It took 61 years for Spain to win a Ballon d’Or again, the second after Luis Suárez’s in 1960. And this milestone has come with a lesson. Or, rather, a wake-up call to a world, football, which has a great pending debt with all girls, adolescents and women who, throughout history, have had too many barriers to be able to kick the ball.
This new Ballon d’Or was for them, personified in the figure of an Alexia Putellas (Mollet del Vallès, 28 years old) who has more than risen to the occasion. The Catalan midfielder, who distances herself from individualism (“It’s an individual award, but without a doubt it’s a collective success,” she said after collecting her award in Paris), has taken advantage of this opportunity to hit the table. “My goal is for this to be seen normally,” assured Alexia, who is a member of the first generation of players who has begun to make a living from football.
The latter is a big step, with a past too unfair for the pioneers of this sport, in a fight in which there is still a long way to go. That is where Alexia appears, who does not shut up before anything or anyone and who leads an exemplary and very committed speech.
The Spanish international not only has a special aura on the green, where her talent is infinite. With a unique personality, she presents an image of an empowered woman who asks for a place in footballwhere his game and his words dance with intelligence, education and a lot of class to open more doors to all the girls who want to follow in his footsteps.
Alexia: “Football belongs to all of us”
His figure is so strong that not even fame has managed to alter his humility (“I try to give normality to everything that is happening,” he told AS) or the way in which he faces his public exhibitions, in which he always appears with calm, seriousness and closeness. The one from Mollet del Vallès has not renounced its claiming character at any time, being the great symbol of the fight for equality in Spanish women’s football.
Thus, with the worldwide achievement of the Barça captain, who was also chosen as the Best Player of the Year by UEFA and The Best by FIFA, Spanish football has beaten a great reference at all levels. A star that marks the path to equality.
“Football belongs to all of us”he assured in an emotional letter recently published in The Players’ Tribune. She was ‘lucky’, because her friends and family they never rejected that passion that has led her to be the best player in the world, but not for that reason he looks aside. “They never told me that I couldn’t play or insulted me. Nobody raised their eyebrows when they said they wanted to be a footballer,” confessed Alexia, who made a wish: “My experience should be that of any girl.”
Alexia leads a new dimension
With its success, Alexia has opened a new dimension in Spanish women’s football. A wasted start time due to the delay of the professional League, which will arrive next year and not this season, as planned. The Catalan midfielder Her media influence has skyrocketed after being named the best player in the world.
Her cachet makes her very attractive to commercial brands and now girls and even boys want to be like her, who will fight to the end in this tough battle for equality. “The real triumph will come when there are equal opportunities between boys and girls in the world of sport”, said. Referent word.