“I was born to play football,” Aitana Bonmatí says, as much a declaration of intent as a statement of fact. There is something about her, not just the talent – although she is perhaps this European Championship tournament’s most technically gifted, elegant player, the essence of the style that defines the seleccion – but the temperament, as swiftly apparent off the pitch as on it. “I’ve got quite a bit of character,” the Spain midfielder says, laughing, and it shows. There’s a directness, a conviction, a single-mindedness that helps to explain how she got here and why she will not stop here, a determination to be who she is.
She might not have been Aitana Bonmatí at all, which may partly explain it too. Aitana’s parents, Rosa and Vicent, are teachers of Catalan language and literature whose fight to give their daughter Rosa’s surname first forced a change in law following her birth in 1998 – a gesture of equality that opened opportunity for others and symbolises how they shaped her.
