Madrid (AFP)
Finally: after 118 years of existence, Real Madrid has acquired the first professional female team in its history by officially absorbing the CD Tacon on Wednesday, launching its "galactic" project for women.
It is a small revolution. Real Madrid, voted best club of the XXth century by Fifa, was one of the rare formations among the giants of football not to have a professional female team. This lack is now repaired with the annexation of CD Tacon, a young Madrid club created in 2014 and promoted to the first division in 2019, which is about to change era.
Ratified at an extraordinary general meeting of "socios" (supporters-shareholders) in September 2019, the buyout of the CD Tacon for 300,000 euros took effect on Wednesday, the start of the galactic project of Real Madrid for women.
And that should be felt on the transfer window. According to the Spanish press, the "White House" first set its sights on the talents of Spanish football to strengthen this new team, and the first recruits should flock to the Spanish capital.
According to the Spanish newspaper As, the merengue club has targeted Maite Oroz (Athletic Bilbao) and Teresa Abelleira (Deportivo La Coruña), and is close to getting an agreement to bring in Olga Carmona (Seville FC), Damaris (Athletic Bilbao ), Eva Navarro and Ivana Andrés (Levante) as well as Marta Cardona and Nahikari Garcia (Real Sociedad).
- Compete with Barça -
This reinforcement policy comes a year after a first wave of recruits, more international this time: the Swedish Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson, nominated for the 2019 Women's Ballon d'Or, the French Aurélie Kaci (7 selections) ...
The objective of this galactic recruitment for Real Madrid women? To finish with the fight for the maintenance in which was engaged Tacon, tenth (out of 16) of the Championship before the interruption because of the pandemic, and aim rather at the top of the national and continental table ...
With the desire to compete with the eternal rival: FC Barcelona, whose women's team, finalist in the Ladies' Champions League in 2019, has twice corrected the Tacon this season for the first two "clasicos" of the history of Spanish women's football. The Catalans won 9-1 in September, then 6-0 in January.
"They don't want to be called Real Madrid to finish second or third," said Aurélie Kaci last year on RMC Sports, supporting the Champions League ambitions of club Merengue.
- "It goads everyone" -
"The time has come to build a team of which you will all be very proud," promised Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez when ratifying "the Tacon merger by absorption" by Real "from the 1st July 2020 "during the extraordinary general assembly of socios, in September.
An investment hailed by great figures in women's football, such as the 2018 Ballon d'Or Ada Hegerberg: "This is extremely positive, I hope they will perpetuate their investment in the long term," she told the 'AFP in April. "And that sends a message to other clubs: it spurs everyone on when a club like Real Madrid creates a team."
In any case, the past 12 months have allowed the modest Tacon ("heel", in Spanish) to gradually change size.
In September 2019, the team coached by David Aznar started to play their home matches on the N.11 field of Valdebebas, a few meters from the training stadium of Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and other Eden Hazards.
This should still be the case next season, even if the club management does not rule out, for large posters, the possibility of opening the doors of the Alfredo Di Stéfano training stadium (6,000 seats) for women usually the male reserve (Real Madrid Castilla), and is currently used by Zinedine Zidane's team during the works of the Santiago-Bernabeu stadium.
The budget, the infrastructure, the recruits ... Le Tacon has even adopted the immaculate white outfit of the great Real for the past year. All that's missing is the game and the victories to change this galaxy team.
© 2020 AFP