2023-08-31 19:16:36
BarcelonaAitana Bonmatí, at the age of 25, collected this afternoon at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco the first of the three major individual awards that, if there are no surprises, she will raise in the coming months as the culmination of the best course of her life: the UEFA award for the best player of the season. At the end of October it will be time for the Ballon d’Or and in January, for the FIFA The Best award. The podium was completed by his teammate in the Spanish national team and author of the goal in the World Cup final, Olga Carmona, and Sam Kerr, Australian footballer from Chelsea.
“These are not good times for Spanish football despite the fact that we have just won the World Cup,” explained Aitana. “As a society we cannot allow abuse of power in a work relationship and disrespect. So I want to say to my colleague Jenni [Hermoso] and to all the women who have suffered this, we are with them and I hope that we continue to work so that this society will improve”, he added during the speech following the presentation of the award on the non-consensual kiss of Rubiales to Hermoso in the celebration ceremony of world
“For me it is a pride and a privilege to be here. It is a season that I will never forget and I want to share this award with my teammates. I am lucky to play with spectacular people who make me better every day – he began his speech Aitana – I am a very non-conformist person, a person who always expects more. But I am lucky to play in a spectacular club, which gives me opportunities and allows me to play with the best footballers in the world,” he continued to explain. And, asked if it is possible to win the Champions League again, she replied that “it is possible” and that Barça will fight “for it”.
Aitana, the benchmark for Barça and the national team in a year without Alexia
Recently, the player from Sant Pere de Ribes had already won the MVP of the Champions League achieved with Barça and the MVP of the World Cup won with Spain thanks to a season in which Aitana, a great lover of puzzles, has managed to fit his during the serious knee injury of his partner Alexia Putellas, who had grabbed the limelight on the pitch and the big individual awards in recent years.
Without Alexia practically the entire season (he only played the last minutes of the Champions League final and some League games when the championship was already certified), Aitana was Barça’s benchmark for lifting the second eared of their history on June 3 in Eindhoven and revalidate the League title. The Catalan finished the European tournament as the second top scorer (tied with other players) with five goals and having been the helm of a team in which she was forced to take a step forward which she executed with excellent performances .
But Aitana was aware that in the year of the World Cup, the individual awards would be achieved thanks to the performance, individual and collective, in this tournament. And the Blaugrana, one of the 15 players who returned to the national team to play in this tournament, was able to maintain the great level shown in Barça to also become the leader of Spain and lead it to the title in a championship in which Alexia alternated ownership and substitutes, still far from his best version after the injury.
Especially outstanding was Aitana’s performance in the round of 16 of the World Cup, when the Spanish team reacted to prevail by 1 to 5 in Switzerland after the scandalous defeat against Japan by 4-0 in the last group stage match. Before the Europeans, Aitana was the author of two of the three goals she scored in the tournament (the other was scored in the opening match against Costa Rica). During the World Cup, former Barça coach Pep Guardiola compared her to Andrés Iniesta and admitted that he is “completely in love with her way of playing”.
Sarina Wiegman dedicates her award to the Spanish women’s team
On the other hand, at the gala held in Monaco, the Barça coach, Jonatan Giráldez, failed to win the UEFA award for the best coach of the women’s football season, which went to the English national team and recent World Cup runner-up: Sarina Wiegman from the Netherlands. Giráldez finished third and Jorge Vilda, the questioned Spanish coach, second. Wiegman wanted to dedicate his trophy “to the Spanish team”, which is suffering the consequences of the behavior of Luis Rubiales, despite the fact that it was the team that beat England in the World Cup final. “We all know what’s going on. It hurts me, as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a woman and as a human being. The players deserve to be celebrated and heard,” said Wiegman. Aitana, in her subsequent speech, thanked the gesture.
On the other hand, the Catalan Pep Guardiola has won the UEFA award for the best coach in men’s football after winning the Champions League with Manchester City and the award for the best UEFA player has also gone to a player from the team citizenthe Norwegian davanter Erling Haaland.
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