On the lawn of the Stadium Australia Sydneyin full ecstasy of Spanish women’s football, Jorge Vilda jumped with excitement surrounded by the players who had just converted spain in world champion. A August 20, 2023 which is already part of the football history books in our country. The World Cup is from Spain. Of the 23 heroines who flew to Australia y New Zealandthe coaching staff and all those who one day decided to give part of their lives for the ball.
But now, in the smile of victory, the suffering of the last twelve months of a team that was broken is also remembered. The chaos, the anger, the rebellion, the separate press conferenceshints, messages, threats, agreements…
Almost a year ago, the August 29th last summer, the captains of the national team (Irene Paredes, Jenni Hermoso and Patri Guijarro) showed the Federation their concern for what they considered “mismanagement” of the absolute. They did it in a private meeting prior to two World Cup Qualifying matches and still to this day they assure that in that talk they did not expressly request the resignation of Jorge Vilda. In July they had lost in the quarterfinals of the European Championship against England and they felt that the train was passing them by. Still in private, the coach tested the wishes of those summoned and calculated his next stepsalways with the support and confidence of Luis Rubialeswhich completely ruled out the dismissal of the technician.
Given the increase in media pressurethe Federation organized a double press conference for the September 1st. two appearances separately. First, for one thing, Vilda. Then, on the other, Paredes, Guijarro and Hermoso. The selector showed himself “deeply hurt with the way to proceed” and confirmed its continuity, while the soccer players insisted on “the general malaise” that existed in the group, without publicly extending their arguments. “We all think that we have a group with which we can achieve great titlesand that is why it was decided to express the message of the group, because in the end we believe that it is something important”, assured Guijarro, one of the great absentees in the World Cup. “Some internal aspects can be changed and that’s why you talk to him (with the coach). Sometimes you have to say things even if they are not pleasant for them to change,” said Paredes. Words that today sound different.
21 days later, the September 22the Federation announced that 15 players had voluntarily resigned from the national team through an email in which they warned, according to the RFEF, that “the current situation generated affects them ‘significantly’ in their ‘emotional state‘ and in their ‘health’ and that, ‘as long as it is not reversed’, they resign from the Spanish national team”.