“I went from playing only in the street with children to winning Cups”

Just as the publication in the newspaper 'Los Deportes' serves to consider October 28, 1900 as the date of the founding of Espanyol, in the case of Feminine of the club it has been agreed that his birth happened on March 21, 1971. To be exact, 11:45 a.m. Just as the ball started rolling in a full Sarrià for the dispute of First Foursquare Women's Soccer Tournament – Great Pernod Trophy, with Sabadell, Sant Andreu and Barcelona as rivals and the final, seven days later and at a Camp Nou with 30,000 spectators, in the first documented derby.

It will happen this sunday exactly half a century, a period that goes from the feat of the origins to the incessant search for equality and normalization, from pioneers to be the club that has played the most in the elite of Spanish football –Along with Levante–, with an enviable track record even today, when the team fights for permanence in the Primera Iberdrola.

In that Espanyol who won it all -In the case of our protagonist, a league (then called Superliga), three Queen's Cups and two Catalunya Cups, in addition to participation in the UEFA Women’s Cup (The Women's Champions League – it was one of the historic of the section, Ribalta Pain, today ambassador of the entity, Doctor in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, associate professor at the Blanquerna Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sports Sciences, and perica player between 1995 and 2007.

Born in Mafet d'Agramunt, a municipality of less than 100 inhabitants, Dolors exemplifies what women's football meant the day before yesterday, far from being a benchmark in the elite for girls. “I only rallied in the street, with children. I thought that no girl in the world played soccer, and it never crossed my mind to join a team of kids, because it was not normal, “he explains to AS. But everything changed one afternoon in 1994 in which, due to the randomness of fate, he decided to do his homework in the living room instead of his bedroom, putting the television in the background. I was 17 years old. “Suddenly, a Espanyol-Barça appeared that was played in L'Hospitalet –2-1 for the parrots, with goals from Susi and Toñi–, And I thought, but if there is women's football!“he exclaims.

The wick was already lit. It would be a few months until summer of 1995, when his father organized a futsal tournament, the I Torneig Vila d'Agramunt, at the end of which it coincided with Marissa boncompte, a neighbor of the town and a soccer player at the time for Espanyol. “I approached her and told her that I would like to play, which she He suggested that I go to El Vendrell the following weekend, that they were going to play a friendly against Barça“It was not a team from the quarry, it was the first team. And Dolors, who had never played with more than friends, he put on his father's old boots, “because I didn't even have one”, and went to El Vendrell.

“Suddenly, I made my debut with Espanyol. It was like a dream that came rolled. That first year ended in Terrassa, winning the Copa de la Reina. And we took her back the next season. It was an incredible entrance, from the streets with children to win two cups in a row“, she admits, still surprised by her progression, although not without remembering that there were also frustrations, like the third season, in which they stayed at the gates of the final even being the favorites. “It was played in Lleida, where I was studying, and I went to see her with tears in my eyes“.

With the regional league title in 1999 and the 2001-02 season as a turning point for women's Espanyol -for the premiere of the Sports City and the runner-up in the Cup, at the Levante stadium -, it is inevitable to jump to the 2005-06 campaign. “It is the historic year par excellence of our section. It is the year of our lives and of women's football“, concedes without embarrassment Dolors.

“What gwe do absolutely everything: League, Cup, Catalunya Cup, the tournaments where we went …“And above, with a spectacular celebration, coinciding with the Copa del Rey for the men's team.”We left the Sports City with the open-top bus, and Barcelona was blue and white. It was spectacular, wonderful, just remembering it gives me goose bumps “, he admits, on the joint street or passing through the balconies of Plaça Sant Jaume.

“Espanyol has been very pioneering in aspects such as celebrating our titles with the boys, in opening the stadium or with the quarryYou just have to see the number of players trained in Sant Adrià who now excel in other teams, “he highlights.

Three decades have passed since that, Dolors left the Blue and White discipline in 2007 and now Female A is trying to avoid the first relegation in its history – “the situation is difficult but reversible, there are many days left to continue fighting“, Dolors concedes–. Meanwhile, the eternal rival, the Barcelona, “a matter of having economic resources and managing it well” and even has a section on Real Madrid, “which is not historical, has not yet done anything at all.”

Despite celebrating that “The evolution of women's football has been enormous in recent years“, Dolors Ribalta reflects:”Just 50 years ago, the soccer players had 30,000 spectators at the Camp Nou. My generation didn't even play in big stadiums and the current one is lucky to do so. But that they do so is still news, a sign that we are far from achieving normality or equality. “

On that road to a women's football “sustainable, consolidated, tolerant, diverse, with equality”, with more women coaches, referees, managers and with footballers who are gaining conditions not only in their first teams, the Espanyol ambassador launches a final message of absolute good sense and not exempt from alarm, from which not even a comma can be removed .

“In the Second Republic, women broke walls, but later the regime authorities took on that model and democratization: suffrage, civil marriage, divorce, birth control, co-education, popularization of sport…. Now I just hope that the polarization of the conflicts we are experiencing does not lead to the same mistakesMay this sick world take shelter. “Impeccable.