Nelson Abadía, until a few hours ago the coach of the Colombian women’s soccer team broke his silence and spoke about the reasons that led them to leave the team.
Abadía, who has been in charge of the team for the last 7 years, after having served as Felipe Taborda’s technical assistant, won the silver medal at the 2014 Pan American Games, the gold medal at the 2019 Pan American Games, the runner-up in the Conmebol Copa América 2022 and the quarterfinals in the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand 2023.
Abadía, a 67-year-old from Cali, said that since last Monday he had been discussing the issue of his departure with the directors of the Colombian Football Federation, because “it is time for new experiences and goals” and that he has three offers to direct three women’s teams from the continent, without specifying which ones.
Last week it was speculated that one of them is from Mexico. The others would be a South American and a Central American one.
Did you leave because you fought with the players in the World Cup?
No. That is not true. To say that I fought with the players is not true. I had normal brushes with two or three.
Were those “rubs” with Daniela Montoya or Catalina Usme?
No never. Neither with Daniela nor with Cata…
With whom?
It does not matter. I am not going to say the names because those are normal frictions that happen in soccer teams.
And why were those frictions?
Because I did not negotiate discipline and because I am a demanding man.
In that way? Can you be more specific? Were there acts of indiscipline by the players of the National Team?
I did not negotiate the disciplinary codes that exist in a concentration of any team. I did not accept the lack of punctuality in the schedules, the lack of order in the exits, the fulfillment of the hours of rest, setting limits to the talks and groups in the corridors, to the visits. I always had the greatest and highest demand.
Did that lead you to fight with the group?
I repeat: I do not accept that they say that I fought with the group of players. I could have had normal friction that occurs in all soccer teams whether men’s or women’s.
In the last hours it has been said that some players had said that they considered their work as outdated and obsolete, without modernity both tactically and in training…
What you say goes against the evidence of achievements and results. That lie falls out of its weight because, then, how is it possible that in seven years of work we stopped and built the very high points with the medals in the Pan American Games, the classification to the World Cup as runners-up in the Copa América and the classification to the quarterfinals World Cup final. Saying otherwise goes against the facts and against reality. To say that we don’t know what we are doing is a lie, since we have achieved the highest results in the history of women’s football. We set the bar very high.
Why, then, do you think they say that?
Soccer players and soccer players express what they want. If what you tell me were like that, well, we wouldn’t have had the great results we did. That is not a logical reason. What happens is that I am demanding, and there are people who do not like to be demanded. That happens in all the teams in the world, whether male or female, and discipline and roles in discipline are not negotiated.
Did the presence of your son as part of the coaching staff make some players uncomfortable?
No. And I want to clarify that the work that was done with him was fruitful. He worked the entire offensive part and with him the option we had to score a goal, since it no longer fell only on one player, but we expanded the possibilities of scoring goals.
Gabriel Meluk
Sports Editor
@MelukLeCuenta
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