The absolute Spanish women’s soccer team is experiencing a rebellion by an important group of players against the coach Jorge Vilda. As reported by El Confidencial and confirmed by this newspaper, the international rebels have expressed their disagreement with the coach both with his tactical approaches and with his methodology and his management of the group. Previously, in addition, they had requested Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Federation, the dismissal of Vilda and Jorge del Amo, president of the Women’s Football Committee and of the Navarran territorial.
However, the trust of the federative boss in the coach remains intact, according to federative sources with responsibility for the women’s team. Vilda was renewed until 2024 before the European Championship and has the support of the federative leadership. This Tuesday, in the tribute to the recent world champions of the sub-20, Rubiales in his speech had words of support for the questioned coach. “I am very proud to be president of the Federation. It must be recognized that he has opted for the feminine. I remember a call from Vilda in the middle of the pandemic to continue investing in this plot. And it was done. You have the best coaches, the results come. I am sure that they will also arrive in the absolute”, affirmed Rubiales on the spot.
In the federation they assure that there is no Vilda case because the players are never going to be the ones who decide who is the coach. They affirm that this is a competition of the federative structures and that the election of the person in charge of any selection does not fall and will not fall to the internationals of any selection, whether female or male. What’s more, from Las Rozas they assure that Vilda will continue, at least, until the World Cup in Australia that takes place next summer.
The rebellion had been cooking for a long time and has ended up exploding in this concentration prior to the two valid matches for the World Cup qualification against Hungary, on Friday, and Ukraine, on Tuesday. Some of the mutinous soccer players maintain that Vilda does not measure well when she should have demanding training sessions and when they should be more relaxed. Some of them complain that the preparatory sessions at their clubs are more appropriate than the ones they do every time they are called up for the national team. Nor do they consider that their approaches are correct and warn that the European Championship was bad in general, except for the quarterfinal match in which they lost to England (2-1). The feeling of the players opposed to Vilda is that something more could have been achieved in the European Championship with other types of tactical solutions. They also disagree with their criteria when making the calls, in the starting elevens and even in their control over the media appearances that they must attend when they are concentrated with the national team.
The schism has erupted at the height of the lower categories of women’s football with the recent conquests of the U-20 World Cup and the U-19 European Championship. In the federation, which admits that there may be differences, they lower the conflict with the argument that the coach has summoned the Barcelona captains who lead the complaints, Irene Paredes and Patri Guijarro, and Jennifer Hermoso, recently signed by Pachuca from Mexico .
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