Daniel Gómez-Fontecha Madrid

Madrid

Updated Thursday, April 4, 2024-23:23

  • Montse Tomé "In those days of September it was difficult to see yourself on the bench in this final phase"

  • Athenea del Castillo explains her decision in the statement: "We players cannot make those changes that we are asking for."

Few players in the world manage to capture their personality

on the playing field

at the same level as

Athenea del Castillo

(Solares, 23 years old). She is an open girl, say people who have been close to her. With her you can talk about any topic. Besides football, of course. Her

bravery

and her

determination

to face rival defenses every weekend are characteristics that define

Real Madrid's

number 22

. She never hides what she thinks, although it sounds strange in a world as constricted as football.

"She would never play for Barça even if it were the only team left in the world

," she stated in an interview with the Efe agenda.

Some statements against her greatest rival that reaffirm the

Madrid feeling

, and the personality, that she already showed since she was little, when

José Ramón Martínez

, who was her delegate during her beginnings at Racing de Santander, shared a locker room with her: "She

has always been Real Madrid fan,

he is very passionate in that sense," he says in a conversation with this newspaper.

His way of being could also be seen in the recent episodes that have surrounded the Spanish team. Del Castillo has shown that she is a player with

very clear ideas.

When 15 of her teammates announced, surprisingly, her willingness to

give up

playing for Spain if a professional project was not built (that was the reason they gave), she decided

not to take a position

and attended every call in which she was called.

The forward of the national team after a training session.Rodrigo JiménezEFE

The conquest of the

World Cup

, in which an injury against Zambia prevented him from showing his best version, was sadly overshadowed by controversy. Rubiales' kiss to Jenni Hermoso, his subsequent dismissal by FIFA, and that of the coach, a few days later, caused the issuance of a joint statement by 39 players demanding urgent changes in the Federation.

Her name did not appear

on that list either:

"It's her disposition, if she says that she is from here and argues for it, she goes that way

," also comments her former delegate.

Given so many speculations about why she did not accompany her companions, she decided to publish a

statement

on her Twitter account in which she clearly explained her position. Although he made it clear that he

totally agreed

to denounce everything that happened with Jennifer Hermoso for being "

out of place " and being "

regrettable

" behavior

, he stated that once Rubiales and Vilda himself were dismissed, he was not contemplating giving up the national team: "

We are footballers

. Taking into account what happened, it never hurts to remember it. We owe ourselves to our profession and we have to fulfill our duty," he argued in one of the paragraphs. "I want this situation to end once and for all and go back to thinking only about football, playing, watching and enjoying it," he concluded.

With the arrival of

Montse Tomé

she continues to be a regular on the lists, and tonight, against Belgium, she will participate in the match that begins the World Cup's path to Euro 2025. The rest of the rivals will be the

Czech Republic and Denmark

.

Off the field, the Cantabrian is just as determined and confident. The controversial photos of her partner in the Cuelgamuros Valley, in which graffiti appeared in favor of VOX, did not manage to shake her either:

"For some photos. My God of my soul and my heart! Poor my boy and poor me! "

, she commented to 'Relevo'.

In sports, he went from Racing to

Deportivo

and, after two years of great performance in the Galician team, he signed for Real Madrid, a club in which he hopes to stay for life and that fits perfectly with his philosophy: "

She was competitive to the max, she never wanted to lose

. She was a person with a

very winning mentality

and from what I see, she still is. She hasn't changed," confesses Martínez.