Alexia Putellas broke her silence in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar about what happened with Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup Final In Sydney.
The midfielder goes so far as to admit that “what happened is not a phenomenon isolated to women’s football» and assures that she is now “proud” of the way things went.
“I learned a lot from what happened with Jennifer Hermoso»she says, “I’ve had moments of pride and sadnessbecause I don’t find it normal that there are leaks and a certain number of confidentiality is not guaranteed. What a shame. I also felt a lot of pride, especially for the debates that were generated.”
“What happened is not a phenomenon isolated to women’s football”
“The scale of the problem was what it was supposed to be“, she admitted when asked about players returning to the national team, “what happened is not a phenomenon isolated to women’s footballit’s something that happens in too many environments and it happened in a place where the expectations and visibility were global.”
“Our World Cup victory is not going to lose its importance because of this. We are going to be world champions for at least four more years. And no one will take that away from us. This is what we will remember. It could not be otherwise. There was no other way to react. Something extremely unfortunate has happened and standing by (Jenni) and supporting her was the least we could do.
“The first few weeks were weird“, admitted Alexia, “there was meetings and appointments very different from what an elite athlete should have, but hey, it’s over now. It had to be done. This happened to us. Previous generations of gamers were insulted for playing. And maybe future generations will benefit from something else.
Alexia is recovering from a slight knee bruise
The interview with the Barcelona midfielder coincides with the international break. Although Alexia was called up to the team by manager Montse Tomé and arrived at the national team training base on Monday, it was decided that she would not participate during matches against Italy and Sweden as precaution due to minor knee injury.
Alexia, in addition to the controversial subject, talked about his beginnings and what She dreamed years ago when I was a child: “I never thought I could dedicate myself to (football) because the infrastructure was not there for a ten-year-old girl to dream of becoming a footballer. But I was always very happy to play. All I needed was a ball and I didn’t care what was around me.”
“I know how lucky I am.”
“I am aware that I am privileged to be able to be here able to devote myself to what makes me feel alivehas what makes me more me, to my purest form of expression. There are moments, days, things that I miss, but I don’t see it as a sacrifice because I know how lucky I am. I do what I love!
The Mollet del Vallès player spoke the serious injury it kept her sidelined for almost a year. Alexia says that the most special moment was hugging his mother after the final. “The convalescence period was very hard, (my mother) was with me every day and I wanted her to experience something happy. When I hugged her, I knew she had lifted two huge weights off her shoulders.
