World champion in its male version, the Argentine women’s team suffers from a loss of players. Four soccer players, Lorena Benítez (25 years old), Julieta Cruz (27), Eliana Stábile (30) and Laurina Oliveros (30) – the first three members of the squad that participated in the New Zealand-Australia 2023 World Cup -, resigned from the team in a chain nationally this week. A double side of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) was exposed: it multiplies million-dollar contracts based on its title in Qatar 2022 but is accused of not paying travel expenses or lunches to its players. One of the historical figures of the Albiceleste, Estefanía Banini, Already retired from the national team but currently at Atlético de Madrid last season, she supported the decision of her former teammates and summarized it in two concepts: “Bad treatment” and “many differences.”
If women’s soccer became synonymous with struggles that transcend the playing field, for example with the flags raised by Jenni Hermoso in Spain, Megan Rapinoe in the United States and Marta in Brazil, Argentina is no exception. Lionel Messi’s compatriots never silenced their complaints to the authorities, whether at the local level – the tournament was semi-professionalized in 2019 but currently only one club, Boca Juniors, made all the players on its team sign a professional contract. and at the international level, with permanent observations of the daily work in the selection.
“We have been carrying a lot of things throughout all these years of representing our country. Many teammates have left for the same reasons, because they feel sadness and not joy every time they have to be there,” contextualized Benítez, one of the four resigners – all Boca Juniors players –, in reference to similar decisions that her teammates made in the last years.
For the Lima 2019 Pan American Games, for example, Florencia Bon Segundo declined the call after coach Carlos Borrello marginalized several references, including Banini, Belén Potassa, Ruth Bravo and Gabriel Gartón, who had expressed their disagreement with the coach. Carlos Borrello. “There are already 180,000 players retired from the national team,” published in these hours the former player Macarena Sánchez, a fundamental figure for the professionalization of women’s soccer in Argentina, who nevertheless lives between progress and permanent pending accounts.
“It was a personal decision, for several very sad reasons that I have been experiencing with the national team,” Benítez posted this Monday, who assured that the AFA did not give “breakfast or lunch” to the players of the women’s team in training on Tuesday and Wednesday. from last week. Strictly speaking, he specified, the soccer players received “a ham and cheese sandwich and a banana.” Faced with the claim for a menu so far removed from the nutritional diet for high-performance athletes, the response of the AFA leaders, according to Benítez, included one of President Javier Milei’s favorite phrases: “There is no money.”
Benítez added: “Another reason was finding out that the travel expenses that we normally receive for FIFA dates were not going to be paid since the matches are going to be played in Buenos Aires (in reference to the double duel against Costa Rica, this Friday and next Monday). But our families will be charged the 5,000 pesos to enter the stadium (approximately $50). And so millions of things we have been through. “I decide not to continue being part of the pushback.”
Cruz, defender, He spoke of humiliation in his farewell post: “There comes a point when injustices tire you, it tires not to be valued, not to be listened to and even worse, to be humiliated. I hope that future generations do not go through this and can finally enjoy the National Team. I wish you the best”. Stábile followed that line: “We have been tired for a long time of the lack of interest in women’s football. “We just want to be valued.”
An authoritative voice in the face of the cataract of resignations, Banini told the sports newspaper Ole from Madrid: “I feel sadness because what we experienced a few years ago is repeated. There are people who still do not understand that one does not give up the National Team, what one gives up is bad treatment, many differences. We are not talking about charging the same as the male. We went to the World Cup (New Zealand-Australia 2023) for almost a month and we were not paid. “We were there for free.”
A crack
With the squad decimated, coach Germán Portanova – Argentina had an opaque time at the 2023 World Cup and is ranked 33rd in the FIFA ranking – tried to be conciliatory this Tuesday: “It is a sad situation, I told them (the four resigners) that I respect them, but I think the way is different. There has been progress these years and I also know that much remains to be done, but through dialogue. This does not have to lead to a rift between those who remain and those who left. Nor should we judge those who remain inside and decide to fight from within.”
It is true that Benítez, Cruz, Stábile and Oliveros stressed that their resignation was due to “this FIFA date”, in reference to the two friendlies that Argentina will play against Costa Rica in Buenos Aires this Friday and next Monday, but the football leadership – so masculine – tends to be unreceptive to those who challenge her power: it sounds difficult for the four soccer players to return to the national team, which this year will not compete in official tournaments.
Paradoxically, Argentina’s rival this weekend, Costa Rica, signed a pioneering agreement for the region a few months ago: “The percentage of prizes, travel expenses, travel conditions and other basic needs for (tica) soccer players in “Their path to the 2027 Women’s World Cup will be the same as those that men will enjoy towards the 2026 World Cup,” reported FIFPRO, the organization that is made up of 66 national football players’ unions.
Argentine women’s soccer is very far from that reality but its players do not stop fighting. Even if it is through the most difficult decision.
here to the EL PAÍS América newsletter and receive all the key information on current events in the region.
