Slicing sourdough on the stainless-steel counter of a London tapas restaurant, Ana Lorenzo hopes victory for La Roja will banish the sexism she says still stalks women’s football in Spain.
“It’s so sexist in Spain compared to here. The attitude to women’s football is many years behind. And despite doing so well, the women’s team hasn’t really gripped the media,” she says, shaking her head.
As evidence of Spanish – largely male – apathy to the unexpected feats of its women’s football team, the 50-year-old chef at Camino, King’s Cross, points to the fact that Spain’s King Felipe VI will not be attending today’s final against England.
“He was at Wimbledon when Carlos Alcaraz [the Spanish tennis player] won last month but doesn’t go to see the women,” said Lorenzo, who is from Poio in Galicia, the same place as her favourite Spanish player, Teresa Abelleira, who is likely to start in midfield for the final.
Victory, though, holds the power to transform attitudes to the women’s game in Spain, says Lorenzo. And the chef – who arrived in London eight years ago, a year before the Brexit vote – is confident her team will prevail, predicting a narrow 2-1 victory that will precipitate “a cultural change” in the Iberian mindset towards women playing its favourite sport.
“Even if it’s not so big at the moment, a win will change all that,” she said.
North, across the vast rail arches of King’s Cross and the Eurostar terminal, staff at rival tapas restaurant Barrafina laud the success of the women’s team as a breath of fresh air.
Teenager David Martin, a waiter from Granada, Andalucía, says that the commitment and humility of the women’s national team has exposed some of the frailties of the men’s squad.
“Men’s football has lost a lot of its passion. It’s all about money, fame. The women just want it a bit more.”
Martin, a waiter who has worked at Barrafina for a year, also believes the underperforming nature of the men’s team at their World Cup last December – they were dumped out by Morocco in the last 16 – has helped galvanise interest in the exploits of the women’s national team. “The men underperformed at their World Cup. Luis Enrique [former manager] was tactically poor. The women are doing much better.”
Unlike Lorenzo, Martin does feel that the women’s game is starting to receive the recognition it deserves. “Women’s football is getting bigger – it’s really good that it’s finally being given respect. Although it’s still very male-dominated, attitudes are beginning to change.
“And it’s starting to get more popular. In my family, the girls play football. My cousin is a goalkeeper for Atlético de Madrid juniors.”
Behind him, Angel Sanchez – seeing to an order of ham croquetas – is enthused about the prospect of a Spanish victory. Sanchez expects the world to be wowed by “some of the best players in the world”, namely feted midfielder Alexia Putellas and teenager Salma Paralluelo, whose electrifying impact in the semi-finals set up today’s match.
The 41-year-old chef agrees with Martin that the women’s game is quickly gaining popularity and says that’s because the sport began to be taken seriously at the start of the century. “It began years ago, maybe in the early 2000s when they started coaching girls. This team is the result of that process,” said Sanchez, who arrived in London in 2018.
The Valencia supporter believes that his country’s media are backing the women’s journey to potential immortality.
“The newspapers seem very excited. Five or six years ago, they gave it very little space, but now it’s far more prominent.
“Just imagine if we win! The World Cup!”
