Aitana Bonmatí
(Sant Pere de Ribes, 1988) is one of the best soccer players of her generation.
This is how he has been demonstrating it both in Barcelona and in the Spanish team.
She is very confident when speaking.
Firmly defend your convictions.
Until he lets his guard down when the journalist asks him about his fears.
Then laugh.
"I have a phobia of the plane. And I don't even know how many I've taken in my life. I've tried the pills, but they don't work for me. It happens to me since I was little.
to.
I had never been on one and I was already scared.
To the point that, when the holidays came, I never went with my parents. "His parents are Rosa and Vicent. Both teachers of Catalan Philology. Although Rosa, suffering from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, can no longer exercise. In 1988, year in which Aitana was born, both appeared in the press. They defended that their daughter, born that January 18, could first bear the maternal surname (Bonmatí) and then the paternal surname (Conca). The law of that time still prohibited the change of order . They did not give up. The only way out they found was to register Aitana with the two maternal surnames: Bonmatí Guidonet. Although this could mean that the father was not recognized as such by the bureaucracy. He checked it when he applied for the work permit from paternity. In that year 1988 the reform for which they were fighting so much had already begun in Congress. Until September 8, 2000, Rosa and Vicent could not register their daughter in the Civil Registry as Aitana Bonmatí Conca. "Yes, the first ap
ellido is my mother's.
My parents were pioneers in eliminating the prevalence of the male surname.
They both agreed.
They helped change the norm.
They always fought for equality.
For helping the woman a lot.
For supporting her.
Those values are what they have instilled in me.
Because we live in an unequal society.
Perhaps the last name is a small detail, but they all add up.
And, in the end, there are many things in which women have a secondary role.
Why can't the son or daughter take the mother's first surname when she is the one who gave birth to them?
That each one has the freedom to decide. "Aitana still lives with her parents, although she hopes to become independent soon. She trains in the mornings with Barcelona. She attends the calls of the Spanish team, with whom she will play this Friday in Seville against the Czech Republic Qualifying for the next European Championship is the next challenge. He studies Physical Activity and Sports Sciences in the afternoons. "Although it is difficult to put everything together." And he looks back so he does not forget where he comes from.
The first few times are never forgotten.
I always remember those years playing soccer in the courtyard of my school in Sant Pere de Ribes with my classmates.
And I say companions because there was no girl.
Did you have a bad time?
It wasn't so much like having a hard time.
But he did have a lot of fights with the boys.
Perhaps they had a more macho mentality.
I don't know what their families instilled in them.
But that there was a girl who had the same level or who was even better, did not suit them.
He always fought me.
Abuse.
Some host than another ... But I don't remember it as a bad thing.
That made me stronger.
I never shut up.
He didn't have a harassing feeling.
I never got stepped on.
My character made them end up respecting me a lot.
Now I look back and see that it has helped me to be who I am.
Ambitious
I am not satisfied with anything.
Sometimes I have to manage that better, everyone tells me.
But I am more and more mature.
Experiences help.
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At 13, Aitana signed for Barcelona.
His mother was the only one who drove in the family.
When she was already ill, it was her father who had to accompany his daughter by public transport to the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in Sant Joan Despí.
How did you experience it?
What would have been half an hour by car, by public transport there were already two.
The combination was not easy.
I would take a bus to Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona and then, from there, a train to Sant Joan Despí.
He left home at six in the afternoon to train at 8.45.
He returned between 12:30 at night and one in the morning.
I couldn't even shower because I didn't make it to the last bus.
Was that effort, being a child, worth it?
What did your parents think?
They have always supported me in everything.
But I had moments when it was not clear to me.
I loved this, but I didn't see any progress in women's football either.
When I was little I had no references.
I didn't see a future.
It wasn't like now.
And I was thinking ... 'Is all this effort going to be of any use to me?'
But I continued.
And here I am.
I do not regret anything.
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Aitana has been the European Under-17 Champion.
Of the European sub-19.
Sub-20 World runner-up in that tournament in which she could not play the final due to suspension.
He has a league title.
Two Cups.
He played a Champions League final, the first in the history of a Spanish team.
And he has been a World Cup player with the senior team.
Is everything so beautiful and perfect?
Or does it have a reverse?
I work from what I like and I am a privileged person.
Yes, it is very nice.
But not as much as it seems.
You sacrifice a lot of things for dedicating yourself to this.
My life has completely changed since I was a professional.
Especially social life.
I was a small town girl with many friends, always going from one place to another.
Now I can't do it anymore.
But in the end you value everything.
And of course it makes up for everything I'm experiencing.
Everyone would like to be in my place.
It is true that you stop doing many things, but it is worth it.
Have you lost friends along the way?
Not lost, but maybe the relationship I had then I don't have now.
Before the same thing happened to me every day with them, and now once a month.
Maybe two.
It's very complicated.
But everything is managing your life, organizing yourself with studies, trips ...
Do you feel that you have changed?
Yes. Soccer offers me learning every day.
I look more mature every day.
And I take life differently than I did two years ago.
Soccer is a way of life.
You go through many situations and you learn to always be focused, to manage victories and defeats, to play and also not to play, to be told one day that you have played a great game, and the next that you have not done anything ... All that It helps you a lot to mature.
To take your life differently.
The women's football collective agreement establishes a minimum salary of 16,000 euros gross.
And it is very misleading.
Because you charge a minimum salary of 16,000 euros if they pay you for a full day.
But there are clubs that don't, and they pay you only part of it.
And they are no longer 16,000, but 12,000.
The difference with men's football is abysmal.
There is no possible comparison.
But little by little efforts are being made.
If you do not bet, you will never get, not at those salaries, but at better conditions.
It is a social change, rather than an economic one.
The women's Eurocup that was to be played in 2021 was moved to 2022 because the men's one was canceled.
Isn't there always the feeling that women's football is always going to slipstream?
It would also join the Tokyo Olympics, where women's teams play.
But it is true that we are always the second course.
Although we already live with this role.
It is clear that we are light years away from men's sport.
We have to be happy with how much we have come in such a short time.
Although we must fight for our rights.
With the second wave of the pandemic upon you, are you afraid that everything will stop again?
Last season, men's football was able to return, but women's football was not.
I try not to think too much.
But it is true that I have spoken with many colleagues and we ask ourselves: 'And now, if things go wrong, will they stop us again?'
Yes we have it in our heads because it is something recent.
Our league itself is not considered professional, and that hurts us for these kinds of decisions.
And psychically, how does it affect you?
You have to be careful, but we are in a bubble.
We continuously pass tests, we are very careful.
But you watch the news and you see everything that happens ... We have to be responsible.
Are young people always to blame for everything?
It is clear that young people have always been blamed a lot for parties.
You have to be responsible.
But everyone must take their share of responsibility, not just the young.
You can't just blame a group of people.
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Among his latest readings is the book by Primo Levy
if this is a Man
, in which the author recounts his captivity in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.
It is not an easy read.
I know.
My parents read a lot.
And that habit I have acquired thanks to them.
I'm interested in World War II.
I have read many more books, I have seen movies ... I have always had the concern of going to Germany, to Austria, to visit the concentration camps.
I've already been to one in Berlin, the one in Sachsenhausen.
He blew me away.
I must go to Auschwitz.
None of that is pretty to see.
Neither read about it.
But I like to know what happened.
Put myself in the shoes of those who suffered it.
It is something that everyone should know, even if it is painful.
So that it doesn't happen again.
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