When there are a few minutes left until five in the afternoon, the door of the Seneca Philosopher School in Hortaleza begins to fill with parents. As time passes and the time change approaches, the different conversations, which were previously heard clearly, become a general murmur as more people approach the small orange gate that gives access to the school playground. What is little intelligible from a distance reveals that the conversations of those present revolve around their daughters: anecdotes from school, the most recent funny occurrence or the latest illness from which they have recovered. They have all brought their little girls, eight and nine years old, to soccer training in Scorpion 1997, a non-profit association dedicated to promoting, through sport, the personal and social development of children, especially those who are at risk or vulnerable. At five the bell rings, the metal door opens and football begins.
The team's coach, Montserrat Velarde (36 years old), accompanies them to the indoor soccer field located in the patio, which at each end has a goal with the posts painted red and white, and the nets perforated by the goals they receive. . Montse, as she likes to be called, comes from a family with a great soccer tradition, but like many other girls of her time, her parents did not let her practice the sport: “My father was a soccer coach, my brother also played and my uncle came to coach Rayo Vallecano, but they didn't let me play, because I was a girl and because I was the youngest in the family,” recalls Montse, who as a child covered her bruises when she got home, so that her parents They wouldn't discover that he had played ball in some party.
As a consequence of her personal history, Montse has taken it upon herself to clear these types of barriers for her two daughters, aged seven and nine, who are also part of the Alacrán 1997 youth team. From her trench, she celebrates the visibility that football Women's football has been winning in recent years: “Every time girls have more female references and boys increasingly watch women's football, there is an important change in mentality. Now my father, who wouldn't let me play, comes to see us and tells my daughter 'eat a big breakfast because you have a game,' she says as her eyes light up. “I am a volunteer here and it is a sacrifice, but my reward is seeing my girls enjoy what I never could at their age,” says she, who confesses to having received job offers from other teams. “They have offered me a job outside of Alacrán, doing the same thing I do here, only with a salary. But here are my daughters and, furthermore, if they paid me to do this, I don't think I would do it,” concludes Montse, who complements her passion with a job in an insurance company.
Rubén López (45 years old), coordinator of the entity, explains that one of the three main slogans of Alacrán 1997 is to have two teams, one female and one male, in each of the eleven categories that operate, which range from six to seventeen years old. The second slogan is that minors who want to join the team can do so without their parents having to pay a fee: “The members agreed that it would never happen that anyone who did not have money to pay would be left without playing football.” says López, who together with a group of youth friends, started the training project thirteen years ago, with the aim of “giving something back to the neighborhood” in which they grew up. The third slogan is that everyone who wanted to be part of the Alacrán 1997 structure had to do so as volunteers. Currently there are 40 people who, without receiving a salary, work in administration, operation and technical management positions within the association.
For the project to maintain these three characteristics—egalitarian, free and voluntary—external financing is key. According to López, the association tries to finance itself with Christmas raffles, solidarity markets and donations from members themselves, but this only constitutes 15% of the annual budget. The remaining 85%, with which operating expenses are sustained, facilities are rented and balls and clothing are purchased, comes from outside, both from the public and private sectors, with Fundación La Caixa being one of its main promoters. Joana Prats, director of Relations with Social Entities of the foundation, points out that the Alacrán 1997 project was chosen among several proposals because it promotes “physical activity, social inclusion, connection with the territory, the involvement of families and Informal education”.
López contributes by going deeper into this last aspect, pointing out that certain players in the older categories, from 14 to 17 years old, who see leadership qualities and understanding of the game, are also offered the opportunity to train to become certified as coaches. “It is always important to have a job opportunity. Even if they don't end up dedicating themselves to it, it is good for all of us to know how to earn an extra income at some stage of our lives,” says the coordinator. One of these outstanding students is Irina Sanseroni, 16 years old, with whom it is enough to exchange just a couple of words to attest to her developed maturity. “I had never been part of a soccer team, because my family couldn't afford it, until I came to Alacrán. Here I learned that you have to fight for your goals, no matter how far away they may seem,” says the person who was part of the minor categories and now assists Montse during the training of the Benjamin women's team. “I try to transmit the values that I learned to the little ones,” she concludes with enthusiasm.
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