Reign in Europe. Demonstrate that, despite their setback at the Paris Games where they placed fourth, the Spanish women’s team, current world champion, is still the rival to beat. The goal of Montse Tomé’s team is to reach and win the final on July 27 at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel. In the same stadium where everything will begin on July 2 with the opening match between hosts Switzerland and Norway.
Many things have changed since the last Women’s Euro Cup that England won in 2022. It was precisely the English women who ended the hopes of Spain, which was on the verge of reaching the semifinals. That defeat was the beginning of their great revolution.
Decisions
Tomé starts his own revolt: he left out Jenni Hermoso and Irene Paredes in the last concentration
A month after that defeat, captains Irene Paredes, Jenni Hermoso and Patri Guijarro showed the Federation, chaired by Luis Rubiales, their concern over what they considered “poor management” of the senior team led by Jorge Vilda at the time. They did it in a private meeting. The RFEF counterattacked publicly. Vilda was “deeply hurt by the way we proceeded” and Rubiales reinforced him.
21 days later, the RFEF announced that 15 players had voluntarily resigned from the national team via email. After a period of tensions, improvements were agreed on in transportation, accommodation and family conciliation during the concentrations. They all returned except Mapi León, Claudia Pina and Patri Guijarro.
Rubiales’ non-consensual kiss to Hermoso on the same stage in which Spain won the World Cup changed everything. Rubiales, accused of sexual assault and coercion of Hermoso, was disqualified. Vilda was fired. His second, Montse Tomé, has taken the reins and won the last Nations League. But Spain came fourth in the Games. And Tomé has made a move. In the last concentration to beat South Korea and beat the powerful France, they did not have Jenni Hermoso or Paredes.
The path
Italy, Belgium and Portugal are the rivals of the Spanish team in the group stage of the tournament
There are still level tests to finish defining the final list, like the second edition of the Nations League that begins on February 21.
Spain does know that the draw determined that Italy, Belgium and Portugal will be its rivals in the group stage of a Euro Cup in which 16 teams will participate and which will be played in eight venues spread throughout Switzerland. If Spain makes it to the quarterfinals, it will have to face Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Finland, from group A. On the other side of the draw there are big favorites like Germany, eight-time European champion, England, current defending champion, France , finalist of the Nations League or the Netherlands, champion of Euro 2017. There will be over 700,000 entries for the final phase of what will be the 14th edition of the continental tournament.
Main events
Other sports events for 2025
1
Athletics
And in the background a child is silhouetted: Gout Gout
There are and always will be thousands of princes, but there is only one Beethoven!
Ludwig van Beethoven
In athletics, this is the era of great inventions.
Michael Johnson has created Grand Slam Track: it is a kind of American-style Diamond League, concentrated in the United States and the Caribbean, which will start in April, is limited to speed and medium distance and brings under its arm a rain of millions for the rigorously invited athletes.
In response, World Athletics has made a move. Next summer’s World Cups, in Tokyo, will be in September. And in even-numbered years, The Ultimate Championship will be held, a kind of World Championship with a reduced size and schedule (it will last three days) that will be born in 2026 in Budapest and will be held, like the classic World Championship, in September.
The arguments?
In all cases: the World Cup and Diamond League sessions drag on, the performance of the athletes, unmotivated, declines after August and the public disconnects in multiple events: no one goes crazy when the semi-finals are played. The parish wants vertigo and direct duels: there are none in a semifinal, and there are none if the rewards are lower.
Do we want hearings?
The schedule must be accelerated. And if something does not transcend, to the drawer.
These are the easements of the post-Bolt era. No one, not least Mondo Duplantis, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Sydney McLaughlin, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Neeraj Chopra or Noah Lyles, gives us what Bolt gave us.
And for that reason, we have to invent.
Invent or wait.
Waiting for some fruit to ripen: are we in luck? In the background the figure of a 17-year-old teenager is silhouetted, a wiry kid faster than Bolt at his age.
