Caroline Graham Hansen and Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic yesterday wanted to publicly support their Barça teammates who last week announced their resignation from the Spanish team. Immersed in a fight with the Federation, the Spanish internationals demand improvements in the selection to have a stronger and more competitive team. Seeing that their claims were not being heard, up to 15 internationals, six of them from Barcelona, sent an email to the Federation renouncing Jorge Vilda's call until the situation is resolved.
"It's a cycle and sometimes a cycle ends and you have to accept it," said Crnogorcevic in the mixed zone after the victory over Madrid CFF. “This situation is not good for the players, for the clubs… for anyone. I have experienced it with Switzerland, we had a coach who did a lot for women's football in Switzerland, but there comes a point when things have to be changed”, he explained. “Look at Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp, everything is cycles. It's like a relationship, you want to try, but it's over and you have to accept it, "he added.
Mapi León, Mariona Caldentey, Claudia Pina, Sandra Paños, Aitana Bonmatí and Patri Guijarro are the signatories of this resignation, joined by Irene Paredes, who also supports this action despite having wanted to remain in the background after being pointed out as the leader of the conversations, exercising her role as captain, in the last concentration of the selection. And Alexia Putellas has also publicly shown her support for her teammates, despite the fact that she is recovering from a Crusader injury.
“It is a clear message when so many players ask for help and changes. They are touched and suffering a lot. It's not going to be easy but I hope they can relax a bit during this break”, explained Caroline Graham-Hansen. For his part, Crnogorcevic also showed his unconditional support for Barça's Spanish internationals: “I'm one hundred percent with my teammates. Things have to change." “There are things that do not have to be explained in the press. I understand that you want to know more, but I think they have to talk about it inside, if it's not a ruckus and it doesn't help anyone. But there are more than fifteen players, that already says something”, he concluded.
Coach Jonatan Giráldez wanted to show himself more cautiously at a press conference. The Galician coach reiterated that he has already expressed himself on other occasions on this subject and insisted that they have not spoken about this conflict in recent days: "Our focus was on winning this game." Giráldez also confessed that he has not spoken to Nuria Rábano, the only Barça player summoned by Jorge Vilda, about her call up from the national team: "I haven't spoken to her, but she is called up just like Caro, Ingrid or any other international".
They are not the only signs of support that the Spanish internationals have received. After knowing the resignation of the fifteen, world stars such as Alex Morgan or Megan Rapinoe publicly positioned themselves with the Spanish. “You have a sixteenth player standing with you in the United States. So many players united like this is very powerful. We should all listen to them," Rapinoe wrote on her social media.
