Vicky Losada: “I didn’t have women role models because I didn’t see them”

She was not on the pitch at the Camp Nou in the Clásico that broke all attendance records for a women’s football match, but that milestone belongs to her as much or more than to any of the players who starred in a match to remember. Vicky Losada (Tarrasa, 1991) will always be the captain of the Barça that last year won the treble and led the Barça team to the first Spanish Champions in history, although now she has changed her beloved city of Barcelona for the cold Manchester to recover the illusion for football wearing City’s ‘sky blue’ jersey.

From the English city followed a meeting that surely stirred many emotions and evoked in his imagination so many memories. “I was watching it and I felt a bit of healthy envy,” she admits with a laugh. “I was talking to many of the girls and I was very happy to see them happy. In addition, in sports, she also won. It was something historic, there were many moments of the match in which I was moved because you listen to the people, you see the number of people at the Camp Nou… I know that many of the girls, from a very young age, have been in the stands of that stadium and it is something to remember”, he adds, aware that perhaps among the 91,553 spectators were the Vicky Losada of the future.

Today’s girls already have their own female references, she could only follow Guardiola in the Barça Dream Team or Xavi in ​​Pep’s own as coach. That is a substantial change, which he enjoys from a distance. “I didn’t have women role models because I didn’t see them on television or on the street or in schools or on the soccer fields at the weekend. The visibility that is now being given to soccer is going to help many girls from a very young age have the opportunity to choose to be soccer players », she analyzes, aware of the importance of mirrors that feed the illusion of the little ones.

Precisely for this reason, the Catalan midfielder has thrown herself into the pool telling her story, not so much that of the player with full showcases as that of the woman behind it all. In ‘Capitana’, a book that she has written together with the journalist Andrés Corpas, she narrates her personal experience from a purely human perspective, as she herself describes. “What has made me take this step forward is to be able to help, to be a mirror for many people who may find obstacles in their lives and see help in my story,” he explains in relation to a testimony about the difficulties to make their way in football and in life, also from the perspective of the LGTBI collective.

And it is that Vicky Losada was a pioneer. She packed her bags when she was already consolidated at Barça and in the national team and in 2014 she went to the United States, to try the American adventure, a kind of paradise in women’s soccer, with the Western New York Flash. “I was a child. He had hardly left Tarrasa and had no experience of any kind. I was a very introverted girl, I was ashamed of everything, I liked to go completely unnoticed and on top of that I didn’t speak the language », she recalls from her current role as a reference. That was her second goodbye to the team of her life, after her time with Espanyol at the beginning of her career. She still had a third farewell to go, perhaps the most difficult of all.

Cover of ‘Capitana, the book that reviews the life of Vicky Losada. /

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steps to go

Last summer, from the condition of bearer of the culé bracelet and as the woman who lifted the long-awaited Champions League, she again opted for the courage to leave the comfort zone and join Manchester City, in her second experience in the powerful English football after passing through Arsenal in the 2015-16 season. «I am very happy with the decision I made, it was the best for me and for the people who love me. I am very well, adapting to the club, I met Pep (Guardiola) and all the Catalans and Spaniards who are in the club. It shows that they are doing a great job behind to create a solid structure and the truth is that I feel very reflected with the way they work and enjoying football again, “he says, with the sparkle in his eyes knowing again important to your team. “Here there is more regularity, more consistency and a more solid structure. The difference in Spain is abysmal, from Barça to Rayo they seem completely opposite worlds », she continues in reference to the level of the English league.

“The situation of the classic does not reflect the Spanish league,” he reflects below, aware that there are still steps to be taken in Spanish women’s football. The first goes through a professional league that already has statutes and points to the 2022-23 academic year. “I have high hopes for this agreement in the professional league and that those girls who are surviving in Spanish football do not have to do so but can live and enjoy a career as athletes,” she longs for, then almost with a sigh .

She still has time for a while, but she already thinks from time to time about being a coach tomorrow and passing on so much of the knowledge she has learned. “I am not 22 years old and I think I would make a mistake if I tried to live alone in this bubble that one day will end. I am struck by training, being on the pitch, close to my teammates, and living football in its essence », she explains. At the moment, she continues to do what she likes the most, what she dreamed of in a time without female stars to imitate. “Worth. I would tell the girls to dream because now they can see on television and in the stadiums that Champions and big championships can be played. Just the fact of embarking on that path, of enjoying everything that sport gives you and being part of the group as if it were your family. Whether or not you reach the elite, football in its pure essence is lived the same in all categories and it is very nice to fight, enjoy and go for it if you want », she concludes. Captain’s word.

Vicky Losada, during the 2015 match against Costa Rica in which she scored Spain’s first World Cup goal.

«It has been hard not to find a place in the national team again»

The Spanish women’s team has played five major tournaments in its history. Vicky Losada has been in the last four, an absolute benchmark when it comes to La Roja. She debuted with Spain in June 2010 and for a decade she was part of the evolution of a team that today already looks at anyone face to face. Just at the sweetest moment, the City player has been relegated by a new generation of midfielders but she accepts the decision with sportsmanship although she continues to dream of returning, who knows if just for the European Championship in July, in which Spain aspires to everything

«This is the European that is going to be more equal in level, each team with its style, but I think it is going to be very interesting and exciting for that reason. It has been hard for me, after ten years, as a result of an injury, not finding a place in the national team again. It is a completely respectable decision and I have found a way to know how to live with it. I will always have my eye on the calls, but the important thing for me is to continue working on a day-to-day basis and what has to be will be », he points out. “I would love to be there,” she finally admits.

«In the Arnold Clark Cup the best level of Spain was not seen. It could have been at a better level, but I think it is very good that these competitions are played to know what is coming in the summer. I hope the season ends well and that level is reached in June because the talent is there and it is a matter of time to get as far as possible”, he analyzes the current level of the team, before recalling what he considers one of the moments of his career, the first Spanish goal in a World Cup, which he signed against Costa Rica in his debut in Canada 2015. «At the time I didn’t think so because we tied and it left a bittersweet taste. Now I look back, I think about it and it was one of the best moments of my life », he evokes with a smile.