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Writer's pictureKenyah Robyn Lyle

SPAIN WIN THE NATIONS LEAGUE! CAN THEY INSPIRE A NATION?



The Spanish Women's team have been absolutely rampant in international tournaments. They secured the World Cup for the first time in their history, after beating EUROs winners England 1-0 and have now won the Nations League after beating France 2-0. Ballon D'or and Fifa Best winner, Aitana Bonmati opened the score sheet and teammate Caldentey followed through after to secure the win. Despite controversy surrounding their ex-coach Jorge Vilda and ex-Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales, the Spanish women's team have charged forward in their pursuit to stamp themselves in footballing history. They have gone from strength to strength and wish to build on this at the Paris Olympics.


One dream that the Spanish Women's team wish to achieve, is to inspire their nation. Aitana Bonmati sat with Le Equipe and spoke about her jealousy of the English Women's team and how much they achieved after winning the EUROS back in July 2022. She expressed how she felt as if 'Winning the World Cup was for nothing' as there has been little changes and investment in the women's game in Spain. She pulls an obvious contrast to England, where there was an active investment from the government and football clubs, seeing Stadiums such as the Emirates sell out many times and more girls starting to play football. Even other nations such as Australia are embracing their women's team, with the Matilda's selling out for the twelth time in a row as 54,120 attended to watch the Aussie's hit ten goals past Uzbekistan on Wednesday. For a country that has won the ultimate trophy in the world cup, this is quite a deflating reality for the players that strived so hard to achieve such an incredible accomplishment, especially when you take their English and Australian counterparts into consideration.


For Spain to embrace their women's national team they need to collaborate on all fronts. There is the question as to whether Spanish domestic clubs could be doing better and taking the approach of English clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City to promote the women's game. All of these English giants have advocated for their female players by giving them the best facilities, allowing them to play fixtures at their respective home grounds and champion their women's teams in their clubs brands. Super Giants Barcelona and Real Madrid could take after this approach and this may allow for their fan bases to interact more with the Spanish nationals who have been extremely successful in the last year. More specifically, Barcelona FC which is dominating Liga F, has a wide range of Spanish players such as Ballon D'or winners Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmati who should receive the same level of praise and fandom as English nationals. The Spanish leagues are littered with world class and top players who have completed football and this should be endorsed by their clubs, leagues and nation.


Overall, Spain are showing no signs of slowing down and will continue to shine if they carry on with the approach they have on the pitch but in terms of lifting their nation to the heights of England and Australia they are still lacking behind. The players need to find ways to push their seniors into action, similar to the England Women's National team, to ensure that they can secure investment in the domestic leagues, better facilities and initiatives to help young people become more involved in women's football.





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