#also i don't know how to really translate 'mala hostia' so i just went with bad temper

[caitlinclark]

Today she’s one of the icons of women’s football. But when Alexia Putellas started playing when she was 7 years old, things were not like they are now. Not even close.

The girls who are currently looking to be soccer players pay attention to this player born in Mollet del Vallès in 1994, they want to score goals with the same boots that she -Nike has sponsored her since she was 19- and ask for the new Barça shirt with her name on it. Although they have not yet reached the peak or full equality, future generations will look back and remember brave women like Alexia who broke the taboos and stereotypes and opened a path full of bushes. On September 7th, the women’s league (Liga Iberdrola) began with more excitement than ever. Barça - Real Madrid helps. The white club has bought a club that has just hit Primera, CD Tacón, but will not officially change their name until next summer. Alexia Putellas scored the goal that opened the lead (9-1) at 8 minutes. She's not a scorer, but she does score quite often. She’s only 25 years old, but she’s played at the highest level since she was 16. Since she was 18 she’s played with the senior Spanish team, who played the World Cup a few months ago. She has the right combination of veteran and youth to continue to mark the era of the outbreak of female football.

Do you have the feeling that you are living the revolution and the outbreak of women’s football?

Yes, and so much, and I like to live it. I started playing very small and I know the difficulties we had. Now it's changing, and fortunately I am still young (25 years old) and I can dedicate myself 100%. Now I can say with all the letters that I am a soccer player, something that did not happen before.

You are from Mollet del Vallès, but when your mother said that you were going to join a football team, so that you would stop playing at the playground and get bruises all over your legs, you went to CE Sabadell . There was no club closer that had a team for girls?

I think there was nothing closer, then. Fortunately, almost every town has female teams. But also, in the first team of Sabadell a friend of the family played, and told us that there was a team of girls there. And I went there, but in that team the girls were 10 years old, and I was only 7! I was very small, and at the beginning it really hard, although I had a good time. I did not have the strength and when I kicked the ball, which were those former Mikasa, I did not get off the ground, and I was angry because the others could and I couldn’t.

Did the Women’s League need Real Madrid?

This question was asked last year and I think that I did not explain myself well, when responding. The Women League needs clubs that want to be there, that is, if up until this point Madrid had not been there and the League has grown, then it did not. But I was interpreted that I did not want Real Madrid to enter the League, and I did not mean that. Now they’ve taken the step of joining, I am sure they will make a serious commitment to the title, and that will be more competition that will make us all better.

What day, or what happened, that made you think "things are changing," for women’s football?

I could not tell you a specific moment, but every year things have happened that have helped. For example, in the year that I arrived at Barça, we won the League and Cup, we won the League in the old San Mamés, in front of 30,000 people. This was already a "careful, that you are playing against 30,000 people and you are playing to win the League." You could also think that in the north, women's football was different, but the following year we won again the League and the club made us come out on the street with the first team that had won the triplet, with the streets full. All these things have meant that in the end the club is where it is.

What did reaching the Champions League final mean?

Reaching the Champions League final, nothing special. Since a few years ago, the demand for Barça women is maximum.

Do you still hear the phrase that "women’s football is not football or feminine" or is it already buried definitively?

I do not know if it is buried completely, there are always people who are harder to understand or evolve. We went from the stage of giving us visibility, and we have two years of consolidation. I think that there is no one that still says, or thinks, "you are a girl and you can not play soccer".

And this has coincided with the rise of the 8-M movement.

Everything is related. Those feminist movements that had long since been silenced have finally been placed where they should be.

Has women’s football started to grow and become big when it started to stop comparing and complaining about the treatment of women’s football, as Catalan journalist and coach Natalia Arroyo says?

Yes, I think so, but it was also a point of claim to lay a foundation. We did not demanded that we wanted to be football players, we demanded that we needed the means to be one. Now the obstacles we had to face ourselves have disappeared, and girls who want to be football players, it will largely depend on them, that they can become one.

What little things do you notice that when you started the First Division you weren’t a professional and now you are one?

Before I had to take the clothes to play and train to home to wash it for the next game, or we had to take the water to drink the workouts, for example. Now, luckily, we only arrive, we train as well as we know and we only have to worry about winning the game on Sunday.

I will make David Broncano, if you let me. How much do you make?

Mmmm ... I now live well, I can live just to play football and I can help my family a bit, but my mother can not stop working and we can’t spend everything we want, because that's not the case.

With your salary are you forced to study to have a job when football is over, then?

I started studying ADE (Business Administration and Management), but every month I have 10 days of concentration with the Spanish team, and also the travelling to play the Champions League. Therefore, I could only go to class at the university two of the four weeks of the month and I was distressed and having a hard time. I left it and I know that at any moment I could resume it, but I won’t lie to you, in the short term I'm not consider it.

