Caldentey

Mariona Caldentey greets on a video name from her house in St Albans, north of London. It’s a Friday in February and the Arsenal and Spain ahead’s household are coming to go to her that weekend.

Caldentey, 28, left her hometown of Felanitx, Mallorca, when she was 18 to maneuver to Barcelona, the place she established herself and . Now, six months after transferring to the UK, she is as soon as once more a newcomer in a distinct metropolis.

“Having the ocean close by is maybe one of many issues I miss essentially the most (of Barcelona and Mallorca), other than not having folks exterior the soccer surroundings,” she says. “What I discover hardest is just not having that disconnection from soccer.”

Tonight, Caldentey faces a sport of additional significance to her: enjoying her adopted nation England at Wembley in a rematch of the 2023 Girls’s World Cup closing in Sydney.

The aftermath of that sport turned recognized for then-Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales’ . That led to a court docket case which concluded final week and which featured testimony from a few of Hermoso’s worldwide team-mates and present coach Montse Tome. Rubiales was discovered responsible of sexual assault and fined greater than €10,000 ($10,500; £8,000). He intends to attraction the choice.

However now, Caldentey and the remainder of the squad wish to . And this sport towards England brings into focus the tough technique of adaptation Caldentey has confronted since leaving Spain final yr. She has scored 12 targets in 27 video games throughout all competitions for Arsenal — however language proved a barrier at first.

“Once I arrived, I assumed my English was kind of good, however after I acquired right here I realised it was fairly low stage,” she says. “At first, I struggled above all, in additional social conditions, to participate in conversations. I’d finish the day feeling fairly overwhelmed. After a couple of months, I’ve to say that I really feel extra snug now too.”

In her autobiography printed in November, entitled How We Modified Historical past and written with the Catalan journalist Laia Coll, Caldentey explains how in her first Arsenal coaching session a participant shouted “Mariona! Within the pocket!” at her, leaving her baffled.

“You assume you understand how to talk English after which this stuff occur to you,” she tells . “For me, pocket was a (a small bag sewn into or on clothes in Spain) and I assumed, ‘What do they need from me now?’ Within the subject, when it’s a must to communicate rapidly or perceive messages, it’s troublesome once you’re at such a excessive pulse fee.”

Caldentey is the daughter of a nurse, Maria Oliver, and Miguel Angel, nicknamed Morete. Morete handed his love of soccer on to her — he coached a number of groups in Mallorca — and his love of Barcelona. He based an official supporters’ group within the Balearic Islands and she or he at all times wished to play for Barca in consequence.

Caldentey joined Barcelona Femeni from Mallorcan aspect UD Collerense in 2014 and went on to win six league titles, three Champions Leagues and 6 Copas de la Reina with the Catalans. However her father was not capable of see that Barca aspect attain their peak. He died all of a sudden in November 2018 whereas Caldentey was with the workforce in Valencia, the day earlier than a match.

Her father’s ardour for the membership was one thing Caldentey thought of earlier than her exit final summer time.

“My father’s love for Barca was non-negotiable,” she says. “This weighed on me throughout all of the contract renewals. However I additionally had the sensation that I wished new challenges as a footballer.

“I can’t say what made me determine (to affix Arsenal). It was a rollercoaster of emotions, however it was the choice I made. As a footballer, having to adapt to different contexts is a really fascinating problem, which makes you a greater participant and means that you can have extra registers. Clearly, it’s troublesome to go away Barca and it’s laborious, however it’s what I felt I needed to do.”

Caldentey has needed to alter rapidly to the tradition and the language in England, though her worldwide team-mate Laia Codina can also be a part of the Arsenal squad. For the primary time in 5 years, the workforce she performs for is just not prime of the league desk: following an underwhelming begin to the season, Arsenal are third within the Girls’s Tremendous League, 10 factors off leaders Chelsea. Coach Jonas Eidevall left his function in October after successful simply two of his closing seven matches throughout all competitions and his assistant Renee Slegers turned everlasting boss in January after an interim spell in cost.

“Once you’re used to successful, it’s troublesome to see your self in these positions — however it’s my first season right here,” she says. “I wish to take it straightforward, figuring out that it’s a query of adaptation, attending to know the league and the workforce and never getting overwhelmed at first. Nevertheless it’s one thing I suffered from at first.

The poor state of the Spanish girls’s top-flight Liga F was one other consider her transfer overseas. In an , the Ballon d’Or-winning Barca and Spain midfielder Aitana Bonmati stated it was “unhappy to see at an unbelievable pace” and Caldentey thinks a possible expertise drain might change into an issue.

“It’s a hazard,” she says. “Everybody desires to signal Spanish gamers as a result of there may be plenty of expertise in Spain — however it’s a must to take care of that expertise.

“In my case, I had performed for 15 years within the Spanish league, however there are circumstances of younger gamers who’ve hardly performed in Spain and already wish to exit and check out different issues, which makes you assume that possibly it’s a must to rethink how the Spanish league is run.

“It must be engaging for gamers to remain as a result of the expertise that there’s in Spain is just not there anyplace else. We might have one of the best league and there are issues that don’t go together with it.”

Caldentey notices the variations in comparison with her expertise in Spain.

“The followers expertise soccer in another way,” she says. “In Spain, they need to take the airplane for many journeys; right here, they’ll take the practice, bus or automobile. And that implies that folks can at all times be nearer to the workforce. Though Barca have followers who journey so much.

“At membership stage, Arsenal’s services are additionally completely different. You’ve gotten the entire constructing only for the ladies’s workforce… At Barca, we shared the house with La Masia (the membership’s youth academy) and the youth groups. It’s one thing I do know they wished to vary.

“Right here (at Arsenal) it’s a extra personal house, only for us. We even have our personal chef and he travels on the bus with us once we play away, he sits on the again. Right here we additionally journey extra by bus and the bus is best ready.”

That made it much more outstanding when a few of these gamers returned to play for the workforce and helped Spain carry the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The emotional toll of the struggles earlier than and after the match led Caldentey to hunt psychological assist for the primary time in her profession.

“Soccer is usually so capricious,” says Caldentey. “At Euro 2022 in England, we had a workforce that would win. At that second, issues had been going effectively and we didn’t win. Then we arrived on the World Cup with all of the chaos and we ended up successful. There was one key factor, which all of us knew very effectively, that once we had been on the sector it was work and all of us wished to win.

“As soon as the work was over in coaching or in matches and we needed to go to the resort it was a distinct matter, however all of us made that click on of understanding that once we had been on the sector, we had been on the sector. Making that separation of what occurred inside and outside — if it made us a united workforce on the sector, (then) leaving apart what might occur exterior.”

These struggles continued with the kiss from Rubiales on Hermoso throughout the medal ceremony and the saga that adopted. Present Spain gamers Codina, Alexia Putellas, Irene Paredes and Misa Rodriguez all testified within the court docket case towards the ex-RFEF president. Caldentey says she adopted “the whole lot” throughout the two-week trial (this interview befell throughout the trial and earlier than the decision was introduced).

With Spain going through England once more, it’s laborious not to consider the whole lot the workforce have been by means of since that night in Sydney 18 months in the past. What did Caldentey study from the method?

“We’re higher, however I don’t know if this battle of ladies in such a masculinised place will ever finish,” Caldentey says.

“I don’t know if it’s a part of our job or not, however it’s what we and former generations have needed to cope with. It’s an additional effort that we’ve to make for the society we reside in. We now have to attempt to depart soccer higher for the following generations than it’s now.”

This text initially appeared in .

Arsenal, Barcelona, Spain, Soccer, UK Girls’s Soccer, Girls’s World Cup

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