The Ballon d’Or for the best player in the world, the World Cup best player award, the World Cup, the European Player of the Year award, the Spanish league title, winning the Champions League and being voted the best player in the Champions League – and all this in a few months.
It’s not worth arguing about the best woman playing soccer in the world right now, because it’s so dumbfounding Bonmat’s fence prize shower.
– My life has changed in a short time. Everything has happened so fast that sometimes it has been difficult to keep up, comments Bonmati, 25 fairytale year for ESPN.
– When I made my debut in the national team eight years ago, I could never have imagined the Champions League final, playing at a full Camp Nou or becoming an idol.
Success has not come as a surprise to those who have closely watched the ball star from the sky, because the star has so energetically aimed for the top. From a young age, always demanding more from himself.
– He always aims for maximum performance. I’m worried that he won’t have time to enjoy the process and the moment itself. Sometimes he is not satisfied with his achievements, he always seems to want something more, father Vincent Conca revealed to The Athletic.
Football sucked
Someone born in Catalonia cannot avoid football, and the king’s sport also became Bonmat’s first love.
– I was born to play football, he described to the Guardian.
The magical ball skills of Barcelona and the Spanish national team show that he has been watching his favorite club’s matches since he was a child, absorbing influences.
– I always followed closely Xavi and Iniesta: how they moved, created places and constantly scanned their surroundings. Iniesta was always moving the ball forward, so I tried it myself. Today I feel that my understanding of football is similar: Barca’s way of thinking about football, comments Bonmati on the Players Tribune website.
During Bonmat’s childhood, the team was coached by a legendary Catalan pilot Pep Guardiolawho piloted the Catalan giants to three Spanish titles and two Champions League wins.
Guardiola impressed Bonmat, who reveals that he followed his favorite pilot even after he left Barcelona.
– When his team wins, I’m happy.
Guardiola has also followed Bonmat’s approach.
– Aitana Bonmati is a player whose playing style I am completely in love with. He is like the Iniesta, Guardiola of women’s football said under the summer World Cup final.
A long way to the top
Bonmat’s story is familiar to many women who play soccer. She started playing in her hometown’s team as the only girl in the whole club and got used to fighting against her elders from a young age.
– When he was on the field, he was like a force of nature, like a tsunami. It was sensational to see him play. He had something extra that boys didn’t. He always just wanted to improve and move forward, having coached 7-year-old Bonmat Oscar Gamez described for the BBC.
She joined the girls’ academy of her favorite club at the age of 13 – around the same time she started seeing a psychologist at her mother’s suggestion. At the same time, he learned to deal with disappointments and write down his feelings – a habit Bonmati has not given up even to this day. He also says that he still regularly meets with a psychologist.
In Bonmat’s youth, Barcelona’s talented junior girls only dreamed of what the club’s talented junior boys had. The girls’ practices often ended at midnight.
– Everyone dreams of playing at Camp Nou. But when I say all, I mean all boys. The games of the Barca women’s team were not shown on television, the team was not on social media, and no Spanish club was a professional club for a long time. At the age of 15, I didn’t see any possibility that I could have supported myself here with football, Bonmati commented to the Playes Tribune website.
However, Bonmat’s day did not end with training: there was still a long journey to his hometown ahead. He made the training journeys by public transport, and the journey took up to a couple of hours each way at worst.
Representing Barcelona was a big dream for the young Bonmat, but as a teenager, he saw no other option but to move to the United States.
Everything changed when the women’s national team was turned into a professional club when the midfielder was 17 years old.
– Within just two years I became a full professional in Barcelona, Bonmati recalled.
The fight for equality began in infancy
Bonmat’s year has not been just a celebration. The Spanish women’s national football team went to the World Cup with a lot of uproar, as some of the players refused the head coach Jorge Vildan from playing under already in autumn 2022 – Bonmati among them.
Like Bonmat, Vilda was especially strongly criticized by the players of the club team Barcelona: the world’s best players include Mapi Leon and Father Guijarro even missed the World Cup in protest.
Vilda was criticized throughout the spring and summer, but in the World Cup the team made it all the way to the world championship. A new uproar arose when the president of the Spanish Football Association Luis Rubiales kissed forcefully Jenni Hermosoa at the award ceremony.