His name is Gout Gout, we will remember that name and surname, and a few days ago, in the southern summer, he clocked 20s04 in the 200 (Bolt at his age was in 20s13) and broke the Australian record that the legendary Peter Norman held from Mexico.’ 68 (20s06), from the times of Tommie Smith and John Carlos (Black Power leaders, black glove on the podium), those of the flying Bob Beamon, the innovator Dick Fosbury, Kip Keino, African king, and the unforgettable discus thrower Al Oerter, Olympic gold in four different Games.
If you look back, athletics shudders. How much glory it brought.
Will Gout Gout give it back to us? / Sergio Heredia
2
Barça
What starts well…
Hansi Flick arrived without making much noise but landed on his feet for Barcelona, which started the season like a cyclone, surprising even its fans and exceeding any expectations. The German, with only two signings (Olmo and Pau Víctor), relied on the youth team (Bernal – now injured – and Casadó) and did not make excuses, but was brave and self-conscious, even to throw the offside. The defeats against Real Madrid, Bayern, Espanyol, Girona and Villarreal made them a sensational team. In the second part of the course you must confirm that trajectory… and return to the Spotify Camp Nou. / Carles Ruipérez
3
Tennis
Djokovic, alone against the puppies
And finally, the unforgettable Big Three He has been left on one leg. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are no longer there and Novak Djokovic (37), the third in contention, has been left alone in the fight against the passage of time. Also removed from the top of the ATP table (today he is seventh), Djokovic has decided to focus on capturing his 25th Grand Slam title, a milestone that would make him the GOAT of all time, as he would break the tie with Margaret Court . The puppies (Sinner, Alcaraz, Rune, including Korda) try to stop him. / Sergio Hereida
4
Motorcycling
Marc Márquez, now or never
After five rollercoaster years, since the fateful crash at Jerez 2020 that triggered endless injuries, recoveries, frustrations and a change of family and motorcycle – from Repsol Honda to Ducati –, Marc Márquez faces 2025 as the year of all or nothing: either the MotoGP title, which should be his seventh crown, with which he would equal Valentino Rossi, or fiasco. The best rider is in the best team, the official Ducati, and with the best motorcycle, so there is no other option but to be champion again. It will be a 2025 MotoGP World Championship without Aleix Espargaró and with the champion Jorge Martín riding an Aprilia. / Toni López Jordà
5
Basketball
Spain, to defend its crown
Champion of four of the last six editions of the tournament, Spain will once again attempt the assault on the Eurobasket title this summer. It will do so in one of those editions that can be described as “modern”, since the tournament will be multi-venue, with the matches distributed between Latvia, Cyprus, Finland and Poland, with the final phase in Riga, the Latvian capital. Sergio Scariolo’s team, current champion after defeating France in the final in Berlin two years ago, will try to draw on the young talents of the under-19 world champions such as Almansa and De Larrea. / Luis Buxeres
6
Cycling
Can anyone with Pogacar?
It was not the overwhelming number of victories (25) but the insulting superiority with which Tadej Pogacar swept each of the goals he set for himself in 2024. No one could overshadow him in the Giro, the Tour or the World Cup while Evenepoel He triumphed in the Games and Roglic took over the Vuelta taking advantage of the fact that he was not at the start. In 2025, the Slovenian from the UAE is looking for his fourth Tour de France against a Vingegaard who hopes to arrive without the fall of last year but also races that he does not yet have in his record such as Milan-Sanremo and, perhaps, the Vuelta a España. / Carles Ruipérez
7
Swimming
Marchand superstar
In July the figure of Léon Marchand (22) grew bigger. It happened under the Great Arch of La Défense, at the Paris Olympic Games: four individual golds were collected by the French swimmer, an exceptional milestone that elevated him in the sporting imagination (only Mark Spitz, Michael Phelps and Kristin Otto have collected four individual golds or more in an Olympic edition) and amazed the heads of the discipline, in need of new icons after the goodbye of Phelps and the decompression of Katie Ledecky. The World Cup in Singapore, in July and August, will mark the drift of Marchand: we will see if he consolidates or if he dilutes. / Sergio Heredia
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