Barcelona star Mariona Caldentey has admitted that the statements made by Atletico Madrid’s Alvaro Morata and Real Madrid’s Dani Carvajal during their international break in September and October were infuriating.
Morata claimed that the Spain men’s team helped the women’s team a lot, but during the statement read out on behalf of all Spain players in September, said that they were condemning the actions of Luis Rubiales in order to focus on playing football.
Meanwhile Dani Carvajal has also said that Rubiales made a mistake when he kissed Jenni Hermoso without her consent, but vouched for his character outside of that. Carvajal also said he had ‘no idea’ what Aitana Bonmati was referring to when she spoke of a lack of support from the men’s side, and dismissed their attempts to make structural changes within the RFEF. ‘We’re just focused on what we have to do which is winning.’
In an interview with Catalunya Radio (via Relevo), Barcelona and Spain forward Mariona Caldentey opened up on their time at the World Cup on their way to winning the trophy. She said the squad felt underprepared with former manager Jorge Vilda.
“We had the feeling that we were going to play, but that we didn’t have a plan. That created insecurity in us. If the game goes well, nothing happens, but… what if you need solutions and you feel like you don’t have them? That’s what we asked for: to have a game plan and to have things clear. It is likely that at some point the match is not going to go well. It was our main concern when going onto the pitch.”
Caldentey also explained that despite their achievements, it was bittersweet due to the fact that the likes of Amaiur Sarriegi, Claudia Pina, Mapi Leon and Patri Guijarro were not there. A number of players continued their strike from the Spain side, as they tried to force change in the Spanish Football Federation.
More specifically on Carvajal and Morata’s comments, Caldentey was clear that they were illustrating the double standards, but did praise Real Betis striker Borja Iglesias.
“It makes me angry when they say they are focused on playing. We also want to play, right? There have been players like Borja Iglesias who have shown their support from minute zero. It is important for this to achieve impact and visibility. More battles will come and we will have to continue fighting. If men’s and women’s football unite, we will have more strength.”
Iglesias declared after Rubiales’ infamous general assembly refusal to resign that he would not play for Spain again until changes were made in the RFEF. Since he has declared himself available again.
It certainly feels like someone can’t get enought of the five minutes in spotlight brought to her by the artificially created Rubiales “scandal”.
Return to irrelevance, people are tired of these articles.