In other words, you don’t make enough money not to having to work again once you retire, if you invest well the money you earn, as do men players, but at the same time you have schedules and a high level requirement that make it difficult to combine with the studies to prepare for the future.

I have teammates who have managed to take care of the hard careers, medicine or architecture, but because of my conditions and my way of living football I can not combine it. Yes, I'm saving a bit because when I finish football I can live for a while, and I have ideas in mind ...

It is true that we always ask the women players if you study a career to make a living after football, and it is not always necessary, you can set up a company, for example ...

Exactly. When I find the moment I'll put it.

Do you agree with Frank de Boer - who played for Ajax and Barça, and current coach of Atlanta United of the USA - who this summer said that football players must charge what they deserve but they can not charge just like men because, for example, the men's final was seen by 500 million people and the women’s only 100 million? He said this from the news that the Dutch Federation wanted to equalize the salaries of men and women to go to the football team.

In that I have it clear. Everyone has to get paid based on what they generate, surely, but in places like National Teams, everyone should get paid an equal salary, because the demand is the same. And from there, if a male or female football player generates more money so that people want to see one and not another, then they can get a bigger part of the cake. I am a player of the Spanish football team and we do not get paid the same as the men. Related to that, Panini's CEO said a few days ago saying that they would not make the women's League collection because people did not buy those from the Women's World Cup. Agreed, it is a private company that can do what it wants, but to clarify, to get the women's World Cup’s sticker collection, if you wanted to buy chromium, you only had one kiosk in all Barcelona, ​​when you have one in every corner for the Men's League. For me that is makeup, because you do not really believe in it, and if you do not believe it, do not do it. Therefore, we return to the phrase "men’s football generates more", yes, but you must read the small print, too.

Do you envy the United States or Sweden and the concept of women’s football they have?

Yes. They’re 50 years ahead of us, and not just football. We were born here and we have to do it as well as we can.

Does women’s football need more Megan Rapinoe (captain of the US team)? What does she have?

Players with personality are needed, and there are, but to clarify, she is American and four times world champion. Rapinoe was already well known in the USA, and has a gift, a gift to play and a gift to speak. The most important thing is that she believes what she says and has very firm values. And she knows that when she speaks she will have many microphones in front because she is a very good player.

You played against her this World Cup in France in the round of 16, and she scored both goals for the victory. How is it up close?

They are the best National Team in the world, by far. They dominate all the phases of the game. Although the other National Teams are closing the gap. In the round of 16 we lost 2-1, only, and we started scoring; This five years ago was unthinkable. We did not reach their competitive level. Now what we have to do is keep the competitive level and play well.

Nike has been sponsoring you since you were 19 years old. Is it an example of the growth of women’s football and your own in particular?

Now all the players in the first team are sponsored by brands like this one. And I, started with 19, but without signing any contract, still, they only helped me with the material. 7 years ago the brands did not invest in women's football as much as they do now, but women’s football didn’t generate revenue such as much as it does now.

Natàlia Arroyo said of you in a report to Movistar +: "She has talent without realizing it, she does not need to show how good she is, it comes out alone." Is it the best praise that can be made to a football player?

I do not know what to say ... [blushes] Natàlia has seen a lot of football and a lot of women’s football. As I have get praise, I also get criticism, but when I go out to the field I do not think about the debates I can create in individual prizes, I go out to do it as well as I can, at the service of the team, to win and be happy.

What do they criticize about you?

Who criticizes me, I'll tell you, too, does not wear the same jersey than I ... [smiles] They say that I play because I'm the face of Nike, that I'm not as good as they say, that I haven’t won the League in four years ... In the end, I’ve been playing professionally for eight years, and played almost all the games, and I do not think it was for being the face of Nike.

The growth of women’s soccer is also this, the critics, right or unjust.

And they have to be, and so much. I do not support paternalism, we must never accept it, that they protect us only for being women. If we have not won a League in four years, we must accept it, because it is true.

Those who have seen you grow say that at the beginning you were more individualistic and now you understand the collective game much better, do you share it?

Especially in the Spanish team, I played in the wing and I was told that I always had to go 1v1. Instead, I now play more inside and I enjoy it much more. I like to help our teammates, and if I can put the ball where they can exploit their virtues, I do.

I've heard you say you have "bad temper", but speaking with you I would not say it. When does it come out?

Now not so much ...

Is it part of you growing up?

Yes, I don’t get mad as often anymore, when I lose, and I try to understand what has happened and improve it.

I can not resist the question ... Did you have a hard time with your surname in school?

The truth is that no. Putellas is a well-known name in Mollet, and I was lucky to be in a school that never paid attention to it, just like I never had problems playing football with the boys at the playground.

But were they mad that a girl dribbled past them?

I do not think so. When we picked teams, I was always the first one they chose [smiles].