Montjuïc is making its debut. This Sundayin a new step (of justice) for the Barça women’s team, the stands of the Estadi Lluís Companys will be filled for the classic against Real Madrid (12:00 p.m., DAZN). Before the start of the season there were serious doubts that, with the move to Montjuïc, the big games of Jonatan Giráldez’s team could be moved to the magical mountain. He Economic cost It is higher given the rental of the field than when the doors of the Camp Nou opened, but the Barça entity has given another example of what it means to bet on its star team. The European champions they receive the (historical) eternal rival and on the grass, in addition to two opposite styles of playthey will also face two ways to understand and bet on women’s football.
“We are clear within the club plan that The women’s team is a strategic project and a pillar within the club.“, he relates Xavi Budó, director of professional sports at Barça, to EL PERIÓDICO hours before the classic. “Both for a sporting issue and for a social issue we want the club to be a rworld efferent of women’s football now and in the future“, he adds with conviction. The professionalization of the team in 2015 was a great boost for him to be a two-time European champion and to have broken many barriers to build a new scenario in which the Barça players are the protagonists.
La Masia and commitment
There is many factors who have made this path a success. However, there is one essential: the commitment of the players. “One of the key factors is the commitment of the players and the growth of the entire structure, not just the technical staff, but of many people involved within the club in this project. It is key, for me, a ambition and one continuous improvement of the team on a day-to-day basis, which makes us completely differentials“says Budó, who defends a firm commitment by president Joan Laporta with the women’s team to continue growing despite the economic difficulties that the culé entity is going through.
To maintain this model, La Masia is indisputable. “Today we are with almost 50% of first team players trained at La Masía. This is extraordinary. I think we are at 48% and it is a ratio that we want to maintain and enhance,” says Budó, who holds meetings with Marc Vives, the new women’s sports director, to strengthen the youth team in the coming years. “We have to continue being the best in the world and investment in La Masía is key here, to have the best team and the best young talent to be world leaders. Furthermore, For the women’s team the only way to compete is to generate income to be sustainable. And it is also necessary that we have this Social impactthe force behind the fans,” says Budó about the three key premises that the project must meet to stay at the top in the coming years.
Just as in Barça professionalization was simmering, in the Real Madrid arrived suddenly. When the Madrid club made the decision to have a women’s team, it was made available to the footballers. all facilities: travel, catering, facilities, working conditions and resources. Everything that makes a project professional was from the first moment in the sports city of Valdebebas.
Key leaders
Despite the good sporting moment of the culé team after winning its second Champions League in Eindhoven last summer, the Barça structure has suffered an earthquake. The architect of this Barça champion, Markel Zubizarreta, decided to abandon the project, as EL PERIÓDICO announced after different interference and disagreements. His chair, with all the responsibilities that it carries, is now occupied by Marc Vives. “I had to do many interviews and there was a long selection process. And one of the main reasons for betting on the figure of Marc Vivés is precisely because is very aware, together with Jordi Ventura, who is responsible for training, to give a new push to grassroots football this year and the following ones. She is a first class person. He is a super prepared, very ambitious professional who has very clear ideas and who will give us new impetus,” says Budó of his signing.
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For its part, Real Madrid is under the command of Ana Rosell. The sports director of the white team was one of the first people to be part of the structure of the women’s team of the entity directed by Florentino Pérez once bought CD Tacón, of which she was president, and took over his place in First. With the purchase of the club, Rosell became the sports director of Real Madrid and became in charge of the sports project and the configuration of the squad, which is still green despite its three years of professionalization.
That Barça is going through serious financial problems is not a surprise to anyone. However, the feminine is the only self-sufficient section of the entity and, in order to continue growing, it must continue to be that way. “The project has to be sustainable and the budgets they move in the United States or in the Premier League are so high that it is increasingly clear to us that our identity begins in grassroots football“concludes Xavi Budó in a Barça key before the classic that will pit the first and second in the table against each other and that will be a clear clash of two ways of understanding women’s football.