Jennifer Hermoso’s speech when collecting the Socrates award at the Ballon d’Or gala: “That girl deserves women’s football free of gender violence”

Jennifer Hermoso received the Socrates award last night at the Ballon d’Or gala, organized by UEFA and France Football. The Spanish national team player collected the award – which recognizes social work and the promotion of equality – in Paris with a demanding speech in favor of the protection of women against the machismo that prevails in football.

“Today I woke up remembering the words of a girl who told me a few days ago: ‘I dream of being a soccer player like you.’ In a moment as important as this, the memory of his voice inspires me and encourages me to continue. “That girl deserves women’s soccer free of harm, free of gender violence,” the player said during the speech. “It is for this reason, for all women, that I will continue to be brave, that I will not stop raising my voice and fighting, relying on my family, my people, and all the people who have the conviction to make sport in the world a place better”

The also soccer player in the Tigres de la UANL Femenil de México stressed that, as soccer players and “relevants of society,” athletes have a platform and unique position to generate positive change in society: “I ask you please each and every one of you who do not cease to inspire, both on and off the field, and together we will achieve something beautiful that we are proud of.” “That is the dream,” he noted, “that in the future we will be able to have the football that that girl and everyone else deserves.”

Hermoso also took the opportunity to share the award with her colleagues and denounced the inequality that exists in her work environment. “This award is not just mine, but that of all my colleagues, with whom I share a field where equality is not always a fact.” “For this reason,” she added, “we all work every day with the hope and desire of leaving the female audience in a place where we find it for the new generations.”

The non-consensual kiss that the then president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, imposed on Hermoso during the celebration of the World Cup in August 2023, and the subsequent public and judicial complaint by the young woman, aroused in Spain the #SeAcabó movement, against the impunity of sexual and sexist abuse and aggression that women face at work. The Prosecutor’s Office requested two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, as well as another year and a half for the then national team coach Jorge Vilda, for pressuring Hermoso.