At 25, Spanish team midfielder Aitana Bonmati won the 2023 Ballon d’Or on Monday. Between sporting success and social commitment, the FC Barcelona player intends to be a model on and outside the green rectangle .
Published on: 10/31/2023 – 4:25 p.m.
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Like an injustice in the history of Spanish football finally repaired. Monday October 30, Aitana Bonmati stepped onto the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris to collect what was rightfully hers: the 2023 Ballon d’Or rewarding the best player in the world of the season. A coronation without surprise, as the midfielder of FC Barcelona and Spain dazzled the world of football with his talent during the past season.
To describe her, Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona legend now coach of Manchester City, readily compares her to Andrés Iniesta, the illustrious midfielder of the 2010s whom he had under his command. The parallels are numerous: the two Spaniards are pure products of La Masia, Barça’s training center. They both took FC Barcelona to the roof of Europe, then La Roja to that of the world.
But unlike him, Aitana Bonmati was ultimately not unfairly deprived of football’s supreme individual reward. Ironically, it was still with Lionel Messi, the man who deprived Iniesta of the Ballon d’Or in 2010, that she shared the stage on Monday. The Rosario prodigy won a record eighth title – and a somewhat contested one in the twilight of his career.
“A unique year”
The coronation of Aitana Bonmati, on the other hand, was not contested. “It’s difficult to do better. It’s a unique year,” she told several media outlets after the Ballon d’Or award ceremony.
And for good reason, she simply won everything. With FC Barcelona, she went for a fourth consecutive La Liga title. On June 3, she lifted the Champions League trophy, finishing as best passer, second best scorer and best player in the competition. Then, on August 20, she offered the women’s Roja their first world title, thirteen years after the men’s, with a new trophy for best player rewarding her three goals and two assists and her ability to organize the game in midfield . Don’t throw any more away.
She succeeds Alexia Putellas, 25, double winner and teammate in the selection and at Barça. A friend in the city that she gradually eclipsed, taking advantage of her injuries. The winner took the time to salute the work of her club and national teammates. “I keep in mind that individual awards are the result of collective work,” she stressed. “I would like to emphasize collective work. That comes before individual awards.”
A collective concern that she shares with another of her idols: Johan Cruyff, the Dutch legend of FC Barcelona. Her passion for him is such that she wears the number 14 for the national team and for club and her autobiography has 14 chapters in homage to the apostle of “total football”.
Feminist and committed to welcoming refugees
In the rest of her speech, Aitana Bonmati recalled that she was not a woman who only expressed herself on the green rectangle: “As models, we have a responsibility on and off the field. Let’s continue to fight together for a better, peaceful and egalitarian world,” she declared.
It must be said that the Barcelona resident is increasing her commitments. Since 2022, she has collaborated with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), notably participating in football training for exiles. After Barça’s victory in the Champions League, she proudly wore a t-shirt in support of welcoming refugees.
Led 2-0 at half-time by Wolfsburg, Barça turned the situation around and won the women’s C1. Major player of the Catalan club, Aitana Bonmatí showed her solidarity with the refugees, victims of the xephonobe policies of fortress Europe#WelcomeRefugees pic.twitter.com/AxK3SWVk9x
— Dialectik Football (@DialectikF) June 3, 2023
Aitana Bonmati was also one of the “fifteen rebels”, these players who withdrew from the selection, in September 2022, to denounce the lack of investment by the Spanish federation (RFEF) in women’s football and managerial methods from the coach, Jorge Vilda. Before being convinced to come back for the World Cup with two teammates. But she did not forget her fellow strikers during the coronation. “I want to remember all the women who pushed and fought all these years for us to have better conditions, it’s for them,” she does not hesitate to declare, trophy in her hands .
She also fully supports her teammate Jenni Hermoso. The player from Pachuca, Mexico, was forcibly kissed during the presentation of the World Cup trophy by Luis Rubiales, boss of the Spanish federation – since suspended by Fifa. She takes advantage of the platform offered by the UEFA Player of the Year award to lend her support.
“As a society, we must not allow the abuse of power in a working relationship or lack of respect,” she said. “I dedicate this award to Jenni and all the women who have suffered from these situations. We are with you.”
The 25-year-old has feminism in her blood. If we know her today under the name Aitana Bonmati and not Aitana Conca, it is because her parents, Catalan teachers, fought to change Spanish law, so that their daughter could first wear the name of his mother’s family, before his paternal surname.
Having such a spokesperson can only help advance the cause of women’s football. As the specialist media Footeuses points out, the women’s Ballon d’Or was still absent from the newspapers the day after the awards ceremony.
The front page of the newspaper l’Équipe… dedicated to Léo Messi.
No mention of the women’s Ballon d’Or awarded to Spaniard Aitana Bonmatí. ????
Thank you for promoting women’s football. ???????????? pic.twitter.com/0uyIp1R91K
— Footeuses (@foo_teuses) October 30, 2023
Unlike the French newspaper L’Équipe, the major Spanish newspapers feature the two Ballon d’Or winners on the front page. ????????
???? Male: Léo Messi
???? Female: Aitana Bonmatí pic.twitter.com/boghDtf1cr— Footeuses (@foo_teuses) October 30, 2023