Bonmati and the partners stood behind their teammate and announced that they would leave the national team until the women’s conditions improve.
Since then, Vilda and Rubiales received their departure passes.
However, Bonmat’s fight for equality started long before autumn 2022. It started already in infancy.
Contrary to common practice, he inherited his last name Bonmati from his mother.
In Spain, the first of the children’s surnames was traditionally and by law the father’s.
Bonmat’s mother Rosa Bonmati put his last name first on the registration papers. When the authorities did not accept this, she registered herself as a single parent and gave her child only her last name.
The parents pushed for a change in the law, according to which the first part of the surname could be the mother’s and the second the father’s. When the legislation was changed in 2000, Bonmati became Bonmati Conca – the mother’s surname first, then the father’s.
– Thank you, my parents Rosa and Vicent. You fought for change and succeeded. I carry this fight and tenacity in my blood, Bonmati stated in his Ballon d’Or award speech.
In a speech in which he used three languages – English, Spanish and Catalan – and in which he reminded his fellow candidates of the duties inside and outside the field.
– We should be more than athletes. Lead by example and continue to fight for a better, more peaceful and more equal world.
The final breakthrough
Bonmati came to the public’s lips this year at the latest, but those who follow women’s football closely have known about her gifts for a long time. Sports expert Essi Sainio remembers that he paid attention to him right away in the first matches of the representative team Seven years ago.
– I remember that he was replaced on the field in some game and I just looked like wow. There was a certain rawness in the footage, but there were such glimpses of him playing and being on the court that I thought he was already an excellent player.
According to Sainio, it is difficult to sum up the goodness of Bonmat in a few sentences.
– He is a world-class player in terms of his physical characteristics. It often seems that the team in control of the ball does not need to move, but if you watch Bonmat play, the movement is continuous: not sloppy, but very calculated. He is always in the right place and never late for any situation, Sainio begins.
In addition to his ability to read the game, Sainio highlights Bonmat’s personality. In addition to playing, he does a lot of volunteer work and works, for example, as a UN ambassador.
– When you look at the kind of statements he has made about social issues, it comes to mind that he is a really intelligent person. It can also be seen in gaming. Pep Guardiola’s football was played by intelligent players, and the Barcelona women’s team plays the same way today, Sainio continues.
Bonmat’s gaming features are unparalleled. Sainio reminds that Bonmati is really good at pulling with both legs. In addition, the ball stays at the player’s feet even at high speed.
– At full speed, he is able to change the rhythm of the tempo delivery without the control of the ball being disturbed in any way. He is able to control the ball in an incredible way, i.e. to fool with a pass and shake the opponent’s balance.
– He is extremely good at choosing passes with the right weight and twist. I can’t suddenly think of when I’ve seen such a good and comprehensive player, Sainio praises.
Weaknesses are hard to find in Bonmat. Some have highlighted the flawed main game, but Sainio has a different opinion.
– He doesn’t apply for such situations, but reads situations in such a way that he is collecting second balls at the latest.
Over the past few years, Bonmati has also developed in his defensive play.
– If Bonmati gets close enough after losing the ball, he almost always takes the ball back. He defends really humbly if the opponent gets into few counterattacks and is among the first in his own box.
But why did he come into the general public’s consciousness just now?
One of the reasons for Bonmat’s final breakthrough is also related to his teammate Alexia Putellansalso a Ballon d’Or winner, to injury.
– Putellas’ absence has opened up more space for him on the field to perform activities where he is the best in the world. His qualities are at their best when he plays downright annoyingly well between the lines. He just had to get to play those minutes. That is the biggest reason why he became known to a large audience just now.
Although Bonmati has cleared the awards table this year and won all the most prestigious awards in the sport, enough hunger in the future as well.
– The goal is the same every year: Win everything possible. When my career is over one day, I plan to travel the world for a year or two. Visit places like Colombia and Japan. But right now I want to keep winning.
Barcelona, represented by Aitana Bonmat, will face Swedish Rosengård, represented by Ria Öling, in the Champions League on Thursday.