we would all like to play in better facilities. You have to help the humble clubs to be able to compete.” the defense insists. This year, the budget of Llevant Les Planes, a group that has just been promoted, is 800,000 euros. Barça’s, 12 million.

A life together

In the Lloreda neighborhood of Badalona, ​​Núria started playing soccer with her twin sister, Pilar (Badalona, ​​1997). Since then, they have been inseparable in the world of football. “At the age of four, we were already playing in the home goal. My parents then decided to sign us up for the neighborhood futsal club. We enjoy making this journey together. This makes it special compared to the other players’ careers.” says Pilar, sitting next to Núria in one of the multi-colored seats in the bleachers at the modest Levant Les Planes field. They were the only girls on that futsal team. Subsequently, they have also coincided with Sant Gabriel, Barça (both reached the first team before the professionalization of 2015), Espanyol, Seagull and Llevant Les Planes, for which they signed in the summer of 2021. Before that, in 2014, they were world runners-up with the Spanish under-17 team.

“We have never put the requirement on a club that we have to sign both of us. But sometimes we have put it between us. We have always said that, while we can, we want to enjoy this sport together, and we were lucky that the clubs made us offers that allowed us to do it,” says Núria. With two days to go before the end of the League, Levant les Plaines are four points above Hell thanks to Saturday’s meritorious 0-1 win over Atlético de Madrid. “Throughout the season we have not been in the relegation zone. For a team that has just been promoted to lose a category like that would be very unfair for the club and, above all, for the players and the coaching staff”, assures Pilar, forward, who lives this final stretch with the frustration of not being able to help her teammates due to a knee injury.

Brands ignore Levant Les Planes

“We are paid little attention institutionally and in the media. It costs a lot for them to bet on this club, for the simple fact that we are a neighborhood team and we do not have behind us a name and the infrastructure of a male team that plays in a top category”, says Núria. “Brands and companies should bet on teams like ours because they would help give visibility to women’s football,” he adds. A source from the offices of the Sant Joan Despí club confirms these difficulties: “Last week we asked a favor from an important Barcelona brand that is everywhere in the world of sport and they didn’t even answer our phone.”

Disappointment with the new collective agreement

Meanwhile, a new collective agreement is being negotiated in Madrid for female players in League F. Right now, the minimum annual salary is 16,000 euros. “The information that has reached us about the new agreement is quite disappointing for what the League is offering us,” laments Pilar. “The League demands certain things from the clubs and the players, but, on the other hand, it does not help us. It must really bet on women’s football and that this is reflected in an agreement. A better agreement will lead to improvements for the players, that we can afford personal trainers, nutritionists or go to a gym to train. In the end, the salary increase we are asking for is for these things, for things that will help us improve,” he argues.

Alexia Putellas has made tens of thousands of girls around the world see that playing soccer professionally is a possible milestone. On a smaller scale, the Garrote twins are also allowing many girls to dream of being like them. “When we were little we had male references and now the girls have female references. They see the examples of the Barça players, but also others like us who can make a living from football. We have earned the right to be able to make a living from what we like , like the boys. Now is our time and we deserve it,” says Pilar. The path of the Garrote twins still has many adventures to live.