What Rubiales has united | Soccer | Sports

While waiting for the courts to act, which is very necessary at a time when popular trials tend to apply sentences in the name of the common good, admiration for Jenni Hermoso grows to the same extent that rejection of Luis Rubiales increases. It is not a coincidence if one takes into account that it is not very well known what will happen to the federation and especially with its presidency, and on the contrary there are no doubts, on the other hand, about the continuity of the world champion team in 2023.

Success, and of course the management of victory, on and off the field, before and after the Cup, is associated with the figure of the player and not that of Rubiales, even though he has tried to personalize the victory in a an exercise in narcissism that made no sense in Sydney or Madrid. Rubiales appropriated the trophy to such an extent that he also took possession of his players and of course the player who missed a penalty, as is supposed to correspond to the good Samaritan who comforts the person who made the mistake with a pick: Beautiful.

The history of the triumph is no longer written from Olga Carmona’s goal, but from the penalty missed by Hermoso. It is not an act of generosity, but of forgiveness that betrays Rubiales. The president acted like a cacique instead of advocating solidarity and promoting the union of a collective party before facing the World Cup: the majority went for the title, while the minority, popularized in the group of 15, resigned in favor of collective dignity and professionalism regardless of the marker of New Zealand and Australia.

The pressure helped to improve the conditions with which the team played the tournament —Rubiales mediated more or less—, and, therefore, it was necessary to recognize that the success had to be shared by those who traveled and those who stayed in Spain. Once victory was achieved, however, the president ignored both and harassed Hermoso when he doubted how those present would deal with those absent, and it was feared that the reunion would widen the differences instead of reconciliation and open a dispute. schism between Mapi León and Aitana Bonmatí or Alexia Putellas.

It happened that the protagonist of the day after was Rubiales. The president’s performance made Hermoso a figure, a meeting point for players and fans, international or not; summoned, rejected or deleted; all symbolized by a forward that has ended up uniting women’s football. There is no more representative soccer player than that woman born 33 years ago in Carabanchel and raised in her grandparents’ house, close to Putellas and praised by Natalie Portman.

Although she does not have or aspires to the Ballon d’Or, Hermoso has played for Rayo, Atlético and Barça, teams closely linked to the history of women’s football, and has transcended the world with her time at Tyresso (Sweden), PSG ( France) and now Pachuca (Mexico). She is still the top scorer in the history of the national team and Barça. Hermoso, however, is for Rubiales the footballer who deserved consolation for the missed penalty in the final in Sydney. She did not notice the president that the players not only pursue sporting success, but social success, and, therefore, their journey goes beyond the World Cup.

Both, Rubiales and Hermoso, understand the sense of representativeness in the opposite way and therefore their trajectory is also antagonistic since the president’s appearance in Sydney. The World Cup was very different with and without Rubiales. The president was, after all, the one who exalted the player when it was not known what would happen to the team and no one doubted, on the other hand, about the direction of the federation, just the opposite of what has happened since the conquest of the Cup. Today the link and the player with whom everyone identifies is called Jennifer Hermoso.

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