"Silence. And cold. Then I cried. This is how Alexia Putellas (Mollet del Vallès, 1994) responds when asked about what he felt when he returned to that booth at the Groupama Arena in Bucharest on May 18, 2019. Barcelona, ​​who reached the final for the first time in their history of the women's Champions, could not evade fate. They fell against Olympique de Lyon (4-1). "But we drew conclusions so that, the following year, we would be closer." The moment has come.

Barcelona will face Atlético this afternoon in San Mamés (6:00 pm, Goal) in the quarterfinals of that final eight of the Women's Champions League, sponsored by Visa, of which Putellas is one of its ambassadors. A tournament that returns marked by the effects of the pandemic. The rojiblancas suffered five positives for coronavirus: Silvia Meseguer, Deyna Castellanos, Charlyn Corral, Laia Aleixandri and Leicy Santos. All of them discharged and in quarantine.

Atlético went a week without training because of the outbreak, I don't know how they are. But it is not the same that your rival is training every day that he has to be in quarantine. It would affect me. How many tests have you done? I don't know. I calculate that ten. Maybe more. Doesn't it cause ongoing anxiety? Yes. You are in constant tension until they give you the negative result. Even with everything, zero risk does not exist. What do you remember about confinement? It was psychologically exhausting. We came from playing with the national team in stadiums before 20,000 or 30,000 people. And two days after returning to Spain the State of Alarm was declared. The change was brutal. It weighed me to go from training every day and having my habits to having absolutely nothing. It is very difficult to work telematically in football. He did what he could in the living room at home. But above all it was hard on a psychological level. Are you afraid of a repeat of a situation like this? Not fear, but I do respect. When we started the preseason a month and a half ago, I had this concern that everything would happen again and we would have to stop. Now I handle it a little better. I strictly comply with all the recommendations so as not to be left out of the Champions League. I haven't seen my mother for a month, and she lives 30 minutes from my house. I don't hang out with anyone. I do not have a social life. I only see people in training. I go out to buy what I need. These are things you have to do if you want to play a Champions League. Doesn't seeing your mother allow you to be happy? Luckily we are calling. I have a dog, Nala. One day we had to go play in Montpellier. We were going to make the night. I always leave it to my mother when I go away with the team. And that day I couldn't even hug her. I gave him the leash and broke away quickly. I have reached that point. It is not what you want, but it is a temporary unhappiness that will hopefully end. I decided not to take risks. I have not seen my friends. I have not seen my family. What goes through your head when you see that there are those who do not comply with basic health standards? It was said that we would come out better from all this. That we would be better people. And in the end we are still unconscious. The virus has not gone away, they have not competed officially for five months, we have been able to play some preseason games. But it changes a lot in terms of the tension in a European competition match. I don't know if it will affect us for better or for worse. Men's professional football resumed despite the pandemic. The women's leagues don't. Does the industry take women into account? Of course not, because the league is not considered professional. If they had been, they would surely have created the necessary protocols to finish the championship. Or not. At least we would have that doubt. I hope that changes as soon as possible. Speaking clearly, men's football is in another bubble. But the rest of team sports have to invest the same as women's football. And many times that investment is not recovered in the short term. They have to start investing in women's football so that in the long term there will be that money collection. We have seen it with the boys. Although in the rest of sports it does not happen. The label that investing in women's football is completely lost is already hanging. I would like to deny it because in other sports it is the same. And it is not said. Did you feel frustration when they were forced to stop? Of course you did. Are you worried that you cannot start the league on September 5? Yes. Restless because everything is in the air. We have the calendar. But, unlike the Champions League, we do not know anything about protocols. Is she a dreamer? I turn to them to improve. I'm looking for dreams that can be achieved, not utopias. Barcelona played the first Champions League final in its history in Bucharest. At that time there was talk of learning, not trauma. Even if it was the first, our intention was to win it. But the feeling was that we were not up to par. That football had been fair. And we wondered what we had to do to reach that level and have a real chance of getting the title. We did self-criticism. We are not only left with defeat. Were you aware then that that Barça was not yet ready to be European champion? No, you were not aware. We all went to the final thinking that in 90 minutes anything could happen. But those first 20 minutes [in which Olympique scored four goals] were a real slap in the face. It was over quickly. But we drew conclusions so that next year we would be closer. How has the team improved? We set ourselves the goal of improving especially on a physical level. At the intensity level. To be able to play faster. And to have better control of the game. If we achieve that, and being precise, it is very difficult for a team to beat us. We are prepared to achieve those goals. But during the game millions of things can happen. Even some in which you have practically no influence. In the end it is the beauty of this sport, a sport to which he has dedicated his life. Tell me about a memory from your childhood. Every Friday my parents hung out with their friends. We would go to the town square, in Mollet, and I would play soccer with the other children. Sometimes he didn't even eat dinner because he didn't stop. He always wore purple legs. I also went with my father to a bar to see the classics. I was always very nervous. There were so many people that I sat at the pool table. I saw them from up there. I also keep those Ronaldinho matches against Madrid in my memory. I even remember the man with the mustache applauding him at the Bernabéu [laughs]. What did his father advise him? I will always remember that once, with the Catalan team, I was left out because the coach got angry with me. And when I got out, my father gave me an impressive scolding. He told me who did I believe not to defend like the rest of my teammates. From that day on I started running like a greyhound. Have you never been looked at differently for wanting to play soccer? No, not really. And if someone looked at me differently, I didn't see it. They are part of the first generation that can live from football in Spain. Everything was different when it started. At Espanyol I was trained by first team players. There was nothing professional about it. I didn't think the day would come that I could live off this. I did want to play games. It was what I wanted. But I was very clear that I had to continue studying because he was not going to feed me. He gave me for gasoline and little else. The message that came to you when you started was that if you wanted to make a living from football you had to go abroad. And I used to say to myself, if I can't play here, it will be outside. You couldn't even imagine that in Spain we could make a living from this. At the World Cup in Canada, when we left, what the sponsors gave us was a cup of coffee. It was the prize for being on the list. Now they give us a car for two years. Things change. Evolution has accelerated. Yes, but in parallel with the increase in level. The performance had to come first for everything else to come in. The first collective agreement for women's football has just been published. What do you think of what has been achieved? Is it enough? It is an agreement that you have to start negotiating again. As a starting point we can accept it. But we can't stay here. And the following year we must go to the minimum interprofessional salary, because in this agreement we are below. If we want to have, not a respect, but a guarantee, they cannot put a salary below that of a normal worker. A minimum salary of 16,000 euros a year is collected. Exactly. If we want to be workers, we have to be one hundred percent. You have to demand it. As a first contact it is a historical fact. But in the next one, you have to really demand the minimum.

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