Exactly one year ago, Spain lifted the World Cup in Sydney after beating England. It was a liberating victory with a formidable transformative power. The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was only the third that La Roja had attended, which until 2015 had not yet made its debut in the biggest competition for national teams on the planet. In less than a decade, the team went from football ostracism to the greatest success in its history with a victory that changed everything: it placed the national team in the elite – it is third in the world. ranking FIFA, but until the Olympic Games ended this month it led the rankings—; it promoted women’s football in the country —last year it was the second most practiced sport by women and for the first time it surpassed 100,000 federation memberships—; and after Luis Rubiales, then president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), kissed Jenni Hermoso in the middle of the title celebrations, the footballers shook up an organization that had been stuck in sexism and discriminatory treatment towards them for years. Irene Paredes, the team captain, remembers in a chat with EL PAÍS the feeling of reaching the top: “The taste is very good despite everything that happened afterwards. From a football point of view we gave a very high performance, and we did not want to let anything tarnish our moment. Getting there and doing so well, no one will change that. The moment is ours and for us, forever.”
Olga Carmona’s goal in the final, a fantastic left-footed cross from a player who learned of her father’s death after the match and dedicated the goal to the mother of a friend who had recently passed away, culminated a journey that had begun years earlier with Spain’s successes in the lower categories, where the U17, U19 and U20 teams won titles in European and World Cups. After the victory in Sydney, Kelly Simmons, former director of women’s professional football at the English FA, warned in an article in The Guardian that England had to react immediately because Spain was in a position to “dominate world football for the next decade” due to the level of its players and its victories in the lower divisions.
For Vero Boquete, the first great Spanish international figure in women’s football and current Fiorentina striker, the title is undoubtedly La Roja’s greatest success and one of the great milestones of national sport: “For the female footballers it was the confirmation of the talent of a generation, but also of a style of play, of a way of understanding football and taking it to the highest level. Nine years ago, when Spain qualified for its first World Cup, in Canada, no one could have imagined it.”
Before landing in New Zealand, the players agreed to a sort of peace with Rubiales and the then coach, Jorge Vilda, after the so-called crisis of the 15. In September 2022, 15 footballers had resigned from going to the national team if structural changes were not made in the women’s team, but before the competition some of them, such as Aitana Bonmatí – current Ballon d’Or winner and voted best player at the World Cup – backed down, talked and laid the groundwork for the beginning of a normalization that did not occur until the inevitable revolution that came after Rubiales’ kiss with Hermoso.
During the World Cup, the players took advantage of that truce with Vilda, with whom the relationship was never good, but at least it was good enough to achieve the results. “Although there were things that changed for us to decide to return, the players that went accepted what was there. We wanted to represent Spain and we focused on the performance of the group,” recalls Paredes. The triumph that was achieved on August 20, 2023 was based on them: “We arrived at a time of great individual performance. And we had things very clear, we knew what we were going for and that we had a very good team. If you are not at your best in high-performance sports, you are left out, and we were all brilliant.”
Boquete points out a key moment in the cup win, the thrashing that Japan inflicted on La Roja (4-0) on the third day of the group stage —“it gave them a slap in the face that woke them up even more”—, but above all he highlights the unity of the group after the stormy months: “With all the problems that there were, the key to victory was putting collective success before any individual ego and any quarrel with the team.” staff or between them.”
In the midst of the ecstasy in Sydney, the situation exploded with the kiss from Rubiales, who had also touched his genitals in the stadium box just after the final. Although that same night, in a live interview on Cope, the former president of the RFEF called those who were outraged by his behaviour “idiots” and “morons”, his behaviour provoked a majority rejection in all sectors of society that forced him to finally step aside on September 10.
Rubiales, who is on trial and awaits trial (he will be in the dock next February) for the kiss and the alleged subsequent coercion of Hermoso to defend his way of acting, was not the only one to fall. Vilda, also accused of coercing the player and whose training methods were questioned by the players, was removed from his post, and Montse Tomé, who had been his right-hand woman, took the bench. Albert Luque, the then sports director, and Rubén Rivera, marketing director, also left, for whom the prosecution is asking for a year and a half in prison for coercing Hermoso. In addition, the players managed to have a commission created to mediate in times of crisis and a protocol for cases of sexual violence, as well as the dismissals of Andreu Camps, then general secretary, and Pablo García Cuervo, director of communications, who had managed the crisis at the 15 by calling the players rebels and “brats”.
After the storm, the crisis gradually subsided. Today the atmosphere in the federation is healthier and more professional, although it is far from perfect: the RFEF is headless – Pedro Rocha, Rubiales’ successor, was disqualified last July by the Administrative Court of Sport, although he requested a precautionary measure pending resolution – and the director of football for the national team, Markel Zubizarreta, did not last a year and still has no replacement. “The only thing we want is to be able to perform and have the adequate resources to compete. The federation is still in a moment of transition, it still does not have a president, but as far as we are concerned, it is a calm environment in which we can focus totally on football,” says the captain.
There have been changes, joys and disappointments on the pitch. Two pillars of recent years, centre-back Ivana Andrés and forward Esther González, have been dropped by technical decision from the latest lists of Tomé, who has managed to recover Patri Guijarro, one of the best midfielders in the world and absent since the crisis of the 15. But there are still wounds that have not healed. Another of the 15, centre-back Mapi León, a difference-maker, still does not want to return to the national team.
With Tomé, the first woman in the history of the national team on the bench, La Roja won the Nations League in February and qualified for their first Games, those in Paris, where they fell to Brazil in the semi-finals and to Germany in the fight for bronze. These were two defeats that still rankle Paredes. “We dreamed of a medal, we knew it was difficult, that there is that bit of luck, but we were not at the level,” she admits. “We had had an almost perfect year, we had already experienced many tense moments, some of us had played several finals… It wasn’t due to desire and work, but it didn’t happen as we expected,” she adds. They aspired to close a great year with the triple crown – World Cup, Nations League and Olympic gold – and returned from the French capital empty-handed. Boquete points precisely to that long season as the main reason why Spain did not look like Spain: “They all arrived with a brutal load of matches. The Games did not come at the best time for them, both physically and mentally. There was a lack of freshness and intensity.”
The maximum demands placed on that team and the disappointment of seeing them return from Paris without the medal around their necks are a response to the legacy left by the Spain of Alexia and Jenni, of Aitana and Salma, of Paredes and Mariona, the leaders of the team that changed history. “It is normal that we are asked for things, that expectations are created after the year we have had, but we are human and we have not performed as we would have liked,” Paredes admits with some regret.
The work done, however, allows us to look forward. Spain’s grand entrance to the top of football has led to more girls than ever kicking balls today. The number of licences has grown by 23% this year, and in the last 12 years the number has climbed by 191%: from 39,023 in 2012 to 107,853 in 2024. “In women’s football there are indicators that the situation can only be maintained or improved,” Boquete celebrates. It has been a conquest achieved by breaking down prejudices, as Irene Paredes recalls: “We have just reached the elite, and the difficult thing is to stay there. We have fallen to third place in the world ranking “FIFA and we don’t like to see ourselves there. It’s a sign that we have to improve to keep moving forward and for boys and girls to notice us.”
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