“I’m very well. Very tired, I won’t lie to you,” Aitana Bonmatí confesses to EL PAÍS, sitting next to her shiny Ballon d’Or on a stool at the Johan Cruyff stadium, in front of Barça’s sports city in Sant Joan Despí. She poses for the media with her award, gives interviews, walks around her town — Sant Pere de Ribes (Barcelona) — to attend to her fans and chat and sign autographs for her fans. With more photos, more questions, and more signatures. Yes, she is tired. It’s Thursday, but she has lost count of the days since last Monday she was named the best player in the world. She admits to being aware of her role, and what the newly won individual award entails. She knows that it is necessary to temporarily give up her precious rest. But despite the media and sporting pressure, the material weight—“quite a lot,” says Aitana, 25, laughing—of the Ball does not become a symbolic burden: “I have no more pressure. I already put enough pressure on myself to focus on what is expected of me. “I’m already ambitious enough, and I push myself to the limit.” It seems like nothing has changed for her. And neither does she want more and more. “If one day ambition disappears, it will be time to leave football,” she says.
He doesn’t dislike fame, but he doesn’t like it either. “I simply adapt to it,” says Bonmatí. “I know that it is something that comes along the way, that comes when you win. I am an introvert with whom I don’t know, but very extroverted in confidence. I try to handle it better,” reflects the Barcelona player. She never loses her closeness to her fans: “She is the one who has accompanied us throughout our entire career. From when I was at the Ciutat Esportiva, on the artificial grass field, then at the Mini Estadi, to all the people who filled the Camp Nou on the most special days, like the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Champions League in 2022, against Real Madrid and Wolfsburg, with more than 90,000 spectators. I feel a lot about Barça, and the fans feel it too. We have much in common”. Those around her say that Aitana has evolved, but not changed. “I have the same personality. It changes over time and with experiences, but my essence remains the same,” highlights the soccer player.
He has lost count of the days, and confuses Sunday with Monday and Tuesday. Events, matches, congratulations and congratulations. “It’s been a crazy few days. On Sunday I was in Madrid, and we flew to Zurich. The next day Salma Paralluelo and I went to the Ball gala in Paris, and on Tuesday we went to Switzerland again to play the game with the national team. And yesterday we returned to Barcelona,” Aitana recounts her last week, already crowned on her new throne after a full year. Her days, however, tend to be more balanced: “I go into the Ciutat Esportiva in the morning to train, and then, depending on the day, I train outside, or go to the physio, nutritionist or psychologist. Or I also have some acts. But I try to manage it to have moments for myself, which are very necessary.” She is always looking for optimal rest for her physical and mental performance, so her Master’s studies in Sports Management at the Johan Cruyff Institute take a backseat: “I don’t have time. Studying right now is complicated.”
On Monday the spotlight was on her. She dressed in a black dress with transparencies and a solemn brief smile. When they announced, without surprise, her name, Aitana went on stage at the gala in Paris. But the tennis player Novak Djokovic, the person in charge of presenting him with the award, forgot about the Ball. “I arrived and I didn’t know if they had to give it to me or not, and I went directly to talk. I didn’t know where to put myself,” Aitana confesses. She stood in front of the lectern and, without looking down at her paper, folded under the microphones and her hands, she began her speech. She was clear. “The speech was important. We are more than athletes. When you have an important moment, when you have all the focus for yourself, you have to go beyond the clichés,” he explains, aware of his role, Aitana.
So the week before the gala he was preparing the speech: “I had practiced it. She knew what she wanted to say, and in the languages she wanted. I knew it well, I included some things, but I had a clear concept.” Despite so much study, she did not shake her nerves. “I had that stage fright of putting yourself in front of everyone. Also speaking in three languages [español, catalán e inglés], some even that you master a lot. I wanted it to turn out well, and I am demanding in this area too. I was nervous, going out to train or going out to the field is not the same for me, which is what I do every day,” recalls the soccer player from Monday night.
Even with the Balloon hangover, he traveled to the Spanish team’s training camp to play against Switzerland. A win (1-7) in which he was part of the starting eleven. Although he didn’t play 90 minutes. And on Wednesday, back in his town, Sant Pere de Ribes—Ribes, as he likes to call it—he brought Barcelona the third consecutive Ballon d’Or. “For me, bringing the Barça name around the world is a pride and privilege. They have given everything for me, and I try to give it back to them. I always appreciate the effort for me, for all my teammates and for women’s soccer because they bet when no one believed,” highlights Aitana. Surrounded by her people, her family and a new mural in her honor, she took the Ball for a walk through her town: “I took it where they told me. “I am very grateful to them, and to carry the Ribes name around the world.”
Aitana’s year has “gone well”. But he can still improve more, and achieve some “Absolute European” or some “Olympic Games”. “The ambition does not stop here. Every year I want to contribute a better version of myself. I want to continue improving. I am 25 years old, I am young, I am not the 18-year-old Aitana, but I have a long way to go. “I will do my best to continue improving,” she says, and highlights that to do so she surrounds herself with the best professionals and is open to receiving “constructive criticism.”
With his green sweatshirt, jeans and straight hair. Simple, this Thursday he attended to the media for two hours. In the afternoon awaits you Meet and Greet with her fans, her fans, an event in which the player meets them, talks and signs autographs. And on Friday and Saturday, a rest, essential for her. And in two days, on Sunday she will have another match against Sevilla with FC Barcelona after the national team break. The Ballon d’Or has crowned her year, but nothing has changed in Aitana’s speech and ambition. After receiving the award, her parents were also simple: “Many congratulations, girl” (Congratulations, daughter). “My parents are of few words, especially my father. I know that they are proud and that they have accompanied me throughout this journey,” Aitana justifies, laughing. Nothing has changed, either, for her family.
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