With the last straws of the tension accumulated during the classic past between Real Madrid and Barcelona, last Monday the concentration of the senior team began in Las Rozas for the last friendlies of the year against Argentina and Japan. A few hours later, the Federation made official the casualties of Esther González and Maitane López, due to "injuries that dragged on joining the national team."
Nahikari García, also a Madrid player, has been chosen by Vilda to cover Esther's injury, but the name that has surprised the most has been that of the replacement that she has chosen to replace Maitane's loss. The Madrid coach has called Maria Pérez, a midfielder from the Barça subsidiary who was concentrated with the sub-23. A soccer player of only 20 years and for whom she will be her first experience with the absolute.
A regular in the eleven of the Barça subsidiary, the player from Sant Fost de Capsentelles has only played two games with the first team, so Vilda's call was surprising. Maria Pérez made her debut this year with the first team in a Champions League match against Rosengard, having residual minutes (8). Last Wednesday, against Levante Las Planas, Jonatan Giráldez gave her her first start with the team, in a duel with many rotations thinking about the weekend's classic. She played the 90 minutes in the central position performing at a high level.
Signed in 2018 from the Damm, she debuted with the first team last season, in June, in Lezama against Athletic Club. “If it was already incredible that Barça called me, imagine making your debut in the first team. I am very happy, "she then acknowledged to the club's media after her first minutes in the elite.
With the incorporation of Maria Pérez, there will be two Barça players in this concentration of the Spanish team in which Salma Paralluelo is also. A list in which Real Madrid soccer players predominate, in the absence of the 15 internationals who left the team in their fight to claim a more professional structure. Since the departure of these players, most of them Barça players, Vilda has turned to the Whites' squad to build the base of her team, which she has complemented with young Spanish talent from the lower categories. In this list for this last break of the year up to 13 soccer players are born from the year 2000, with Salma Paralluelo and the Valencia soccer player Fiamma Benítez as the youngest of the group.
The Spanish team will play its last two friendlies of the year in the coming days. On Friday they will face Argentina (8pm) at the Municipal Álvarez Claro in Melilla, while on Tuesday the 15th, at the same time, they will do so against Japan at La Cartuja in Seville. Vilda will not be able to gather her internationals again until February, with her sights already set on the final stretch for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which will start on July 20.
