Inma Lidón

Updated Saturday, February 24, 2024-23:53

  • Match The well-deserved 'lottery' of Montse Tomé and the liberating cry of Jenni Hermoso and the dinosaurs

"There will never be another generation like this."

Jenni Hermoso

is convinced that Spain's successes, the victory in the World Cup and the first qualification for the Olympic Games, are born from the extraordinary combination of players with seniority and experience and the talents who push hard.

She, along with

Alexia Putellas

and

Irene Paredes

, represents the first, the 'dinosaurs' who came to the national team when everything was about to be won and who, as her teammates in the Cata Coll goal recognized, have put everything that other than trying to catch the dream of being Olympic in their first and last opportunity.

More than a decade as international players, the three are aware that they will not be eternal, but they exercise leadership that is still essential on and off the playing fields.

So much so that Alexia is in the Nations League with many options of not even being on the bench.

Since the World Cup, with #SeAcabó, they have been the visible face of some demands and "bad management" that they had already transmitted privately a year before in the offices of the Federation.

However, none of the 15 players who in that letter declared themselves unselectable due to their "emotional state."

They made public complaints, publicly gave their support and tried to promote changes that would take months to become evident.

With Jenni Hermoso and Alexia coming off knee injuries, Irene was the first

Jorge Vilda

left out and the last to return.

Irene Paredes was the captain and the oldest with a hundred international matches under her belt.

She had been to all the big events that the national team has played.

She debuted in 2011 and played in the 2013 European Championships in Sweden, 2017 in the Netherlands and 2022 in England.

She intertwined three World Cups: Canada 2015, France 2019 and the successful one in Australia, to which she arrived at the last moment and was stripped of the bracelet by Vilda.

Even so, she played every minute but could not lift the trophy because the captaincy was already exercised by Ivana Andrés.

With the arrival of

Montse Tomé

to the bench, the locker room made the decision to name her captain again.

With a contract until 2025 at Barça and 32 years old, this Nations League and the Paris Games seem like the last opportunity to add to her international record, although the European Championship in Switzerland in 2025 is on the horizon and the qualification starts next 3 of April.

Hermoso's situation

Jenni Hermoso, 33 years old, is in the same situation.

Since 2012 she has been a fixture in the national team and only missed the last European Championship in England due to injury.

She was the first of the three that Jorge Vilda turned to, not in vain she is Spain's top scorer who appears in decisive moments to qualify for the World Cup or seal the ticket to the Olympic Games.

Enrolled in the Mexican Tigres after her time at Pachuca, she recognizes that she is experiencing a sweet moment that she will try to culminate by hanging another medal around her neck.

"This team has no ceiling. This generation is making history and we have to enjoy it a lot," she warned.

Hermoso wants to be an Olympian alongside Alexia and Irene, "because it's special."

He has not been able to have the double Ballon d'Or winner close to him on the pitch in this Nations League.

She watched the match against the Netherlands from the stands and it is unlikely that she will be on the list of 23 who will face France in the final.

She hasn't played since November and, although her recovery is in the final phase, no one wants to take risks.

Alexia debuted for Spain in June 2013 and made the roster for the Euro Cup in Sweden, where Spain reached the quarterfinals.

Then came the World Cup in Canada, where they did not advance beyond the first phase, and again the slowdown in the quarterfinals at the Euro in the Netherlands in 2017. The World Championship in France should have reflected a growth that was not seen in the Euro Cup in England because of the rupture of the cruciate ligament in his knee.

She was not there when her relationship with Vilda cracked, but she returned to travel to Australia and give voice to the abuse of Jenni Hermoso that ended with the coach.

The weight of her in Spain that Tomé has wanted her in the concentration and she has forced it despite straining a strained relationship with FC Barcelona in the midst of renewal, which is more complicated and distant every day.

Her future looks closer to Jenni than in the F League.

The three "dinosaurs" merged in a long embrace on the lawn of La Cartuja, dancing and celebrating how they have once again pushed away the shadows to continue shining, with a star on their chest that they intend to accompany with Olympic laurels.