Spain builds dominance at the grassroots and achieves unprecedented hegemony in women’s football – 08/21/2023 – Sports

Youth titles do not always mean later success at the professional level, but Spain’s recent record shows that winning the Women’s World Cup was no fluke. The country is now simultaneous holder of the under-17, under-20 and main trophies.

Such dominance in the three levels had never been seen in women’s football and occurred only once in men’s football, with Brazil. In 2003, a year after winning its fifth world championship in Japan, the team also triumphed in the under-17 and under-20 competitions.

Some of the names involved in the Spanish victory on Sunday (20) illustrate how the team was built from the ground up. Starting with the scorer of the title goal, Olga Carmona, 23, who was under-19 European champion in 2018 and one of the top scorers in the continental competition between nations.

Voted the best at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Aitana Bonmati, 25, made it all the way in the smaller categories. She was in the 2014 U-17 World Cup final, which Japan won.

More luck against the Japanese was Salma Paralluelo, now 19 years old. She scored two goals in the 2022 under-20 World Cup final. And she already had the 2018 under-17 world title on her resume, in which the goalkeeper was Cata Coll, now 22 years old, the archer who frustrated the English on Sunday.

There are more examples, but the most illustrative case seems to be Paralluelo, which, step by step, won on all three levels. And she was also European champion this year with Barcelona, ​​a club that helps explain the red’s success in the World Cup.

The Catalan formation is the base of the national team. Eight of the champions competed in the 2022/23 season wearing deep blue. And right-back Ona Batlle, 24, who defended Manchester United, is already signed for 2023/24.

As can be seen from the ages mentioned, world champion Spain is a young team. If the team had never won the Women’s World Cup, now there is no reason for it not to consolidate itself as a powerhouse in the sport.

“We are normalizing the victory. Something incredible is being done. This step was missing in the main Cup”, said Paralluelo, elected the best young player of the World Cup, with important goals scored in the quarterfinals, against Holland, and in the semifinals, against Sweden.

“We have many players who went through the selection in the lower categories, played many finals. This gives us experience in big tournaments. This experience helped a lot”, said Cata Coll.

The goalkeeper gained the position after the 4-0 defeat by Japan, in the last round of the group stage. She replaced Misa Rodríguez, conceded just three goals in four matches and contributed to Spain becoming the first women’s world champion with a rout suffered in the campaign.

Despite having his methods challenged by several of the players, coach Jorge Vilda did not hesitate to bet on youngsters during the championship, closed in a 1-0 victory over England. According to him, the work at the base gave him that confidence.

“We’ve had competitive teams for years in all categories, with great work. They were girls who played soccer. Now, we have soccer players. They became professional, the younger ones have references, and the growth in the last five or six years has been very fast” , said the coach.