TOP CLUBS WITHOUT WOMEN

IRENE: It is clear that Barça or Real Madrid having a women’s coach would change many things.

SARA: In Spain, progress is being made at national team level, but at top clubs opportunities are still limited. Natalia Arroyo achieved great things with Real Sociedad — and now she’s in England. If you look abroad, most Spanish coaches exported are men.

It surprises me that more female coaches aren’t considered, especially given how respected Spanish methodology is. Hopefully those doors will open.

If you look at Irene’s career and mine, we’ve mostly coached mid-table teams, never the top ones. Top clubs still tend to look toward men, often bringing coaches from men’s football into the women’s game.

Sometimes I wonder how they manage it. I’ve worked mostly with men, and sometimes they don’t fully understand certain things about women — and we are complex, our way of connecting ideas is different. It makes me wonder how they lead women’s teams if they don’t always understand us.

UNDERVALUED

SARA: The other day I was telling my colleagues, “Do you know which coach has been in charge the longest among the 16 in Liga F?” And they said, “I don’t know.” I told them it was me. I’m not boasting, but seriously—do you know who you’re working with? If we were men, we would be valued differently.

IRENE: I’ve started doing that too—making myself valued. We’ve grown up with the stigma that a woman who speaks up is arrogant or overbearing.

SARA: Exactly. If we were men, it would be seen differently. We’ve been coaching in Liga F for a long time, yet some coaches who have just arrived are valued more.

SARA: When I was relegated with Villarreal, I was terrified. That experience marked a before and after for me: I hadn’t died or disappeared. I thought I might never work in football again, but then Carol gave me the opportunity at Espanyol. The same happened with Irene—she didn’t continue at Dépor and is now at Granada. But at Dépor, they immediately came down hard on her. Male coaches with poor results didn’t face the same treatment.

IRENE: I want to be clear—I have a good relationship with failure. In this world, you lose a lot. In men’s football, coaches come and go constantly, and nobody talks about it.

SARA: True, but economically, it’s very different. We live with the fear: if they don’t call me, I’m unemployed. How will I live? But we can’t operate in fear either.

IRENE: I’ve never had the fear of not being called for a new project, but I have felt treated differently. I’ve watched Valencia matches on TV two years later, and they mention me with stats that weren’t accurate. The other day I heard a Dépor match commentary saying that since I’m not there, it’s much better—like I’d only left two months ago. These things don’t happen with men.

In an interview after taking Dépor from the second division to Liga F, they wrote: “Coached Valencia, was sacked.” I called the journalist and said, “You’re reporting reality, yes, but why highlight that negative thing from the past when there are a thousand other things you could mention?”

Failure is broadcast a lot, but success is silenced—or attention is shifted elsewhere. I’ve lived this. Sometimes a coach does poorly, is sacked, and the next year has a better team. For us, it’s different. It took me five years to get back to Liga F after being sacked from Valencia—five years of training, almost giving up, going to the second division to promote a team knowing they’d likely want to replace me if we really promote. It takes a lot of self-care and self-love because it’s a world that crushes you, and different standards are applied to us.

A WOMAN COACHING IN MEN’S LEAGUE

IRENE: I see it as very difficult, but I’d love it. We’ve been confined to women’s football, which I love, but I also enjoy men’s football. The Hypermotion League fascinates me—I spend entire weekends watching it. I’d love a season as an assistant; the idea of being head coach isn’t realistic yet. The real barrier is the decision-makers. Someone could do it perfectly, but they’ll always ask, “What if it goes wrong?” And if it goes wrong they will have it easy to say: “See, she wasn’t capable.”

SARA: But think of it the other way—the impact would be huge. If someone dared, I’d do it for the media impact. Then it could go well or badly, like anyone else.

At Villarreal, I saw a girl in Villarreal C as an assitant coach—it’s the closest I’ve seen. Like Iraia Iturregui at Athletic’s reserve team. It’s a step, not a bad one. But they don’t see us—they assume things in women’s football are handed to us, that it’s second-rate. Meanwhile, many coaches use Liga F as a stepping stone to men’s football.

IRENE: We’d be surprised if women were given a real chance. It’s not that hard. Like jumping from 1RFEF to Liga F—the ball goes faster, your eye adjusts. After two weeks, you adapt. We need that first example to normalise it, but it will take years.

COVERING MORE COACHING IN LIGA F

IRENE: In our context, we cover a lot because our staff is smaller. You grow from it tha’ts also true. I would love to know how many first-division coaches manage analysis programs and other things that we do. I have one analyst, not four, and you do all in your hands to survive.

SARA: When I started, there were four of us on the staff—we didn’t have an analyst. Now, we have two fitness coaches, a goalkeeper coach, a psychologist, assistant coach, and me. It’s grown. Sometimes I feel odd thinking, “If I don’t do anything…” but I do al the leadership part. Managing players, listening, making them feel important… I don’t know men, but women’s players need to feel seen, they need to know you are seeing them.

CHALLENGES

SARA: Having women in men’s football is very difficult, but I’d love it to happen and be normalised.

IRENE: That would bring major change. Another challenge is seeing more women in technical staff. Fitness coaches and assistants are almost always men. Analysts in Liga F?  The other day they did a meeting and they are all men. But of course, there is a lot of  wome doing as team delegates.

SARA: Of course, as mothers, we’re very good at these roles. Having more women in staff would make a change. This year, with Marta as assistant, I feel very comfortable. It’s been important—because we’ve been friends and because we’re women, we understand each other better.

IRENE I always wonder what we’re doing wrong to fill the staff in the professional women’s league with inexperienced young men instead of attracting former players who could help us much more—and who might even discover that they want to become coaches.

Just with their experience, they would help us a lot in managing the locker room. I’m surprised there aren’t more women.

SARA: Economics matter too.

IRENE: If being a coach is already complicated, imagine a role with a lower economic level. The stage of life when you retire demands something else, and these roles don’t provide enough to live on.

SARA: And if they’re younger, they’re still playing—even if it’s in Segunda Catalana. They’d rather do that than leave it to dedicate themselves to something else. Another problem is that if we want to bring someone into the staff, they have to be from that city because financially, you can’t relocate someone. I would bring more people, but I can’t.

IRENE: Exactly. Every time we join a club, we’re starting from scratch.

SARA: Starting from zero and with a new technical team. My arrival at Espanyol was very complicated because of that. You change team, go alone, and can’t bring your own staff. In men’s football, every coach goes with their team.

IRENE: It’s underestimated, but it’s your work team. They do it to cut costs, but if you really invest in a project, I wouldn’t hesitate.

SARA: Exactly, because what I achieve, I do with my colleagues—not alone. And the people who already know me know how to work with me. On top of that, arriving as a woman… and them thinking, “Oh, a woman’s going to coach me”—it’s difficult. My arrival at Espanyol was tough, and if I had been a man, it wouldn’t have been as hard. But as a woman… it’s challenging. And not in this case. It’s one of the things that has happened to me the most: men who don’t understand being coached by a woman.

IRENE: Once, I had a big argument with the staff over something I felt wasn’t done correctly. They all teamed up to say, “Don’t get like that.” And I thought, “Wait, I’m not allowed to get like this? You’re messing with my work.” Two days later, I sat down with them and said they should have taken responsibility, because in the end, everything that happens affects me. I also made them think: “Would you have questioned it if a man had said the same thing?” Some of them admitted they hadn’t thought about it and that I was right.

Interview: Irati Vidal