He began to win the Ballon d’Or when he wanted to leave Barça: “The club told me no, that they trusted me and this started at that meeting”
BARCELONA, 4 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas assured that after winning the team the treble last season and achieving a historic Ballon d’Or this week, she wants to be part of a team that marks “an era” and is remembered in the annals of the history of the world of sport, so it aspires, first, to repeat club titles and, later, to accept with pleasure what comes at the individual level.
In an interview with Europa Press, Alexia acknowledged that she would like to be part of a dream team. “I would like to mark an era and we have all proposed to be a Barça that everyone remembers. And in sport in general, not only in the world of football, to be a team that marks an era,” he said from the stadium lawn Montjuïc Olympic.
Alexia, honored by Nike after winning the Ballon d’Or this past Monday, the first in history for a Spanish footballer, assured that she is the captain and perhaps the flag of a complete team where all roles are taken into account. “I am the captain, yes, but there are different roles, all important and we respect this very much, and it is one of the strengths of the team,” he said.
For his football, for his vision of the game, for his goals and assists, he has won a Ballon d’Or that could be his first, being still in the prime of his career at 27 years old. “Ballon d’Or collector? I don’t know what’s going to happen but my goal is to get back the treble and the successes of last year,” she assured ambitiously.
“It is what makes me happiest. It is very difficult to win again after winning everything but believing that we still have room for improvement is the best. We have to keep working and enjoying and whatever has to come,” said the de Mollet del Vallès, great architect on the pitch and spearhead of the best Barça Femení in history.
She felt “a lot of happiness and a lot of emotion” upon hearing her name as the winner of the Ballon d’Or, especially since many people have been “happy about it,” said Alexia, who could not dream of this feat as a child because, literally, “no existed “. “That is why it is so important that the great prizes and great clubs lead this change that has already begun,” he added.
A change towards equality in football, in which male and female football cease to distinguish themselves at least in terms of resources and possibilities of one and the other. “We must continue on this path so that girls can have the dream of being professional footballers and win a Ballon d’Or like mine,” he appealed.
“This Ballon d’Or does not change anything for me, my life remains the same and my passion also, which is getting up every morning to go to train and achieve the goals with my teammates. Nothing changes other than giving more visibility me and my companions, “he acknowledged, however.
A FAILED EXIT AS A TRAMPOLINE TO THE SUMMIT
Alexia was sincere and, when asked at what point in her life she began to win this Ballon d’Or, she pointed to a very clear one; When he appreciated leaving Barça and the club, he gave him full confidence to grow at a football level as he has done and, with it, a club that evolves under his leadership and talent.
“There is a moment in the past when I click on Barça, after three or four years without winning the League. I think it is time to take a step forward or leave the club I want to avoid harming me. I lent to go out for Barça to win and the club told me no, that they trusted me to be a very important player. And from that meeting all this began, “he acknowledged.
Another key point in his life is the death of his father, which led him to take refuge on the ball and give everything on the pitch. “Without a doubt, when my father died my refuge was football, it was where I wanted to spend a lot of time and I was comfortable training. I started a new life,” he said.
From all this she learned and soaked herself to go from being the girl, in the singular, who played soccer at recess to being ‘The Queen’ of a whole Barça. “From the girl who started to play soccer, everything remains within me, because in the end it is an evolution. Things are happening to you, you are learning, you are training and there are still things that you take as learning”, he valued.
“I have a lot left of that girl, like wanting there to be naturalness in soccer and for boys and girls to practice it alike. I am optimistic and I believe that in the future there will be naturalness and equal opportunities. They are already doing firm things, convinced of the way. When I retire, I hope that there is equality “, he predicted.
A feeling from a captain, from a leader as defined by former captain Carles Puyol in that private Nike act that only Europa Press had access to. And Alexia agrees to be a reference, but only because it has come to be so naturally, without looking for it.
A “NATURAL” REFERENCE AND INVOLVED WITH EQUALITY
“Being a reference is something that happens. But the real passion is to train, play, compete … Being a reference you have to accept because you have a responsibility to assume for future generations, but the objective of seeking being a reference does not exist. They are things that happen, “he explained.
As it also happens that she is one of the players who takes the most photos with the fans and who signs the most autographs. “I am aware that that girl or boy who asks me for a photo, a day ago it was me and I asked Iniesta, Xavi, Valdés or Puyol. Now they ask me and I am delighted,” he said.
A Xavi whose summer campus she attended several summers as a child to learn from Terrassa. And he continues to have a relationship with the now head coach of the men’s team. “He was a crack playing, he is very good as a coach and as a person he is a ’10’. To match him on the field I have a lot left, he is a club legend like Puyol or Iniesta. If when I retire I have achieved something similar it will be a reason to be very proud, “he acknowledged.
At the moment, she is ‘The Queen’ of the Blaugrana dressing room. A nickname that he did not like at first, when his teammates nicknamed him that, but that he ended up accepting and that now makes him have even a golden crown and golden boots thanks to Nike.
“They are always in the dressing room with which they are going to make me a statue at the club, because everyone knows that I am very much from Barça and I am very comfortable in the philosophy of Barça. In the dressing room they started with the joke of ‘La Reina’ and look where it has come, “the first Spanish woman to win a Ballon d’Or, one of the first pieces together with the triplet with which to mark that era she yearns for, said with a laugh.