“Nobody taught them to be great. They had to learn on their own”, This is the first sentence (on the cover) that can be read in ’13’, a novel focused on a youth audience that tells the story of a goalkeeper for a women’s soccer team. The book, written by the journalist Andrea Menéndez Faya (Langreo, 1985) for Editorial Planeta, has a bit of family, a bit of friendship and a bit of love, with the inevitable presence of problems in young people such as bullying and with the focus on dream of a girl who grows up in love with football and becomes an example for a whole generation.
The latter sounds like reality, with stories that approach us every day of players who had no references and now are for many girls, and it does not stop being so due to the fact that the book is fiction. “In the end in this novel what I have transferred are stories that I have learned in recent years from regional categories to National, even now in First, and that include a human and a football part. I think that the personal and professional growth of female soccer players has gone hand in hand in recent years. It is a book that summarizes the lives of many soccer players in the history of Raquel and her team, “says the author in an interview with AS.
And, it continues highlighting the lack of visibility of women’s football a few years ago: “Throughout the book, the football appointments that Raquel talks about are men because in the end the book is located in 2018-19 and we still did not have female references established and these girls grew up with male references. They could not access phrases or examples of women footballers because they were not published or discussed. Raquel is passionate about soccer and all she has in her hand is men’s soccer, but when she grows up in the women’s team, you see characters who already start talking about players. “
In this way, Andrea Menéndez Faya has managed to capture in her book the story of a change, the one experienced in recent decades in women’s football, with the fictitious story of overcoming Raquel, the great protagonist of this novel. “They are stories that I have been told many times. Girls who not only had problems at home, but also had them at school, with their friends or with their partner, and who were on a soccer team where they forgot everything when they played and jumped on the field. I think it is something very common, which will surely happen in other sports. In the end, soccer and sports are a lifesaver many times. It is something that distracts you and makes you escape from problems “, highlights the Asturian journalist, who is the editor-in-chief of the Futboleras.es website.
“The goalkeepers have a special personality and that is why I chose to write a story about a goalkeeper”
But why a goalkeeper? Why 13? “I’m not superstitious. I really like the number 13. In fact, the first word of the first novel that I self-published was ‘Thirteen’. It’s a number that has always given me good luck. And then I wanted the title to summarize what I the reader was going to be inside. In the end, it was not worth putting a title on football, but it was a title that at once told you that it was the story of a goalkeeper“says Andrea, who believes that Raquel’s story represents that of many goalkeepers.
“I trained regional goalkeepers in Asturias and I think that all goalkeepers look a bit alike. For this reason I believe that Raquel’s football personality is the life of many goalkeepers and is the thought of many goalkeepers. In the end I think that all the goalkeepers who read the book will feel a little Raquel. It is a prototype of a goalkeeper that responds to the way of being many. The goalkeepers have a special personality and that’s why I chose to write a story about a goalkeeper. On the personal side, I have based the story of Raquel on my nephew, my best friend, people around me and she even has a little bit of me, “says the author of this youth novel, who intends to continue making women’s football grow since bookstores.
And he not only wants to help women’s football and all those girls who dream of being footballers. ’13’ is a “very feminine and quite feminist book”, as Andrea points out. “I wanted to vindicate the role of many women, not only footballers, but also mothers or managers, who also need women to take the reins off the field and dare to change this,” says Andrea, who also wanted to reflect in his book the story of those men who have helped women’s football. “I believe that this is the way, to understand each other and grow together hand in hand, men and women “, underlines the well-known journalist, who has worked in the communication department of several Asturian women’s football clubs.
’13’ appears at a difficult time for women’s football, but for that reason it is more than necessary. Andrea also talks to AS about the ongoing comparison between men’s and women’s soccer. “I think that for too long, women’s football has been very shady and in the end all these differences are noticeable. We talk about how women’s football was banned for almost 100 years. Obviously, there is a biological difference and it also shows. But, another matter is obsessing over these differences because simply what you do not want is that the girl in the yard has the ball. In the end, they are the same people who said then that the girl does not play because she is a girl, “she explains.
And, when asked about the criticism of the goalkeepers from outside women’s football, the author of this novel argues: “Logically, women’s football is different and is in a process of evolution in which it has come much more way in 20 years than men’s in 100. It has grown a lot and what it needs is investment and means so that the distance is shortened. It’s very easy to say that goalkeepers don’t jump that much without knowing that until recently there were no goalkeeper-specific trainers. Yes there will always be a biological difference, but it is not a problem. The fact that they say that a player could not play at the level of a player does not make sense because mixed football is not the way. Women’s soccer has its own path and men’s soccer too. In the end, the whole debate is tiring. There are many who want to discredit women, whatever they are: footballers, engineers … “.
Finally, Andrea gives her opinion about the uncertain situation in Spanish women’s football, with a professional league that is delayed due to division and problems between clubs and institutions. “Women’s football is paying the price for the men’s football wars. It’s sad because we are falling behind when we have the best players in the world and we have a very attractive League to sell. It is a pity that things are not being done thinking about the growth of this category, but about raising money. I hope that everything will be over soon, although this season it will not be. I hope the waters calm down a bit and we think more calmly about the future, “he says. Meanwhile, ’13’ will allow us to evade reality with a fictitious story that has a lot of football but also a lot of life …