“We should not be afraid of anything because that way we can get anywhere”

Today, March 8, International Women’s Day, many of them will take to the streets to claim their role in society. One of those women who works behind the scenes so that an entity works properly is Aintzane Angulo. She is a pioneer in football, she has collaborated with Portugalete for almost 18 years, more than half of her own life, performing countless functions since then. The current jarrillera directive has carved out a niche for itself in a world surrounded by men and now it is impossible to understand the reality of the Portuguese team without it.

Aintzane Angulo is a Portuguese woman who has always had a special connection with her hometown team. A feeling that she has always accompanied him. “I have always liked soccer, I have learned to walk in the field, I have grown up here when only three girls came,” she tells EL CORREO. She did not get to practice this sport because her great passion was dancing, but from a young age she began to lend a hand to the club as much as she could. Her father was a manager and at the age of 16 she began helping distribute cards, selling tickets at the box office and doing this type of varied activity.

Since then, he has always been available for the Portugalete. “I’ve been through it all,” she says. His involvement escalated when he began as the club’s speaker. “One day, the one who did the public address was missing and they proposed to do it to me, I’m very shy and I didn’t want to, but that’s how I started,” she says. At that time, she had already become a pioneer in the club and in all of Biscayan football. She herself stresses that “I think she was the only female speaker in all of Tercera, in fact, now I don’t know if there is any more.” What she did not know was that almost 18 years later, her voice would still be the one that sounds in the Florida countryside.

Not only was she the first woman to actively collaborate in the centuries-old history of Portugalete, but she was also about to become the first director. “They wanted to make me a director, but, since I was a minor, they couldn’t,” she reveals. Only that nuance prevented her, but she has been in charge of the entire federative sphere for eight years. That is to say, of all the management of the files of the players and the coaching staff. Currently, he appreciates that “there are more and more women on football fields and in all areas” and highlights that “it is a pride to see when a woman runs a club”, referring to the joy that caused him when Amaia Gorostiza was erected as president of Eibar.

different yardstick

Even so, he also recognizes that “there is no fairness at all.” “You have to show much more for them to take a woman as a director, they measure us with a totally different standard,” she expands. In her own case, “I have been lucky that they have always considered me one more, I have been wrapped up and it is not so difficult to carry,” she indicates. Although she has had to put up with “strange faces, feeling less valued in some field, having to give more explanations, hearing silly comments…”. “It is always related to the woman that she has less soccer criteria, if I have swallowed the same matches or more than many!”, She adds.

Aintzane Angulo appreciates that there are more and more women in the directives. She considers that this is positive for the clubs themselves, since “women bring another point of view, perhaps we are more analytical, we treat things in a different way and that diversity in a board of directors enriches a lot,” she maintains. Now she can be a reference and start as an example for those girls or women who want to have a place in football. Her message is that “if you like it, move forward with your thoughts, your motives and your way of being, we should not be afraid of anything because that way we can get anywhere,” she says.