Borja R. Catela Madrid
Madrid
Updated Tuesday, March 12, 2024-9:28 p.m.
TV The women behind the success of First Dates: "We have many red lines"
Laura Boado
began working as a waitress at
First Dates
at the end of May last year when she replaced
Lidia Torrent
, who decided to pursue other professional paths after her pregnancy, closing her time on
Carlos Sobera
's program .
The Galician's passage through
The Island of Temptations
was known by the spectators, but what many did not know is that Boado, before being a waitress at the restaurant of love in Cuatro, was a professional soccer player,
playing in the Second Division of the League
F.
"I think this boom in women's football should have happened a long time ago because I think we deserve it. In the end, it
is also an evolution of all the work that has been done so far from the lower categories to the absolute level
. I think it has have to continue like this," says Boado.
Television
Television.
The women behind the success of First Dates: "We have many red lines"
Editorial: ESTHER MUCIENTES Madrid
The women behind the success of First Dates: "We have many red lines"
But the model did not achieve the success of world champions like
Jenni Hermoso
,
Alexia Putellas
or
Olga Carmona
, so she directed her professional career towards a world unknown to her, but one that attracted her a lot, that of television: "It's a dream "he admits.
EL MUNDO has chatted with
Boado
to remember what those years were like as a soccer player, the difficulties she encountered when playing the sport she was passionate about, how those who picked on her for wearing sports clothes or team t-shirts, now the They wear them and wear them because "they are trendy" and, of course, what a balance they make of these almost 365 days serving
First Dates
diners
.
A very young Laura Boado in her soccer team.EL MUNDO
How were your beginnings in the world of football? I started playing on men's teams when I was approximately 6 years old because before there were no lower categories of women's teams.
I combined it with figure skating and I remember that there were a couple of years when I distanced myself a little from soccer because they said the typical thing about "don't pass the ball to the girl" and similar nonsense, so I left it to focus on skating until I was 11 or 12 years old. And what made you come back? In the small cities there were no women's teams so I had to join a team with boys until I was 14 years old, when you went from cadet to youth category, and I couldn't anymore. continue with them.
It was very good for me to be on a men's team because it helped me learn to relate and not let myself be overwhelmed.
Many of my friends are from that time. What teams did you play for? When I turned 14, the first women's soccer club in Santiago was created, which was CD Conxo Santiago, and they signed me.
There she played indoor soccer on Saturdays and 11-a-side soccer on Sundays, always as a goalkeeper.
I was called up by the Galician national team and at 16 years old I was playing for Victoria in the Second Division of the F League with people who had played in the First Division all their lives.
The truth is that that stage was incredible, I remember it with great affection.
There I discovered what real football was.
"I have always played as a goalkeeper, I liked feeling like I was the last one on my team to stop the rivals."
Did you always play as a goalkeeper? Another position on the field never caught my attention.
Furthermore, my brother, who has been my role model and the one who raised me, was also a goalkeeper, so he has been my role model.
I loved being a goalkeeper because of the adrenaline you feel, you are the last to stop the rivals and knowing that the team depends on you at that moment... it is brutal.
Maybe you also feel that adrenaline when you score a goal, but since I didn't score any (laughs).
The training sessions were very hard, but I improved a lot thanks to them. What made you leave football? An injury and that, in the end, women's football did not cover my expenses and my things, I had to study, work, train. .. and I gradually distanced myself from football.
I was very sad, to be honest, but my path was not that. Did you have any problems with classmates, rivals or spectators at that time? When I was little they bullied me because I went to school or high school in a tracksuit since I had to leave to train later.
They used to call me a choni or a tomboy, but I'm very happy to know that that has changed.
I can go to training in a tracksuit, but then I put on a dress and some heels and I'm just as feminine or more feminine than any girl who doesn't play football.
"When I was little, they bullied me because I went to school in a tracksuit."
But on your social networks you appear in several photos with soccer jerseys. It's a
look
that years ago I always wore for playing soccer, but they insulted me for not wearing those canons of a skirt and little bows.
Now, those who insulted me wear team t-shirts because they are trendy.
Right now, going trendy is wearing a skirt with a Milan or PSG football shirt. Is the classic style disappearing: blue is for a boy and pink is for a girl? Yes, I'm glad that little by little we are removing those clichés because, to me, they don't make sense.
By wearing a soccer jersey am I more masculine than the one who wears a bow?
It's like they say that blue is for boys and pink is for girls, that has become a bit outdated, you have to open your mind.
Moving on to
First Dates
: What is your assessment of this year working on the program? I am delighted.
We have a spectacular team, we are the visible face, but behind the cameras there is a lot of work.
The audience is also with us - they are the second most followed prime time access format, only surpassed by
El Hormiguero
-.
Coming to work and seeing people fall in love and find love is fantastic.
I am growing little by little, with a great desire to continue learning because this is my dream. What is your day to day like in the program? They pick me up at home in the morning, we arrive at the restaurant, they put our makeup on and we go on to read staircase
Then the recording begins and the singles begin to arrive.
Sometimes I receive the diners (most of the time Carlos Sobera does) and other times I serve them at the table the food they have ordered.
When we finish, I return home and either go to the gym, or I use my social networks to record videos, edit them... Were you a follower of the program before working on it? Yes, of course.
I had been watching it at home with my mother since I was in high school, and there I would discuss the previous day's appointments with my classmates.
It seems very strange to me to have been a spectator and now to be on the program (laughs).
It is a format that I think everyone has seen at some point in their life. Which of the diners you have served have caught your attention the most? Well, I am left with a very old couple, a 90-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman. 80-somethings who had a lovely date.
I could see perfectly how they connected and, in the end, older people are not there to waste time, they are very direct and they immediately know whether to move forward or not.