When Montse Tomé (Asturias, 41 years old) started going to Las Rozas at the age of 16, there were no photos of female footballers in the national team residence. The players did not have her name on their shirts. They were nothing more than dorsals. And they couldn’t even set foot on field A, where the boys trained. Of course, they didn’t sign autographs. Now, the national team coach happily says that she goes to the gym with Luis de la Fuente, her counterpart in the men’s team and with whom she often chats about soccer. “Today I know that I have what I need. And if not, I knock on the door and they give it to me,” she says. She has, in her own words, “a great opportunity.” That she owes, in part, to some soccer players who raised their voices (and their fists), who demanded improvements, made resignations and achieved previously unthinkable visibility.
They achieved it with a World Cup that put the Spanish in front of the TV. The same Spaniards who did not understand anything when a federation president (Luis Rubiales) planted a kiss on the nose of the team’s top scorer (Jenni Hermoso) and was cheered by his acolytes (among them, Jorge Vilda, then coach) in a infamous assembly. In the middle of all that maelstrom, Tomé appeared to try to bring peace to a locker room that experienced turbulent days and that, after a few more victories, will play on Friday the 23rd for a place in the final of the League of Nations and a place in the Paris Olympic Games.
Ask. What type of footballer was Montse Tomé?
Answer. One who treated the ball well, I liked being in contact with him. I was born with one on my feet. When I was four years old I fell in love with the ball, I don’t really know why, because in my family there was no one who was a soccer player, not even a particularly soccer fan. But I am restless and through football I channeled my energy. I played a lot in the street. With friends. The only girl. That street football was an important school.
P. Have you ever felt like a weirdo?
R. No, because from a very young age my parents respected what I liked, they made me grow in what I wanted, they took me to football. My friends always had me as one of their own and that has allowed me to grow up protected, in the environment that I wanted.
P. One of the words that he has repeated the most since his arrival is “communication.”
R. Communication is the basis for everything. Without communication, it is impossible to reach a common point. We started in a context and in a scenario that was not ideal to start anything, but we did not choose this. With communication we try to transmit confidence to the rest. Soccer is for soccer players. We are very close to them and from there is where we can change things. Many of the things that happened before, I couldn’t control, I couldn’t influence.
INMA FLORES
P. What did you find when you entered the locker room on the day of the first training session?
R. I found a group of footballers who had their minds somewhere else. Due to the imminence and importance of the matches [clasificatorios para la Final Four de la Nations League que disputa ahora España] You had to get to work with players who were not having a good time. They had their focus elsewhere. We weren’t good either. But we managed to get them to tell us how they felt; and little by little we have been able to change that focus, find peace of mind.
P. Did all those negotiations with the federation erode the team feeling?
R. That brought them together. They all conveyed a common message. They came from an illogical situation and there they came together. Nothing else was conceivable.
P. What type of coach is she?
R. I like to be close. Also that the player understands from the beginning the respect for the profession and what each one can control; that they understand that we are the coaching staff and they are the players. At work I am very intense, someone who comes with a methodology and an idea that allows us to get the most out of the soccer player.
P. Talk about respect. Since his appointment there has been a lot of noise. How have you earned the respect of female footballers?
R. Natural way. Being professional. The player is here so that we can help her, so that we can lead the team and convince them how to compete in the next game. They have seen that behind our decisions there is a process, a job, a reason.
P. They say that you have been heard saying the phrase “I am not Vilda” several times. Has it been difficult for you to let go of the burden of having been your second?
R. I understand that, having shared these years with him, anyone who did not know me could doubt. But I am a totally different person, someone who leads in a different way, who leads with a different feeling; someone who thinks about football differently. And I have an opportunity to show myself as I am and think about what this team needs to win. I don’t compare myself to anyone. Only from the first day I wanted to make it clear that I am a different person from Vilda.
P. Was betting on Montse Tomé a continuing decision?
R. I don’t believe it. Different people have arrived. People on staff have changed. The relationships between the staff and the team are different and the work environment you want to have is also totally different. Like our way of feeling football, which has our stamp.
P. How does Spain play today, how can its hand be seen?
R. We have evolved. I feel that we are a better team, with things that can improve, and with different resources. Spain has a clear seal. The players we have allow us to have the ball, to play that associative game that the spectator likes so much, in which our players believe and through which we manage to have control of the game. But when we don’t have the ball we are a team with much more intensity and order in the defensive phase and in pressure; The players are clear about where they have to run, when, and how to do it. Before that cost us a little more.
P. What other resources does Spain have today?
R. We have players who give us speed, who make possible that verticality that gives us more alternatives in attack. And we can combine that with that associative game that practically 100% of the players on the national team can maintain. I feel that, having chosen the 23, although we are clear about how we want Spain to play, each of them can give us different nuances. That enriches the group.
P. One of the aspects in which Spanish football has evolved the most is the physical aspect. Are they no longer going to be able to defeat us in the crash or in the race?
R. The data tells us that Spain has offered great performance on the physical level. I have been a player on that team that faced Germany and said ‘my mother, physicality is our Achilles heel’. Now not only has that fight been equaled, but we are with the best. This has to make us trust ourselves more. Today the United States or Germany no longer surpass us. In technical-tactical terms we have always been at a very good level. And in the mental aspect, these players increasingly want to win. We have just won a World Cup and they have that need to feel that important games are being played to grow in the global context.
P. How does a soccer player feel when she knows that her rival surpasses her on a physical level?
R. That is something that I have experienced and that we try to convey: visualize how in the key moment, in a final, you feel that your pulse is at 200 and in front of you you have the best rival. How to overcome that moment? With different weapons; thinking about what is good, technically-tactically, for example; How can I improve my position to arrive sooner, how to continue trusting that even though my pulse is high my mind can be fresh to solve the next play. Generating this, foreseeing those details, visualizing those moments with the psychologist and working on them in training allows the player to impose herself on the field.
P. They play it in the Nations League against the Netherlands. How do you see the team?
R. The last reference we have is the Sweden match [perdían 1-3 al descanso y acabaron ganando 5-3]. It ended well. And although we were a little unstable, it was a great second half. I understand that after winning a World Cup, Spain will always be the team to beat. But, I trust the team a lot. The players are ready. We have everything to make things go well.
P. The players have been asking for years to only worry about what happens on the pitch. With the arrival of Markel Zubizarreta, is the coach also more freed?
R. Yes. Things have been done well in the federation. Incorporating profiles like Markel’s, who has extensive experience in women’s football, allows more things to be achieved. And it allows me to free myself from other issues that I either like less or have less control over. I like what is close to the field, the soccer players, the staff. That Markel has arrived is great news. She is going to improve many things.
P. Football played by women has become more professional on the field. How much still needs to be improved in the offices?
R. It is a process. We have been progressively evolving in sports. And that boom in recent years has made us grow. The successes have helped us make visible the level that women footballers have. I have experienced this progression very closely. I have been a soccer player and a player of this house, I have come to the national team since I was 16 years old and I have seen how this federative structure has evolved; Now as a coach I have everything I need to work with the best resources.
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