The rise of the national team from followers to ubiquitous at major competitions over the past decade has been one of the most notable rises on the women’s international stage.
Euro 2022 was to show how a burgeoning domestic league, a historic payment arrangement and a dedicated youth system meant that Spain, who qualified for the tournament undefeated, became an international force.
Spain impressed with a 4-1 win in their opening game against Finland, but Tuesday’s clash of giants when La Roja take on Germany in Group B will be a tougher test for a side without two of the world’s best players.
On the eve of the tournament, Spain suffered their second major blow in as many weeks. After it was announced in June that top scorer of all time Jenni Hermoso would miss Euro 2022 with a knee injury, La Roja received the devastating news on 5 July that Totem midfielder Alexia Putellas had torn her left anterior cruciate ligament .
It’s hard to overstate how important Putellas is to this team: a prolific goalscorer, an erratic playmaker and a player with the individual genius to single-handedly win every game.
Spain must now try to play without two of the best players in the world, with Putellas and Hermoso finishing first and second respectively in the 2021 Ballon d’Or standings.
“On top of that… she rises and makes herself number 9 and scores a goal for you. She makes the whole La Roja game based on her, but we can’t underestimate the rest of the team because we have great centre-backs; Mapi León and Irene Paredes are among the best in the world.
“In midfield, Aitana [Bonmatí] and Patri [Guijarro] are also the best and her play with them, who she plays with every day at Barça, makes the team flow.”
Now, in the absence of Putellas and Hermoso, it’s up to the likes of Paredes, León, Bonmatí and Guijarro to lead the Spanish women to their first major international title.
‘Exponential growth’
Before the 2015 World Cup in Canada, Spanish women’s football was unrecognizable from the standard it sets today.
Recalling that players had to travel hundreds of miles to practice every day, Fra said there was no nutrition plan.
“After the 2015 World Cup, when Spain qualified for a World Cup for the first time, Spain really started to get involved in women’s football and the players started turning pro,” said Fra.
“They started receiving financial support, and then they [the federation] also set out to create and professionalize a stronger league, which we would almost describe as something unprecedented.
“From there the team has grown exponentially in terms of players, physique, resources and even the fact that, as national team coach Jorge Vilda said, the players are now professionals and they can make a living from this.”
Already in early 2020, the players in the first women’s league reached a historic league-wide agreement that guarantees every footballer an annual salary.
The agreed minimum wage for full-time players was €16,000 (US$18,000) for a 40-hour week and €12,000 (US$13,600) for a 30-hour part-time week, each including maternity leave, injury benefits and paid vacation.
The deal was the culmination of years of incremental improvements that also included a television deal and a key title sponsorship with renewable energy company, Iberdrola.
But the way was not easy. In November 2019, after their demands for a minimum wage were not met, footballers boycotted all eight Premier League games over a weekend after 189 representatives from the league’s 16 clubs voted 93 percent to go on strike.
However, with the deal finalized, the Premier League players could start dedicating their working lives solely to football.
“Today there are still many players in the Spanish national team who are still studying because they believe their careers are too short and what they earn is not enough for the rest of their lives,” said Fra.
“So they keep learning, they keep educating themselves… but today a player of any team in the league can live on what she earns on her team and on the national team.
“Also, they have a bonus that with the euros they get some allowances and image rights that complement those salaries.”
“The Barça Essence”
Negotiations for the new deal coincided with the start of Barcelona’s meteoric rise to the top of European football.
At the start of 2019, Barça became the first Spanish side in history to reach either the semi-finals or the final of the Women’s Champions League, eventually losing 4-1 to powerhouse Lyon in the final.
Two years later, the Azulgrana finally got their hands on European football’s most coveted prize when they defeated Chelsea 4-0 in the final to herald a hoped-for power shift in European football.
Barça reached the final again this year, falling to Lyon, and many of the players involved in Barcelona’s rise have been instrumental in helping the Spanish national team climb to seventh in the world.
Certainly parallels can be drawn with the men’s national team that dominated world and European football between 2008 and 2012, with a majority of players from Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona.
Eight players – nine before Putellas’ injury – from the current Barcelona women’s squad have been called up in the 23-man squad for Euro 2022 and six started in the team’s opening game.
Like Guardiola’s Barça and the Spanish team of the time, this national team’s style is heavily influenced by the Catalan giants.
“Barcelona have the singing voice,” explained Fra. “Spain basically plays the same way as Barça: tiki taka, touch and verticality in attack. So it’s an honor that Barca invested so much because it made the national team grow.
“The styles are very similar. Besides, the players who carry the weight in the national team – these are the three midfielders Aitana [Bonmatí]alexia [Putellas] and Patri Guijarro – they have the essence of Barça, they are from the academy.
“Their references when they were little were Xavi and [Andrés] iniesta They looked up to these players, they created this style at Barça, they play like this and they are the ones who carry the dominant weight and make this team work. Basically, I’d say it’s the same as Barca did in 2010.”
Barcelona’s vibrant, ephemeral style of football recently led club legend and current men’s head coach Xavi to dub the team an ‘inspiration’.
mitigate expectations
Vilda took over after former head coach Ignacio Quereda was ousted after 27 years in charge after Spain’s disappointing performance at the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
It was the first time the women’s national team had qualified for a World Cup, but after finishing last in their group, the players subsequently stepped out, bemoaning a lack of professionalism within the line-up.
Since failing to reach the 2011 World Cup, La Roja has qualified for all major international tournaments and has already secured her place at next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
This record is in stark contrast to the previous 26 years, when between 1987 and 2013 they only managed to qualify for one major tournament – Euro 1997.
Vilda was appointed after leading the women’s U17 and U19 to several European titles and many of the players who have played a key role in the success of these sides are now permanent fixtures in the senior squad.
In Euro 2022 qualifying, Spain have won seven and drawn one game, scoring 48 goals and conceding just once, but Fra warned of caution.
“Reaching the semi-finals would obviously be a success,” said Fra. “We must not lose sight of the fact that Spain have never reached a final, not even a semi-final. They don’t have the experience that other teams like Germany, England, France, Sweden or Norway have.”
“It is true that the journey of this team has been made in recent years [fans] believe and invite them to dream, but Jorge Vilda has lowered the expectations a bit because he finds it negative that people come with such high expectations that there is too much belief in something we’ve never done before.
“If they don’t reach the semi-finals, it’s not a failure. A failure would be for example not going through the group stage because I think Spain have that ability and they have to go through it, but that’s another thing.” We already require the team to be at Wembley on July 31.”
It will no doubt be a difficult task to face some of the world’s best sides without its two star players, but this squad still possesses a wealth of talent that not many teams will be keen on.