Jorge Vilda keeps up with the players in the Spanish team. Despite the fact that a truce between the soccer players and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) had been discussed in recent months, the coach leaves out the call for the Nations Cup in Australia, which will be played between the 16th and on February 22, the last escalation in the preparation before the next World Cup, at the 15 soccer players who had resigned from La Roja last September. “If tomorrow were the World Cup, the list would be with these 25 players,” said Vilda. And, in case his position was not clear enough, he added: “They are footballers that we know meet what we expect from an international player: unconditional commitment to this shirt and the utmost enthusiasm. They know what it means to defend the values of our team and the interests of their country at a sporting level”.
On September 22, after a Euro Cup that had deepened the rift between the hard core of the team and the coach, 15 footballers sent an email to the Federation in which they requested not to be called up. In the document, the players claimed that the situation affected their “emotional state” and their “health”. The letter did not surprise Luis Rubiales, who already knew the displeasure of the group’s leaders, who complained about the “unprofessional” treatment of the Federation and the “lack of ambition and methodology” of the coach. The email had not been sent by the captain, Irene Paredes, nor by the double winner of the Ballon d’Or, Alexia Putellas; nor the top scorer of La Roja, Jennifer Hermoso. However, no one doubted Paredes, while Putellas (injured) publicly positioned herself alongside her companions. Beautiful, on the other hand, had been more ambiguous. “I support them, but I don’t share their ways,” the forward stated at the time.
Hermoso was precisely the only dissident pardoned by Vilda. “It meets what we expect,” said the coach about the return of the former Barcelona striker. It is not the first disagreement in the group of players. In September, before the emails were sent, the Real Madrid soccer players abandoned the leaders of the mutiny. According to what they say in Barcelona, ”they did it on the advice” of the Chamartín club. Supposedly, from the offices of the White House they were warned: “Do not get into trouble.” An attitude that was seen as a “betrayal” by the Catalans. Since then, however, the Federation and some players (with others Vilda and Rubiales do not want to know anything) have tried to come closer positions. “Steps are being taken and the situation can be resolved,” Paredes had said last November.
But the conflict lives on. “Perhaps the best thing is not to go with the ones that play the best but to go with others with other characteristics and with other parameters that we are training and now we do have,” reasoned Vilda, who insisted and insisted that she did not want questions about the 15 absent. “Five months ago we talked about the same thing. I do not want to give reasons for further speculation nor am I interested in revealing private conversations. For our part, everything has been said”, said Vilda. Of course, just in case, with a little more than four months to go before the next World Cup begins, the Spain coach concluded: “It doesn’t depend on me, we are open to dialogue.” Some players are too. Although the solution is still up in the air.
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