The divorce between the Spanish internationals and the coach Jorge Vilda is total. Up to 15 soccer players have declined to be called up with Spain, alleging that the current situation in the national team is affecting their "emotional and health state." In an email sent simultaneously to the Federation on Thursday afternoon, the soccer players assured that they did not feel "in a position to be eligible" and requested "not to be summoned until this situation is reversed." The response from the Spanish Federation (RFEF) came a few hours later and did so through a harsh statement: “The team needs players committed to the project (...). The soccer players who have submitted their resignation will only return to the discipline of the national team in the future if they accept their mistake and ask for forgiveness.
The soccer players answered yesterday through another statement, this time also shared by Alexia Putellas -who did not ask not to be called up because she is injured-, in which they denied having resigned from the national team, nor requested Vilda's resignation and regretted that the Federation "in a partial and interested way" has made public "a private communication" that affects his health.
The text explains some of the reasons that have led them to make this drastic decision. Reasons that are not new and that have moved the Federation on several occasions, but have never been heard. The soccer players consider that with this group of players "you can achieve more and better goals". "We want a firm commitment to a professional project in which all aspects are taken care of to get the best performance," they maintain.
The level of training, the lack of intensity, the day-to-day management of the group, the way of approaching the matches and the high number of injuries that have occurred during the concentrations are some of the aspects that the soccer players have exposed in more than once in his meetings with the Federation.
Reasons to which are added the lack of results of this selection. Despite having the best generation of players in the history of Spain, they have never managed to overcome a tie with Vilda on the bench. The team did not get past the round of 16 in the last World Cup, nor the fourth in the last two European Championships, in addition to never having participated in an Olympic Games.
These soccer players, who now compete against the best and who win titles with their clubs, want the national team to also take a step forward in their professionalization, providing them with better material and human resources to be able to compete better. "Getting to where we are has taken years of effort from many people and there are still many things to improve," they write.
In recent hours, they have been branded capricious and criticized in the media and social networks: "Can anyone think that, eight months before a World Cup, a group of top-level players, which is what we consider ourselves, are considering this decision, as has been publicly implied, as a whim or blackmail?”, they ask in the statement. “Requesting not to be summoned, we penalize our professional career”, they add.
It is not being an easy situation for the internationals. From their surroundings they assure that they are having a bad time and that they feel frustration for having had to reach this situation. But how did it get here?
As we explained, the discomfort goes back a long way, even before the European Championship, but after the elimination against England, the captains met again with the president of the Federation, Luis Rubiales. It was a meeting that took place at the end of August, in the first international window of the selection. Rubiales once again reiterated that Jorge Vilda, who was renewed until 2024 days before the start of the European Championship, would continue to be the Spanish coach.
Upon learning of this, the technician held individual meetings with each of the internationals who were summoned to Las Rozas. Very tense meetings from which some soccer players even came out crying. After this, there is a fissure in the locker room that the Federation takes advantage of to close the crisis. On September 1 they call a press conference to which the coach appears on the one hand, accompanied by his coaching staff, and on the other the captains, supported by all his teammates. "I feel stronger than ever," Vilda said then, who has already sent a notice to navigators: "We are going to look for players who are one hundred percent involved and who row in favor."
The pulse between Vilda and the players has now reached its peak with the refusal of these fifteen internationals to be called up for the next international window, in which Spain will play two friendlies against Sweden and the United States (October 7 and 11).
