The Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, for example by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.
On October 27, 2023, 21 minutes after she first took the field with a star above the crest on her national team jersey, Jenni Hermoso screamed with cathartic energy. It was the talismanic two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas who had broken free in the penalty area and had a shot pushed away by Italian goalkeeper Laura Giuliani, but it was Hermoso who was there to follow it up and remained unmarked for a few yards to stand. to the left of the penalty spot, in the far corner. She ran, two big low fist pumps accompanying her howls of relief, defiance and celebration.
Hermoso’s goal in the 89th minute meant Spain won their third Nations League match 1-0 to maintain their unbeaten start to their season, but that goal meant so much more than three points on the road to Olympic qualification, so much more in the context of her extraordinary, challenging, groundbreaking year. One in which, two months earlier, at the end of a triumphant World Cup final, the biggest moment of her career was immediately overshadowed, if not eclipsed, by an unwanted kiss from Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish Football Federation, sparking controversy bringing the women’s national team’s often private battle against institutional misogyny to a global audience.
At the last gasp of 2023, Hermoso was named the Guardian’s Footballer of the Year. This award was created precisely to recognize the achievements of players who have done extraordinary things and overcome great adversity. Hermoso is the eighth winner and the fourth woman to win the award, after Khadija Shaw in 2018, Megan Rapinoe, also a World Cup winner, in 2019 and Virginia Torrecilla in 2022.
For decades, players in Spain have raised their heads above the ground, individually and collectively, only to be vilified and ostracized for daring to question the status quo and suggesting that the environment around the national team was toxic, that things might be different could be done. and better. After the 2015 World Cup, they confronted the federation and forced the end of head coach Ignacio Quereda’s 27-year reign. It was not a victory, however, as Under-19s head coach Jorge Vilda, another company director, was brought in and the senior players who had led the rebellion were phased out.
When 15 players – “Las 15” – withdrew from the national team squad after their Euro 2022 exit, citing the impact of the environment on their health, Vilda was backed and they dropped out, with the manager in their place called up young players.
This is the background to what took place at Stadium Australia in Sydney on August 20 during the Women’s World Cup final. Spanish female footballers are ignored, marginalized and disbelieved. Their team has been the subject of divide-and-conquer techniques and has felt the power of what happens when you criticize a disciple of those in power.
But with the eyes of the world watching – including a peak audience of 15.9 million on BBC platforms including BBC One and 7.38 million (a 71.1% audience share) on RTVE’s La 1 in Spain for the 1-0 victory over England – cameras were trained on the rectangle of grass and 75,784 people watching from the stands could no longer be ignored. Hermoso had missed a penalty in the final, saved by England’s Mary Earps. Earps won the Golden Glove award for best goalkeeper at the World Cup and Hermoso was awarded the Silver Ball, runner-up for the tournament’s best player, but that was not the topic of conversation during the closing ceremony.
An excited Rubiales celebrated Spain’s victory by grasping his cross and pointing to disciple Vilda. He then grabbed Hermoso’s face and planted a kiss on her lips, before later lifting Athenea del Castillo over his shoulder like a firefighter. His actions were roundly condemned and his kiss of Hermoso went viral. She said she “didn’t like” the background of a video posted on social media by another player.
Then came the pressure. Hermoso says she was pressured by Rubiales and his circle and that they wanted her to downplay the kiss, publicly justify it and say it was consensual.
But Hermoso’s position has been clear and unwavering throughout the period. In a public statement on August 25, she said that “his kiss was never consensual” and that she felt “vulnerable and the victim of an impulsive, sexist act.”
Rubiales went on the attack, but Hermoso refused to cooperate in his attempt to restore his deteriorating reputation. It took four days for FIFA to announce it would launch an investigation into Rubiales’ actions. The next day, at an extraordinary general meeting of the Spanish Football Federation, a defiant Rubiales announced his intention to offer Vilda a new four-year contract worth €500,000 per year and repeatedly insisted that he would not resign, making a standing received an ovation. .
Vilda was fired on September 6, but the players refused to accept changes that they concluded were only superficial. On September 10, Rubiales was forced to leave and on October 30, he was given a three-year ban by FIFA for all football-related activities. A number of other cases are ongoing, including a judge-led criminal case. That is why Hermoso is not currently conducting interviews.
In September, Hermoso was left out in the cold during Spain’s first two games of the Nations League campaign by new head coach Montse Tomé, who was an assistant under her criticized predecessor Vilda. It was to “protect her,” Tome said. Tomé made the decision to call up 15 of Hermoso’s World Cup-winning teammates, despite 21 of the 23-player squad declaring that Vilda’s departure was not enough to return to the national team. They were pushed back by the threat of legal action that could see their playing licenses stripped.
Everyone was asking the question: Why was it safe enough for the 15 to be drafted, but not for Hermoso, the team’s record scorer? There was no answer. Two, Mapi Leon and Patri Guijarro, who did not participate in the World Cup after previously withdrawing from the squad, were allowed to leave the camp without consequences due to their “personal discomforts” after lengthy discussions between the players and the national sports of the Spanish government. Agency (CSD).
Hermoso was forced to witness Spain’s 3-2 victory over Sweden, which players fought for with less than four hours of sleep under the slogan “Se Acabó” (“It’s over”), which became a rallying cry for the team and the case. , scrawled on tape around their wrists. She also watched a 5–0 win over Switzerland from afar with probably mixed feelings: happy that her decision to step back was somewhat respected, but frustrated at being separated from her teammates and comrades as a result. But like teammates past and present, the 33-year-old forward was no stranger to the seemingly erratic and retaliatory decision-making in the national team’s lineup.
Hermoso is the Spain women’s team’s all-time leading goalscorer, with 52 goals, has earned 107 caps and has had a legendary club career including spells at Atlético Madrid, Rayo Vallecano, Tyresö in Sweden, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and now Pachuca in Mexico. She is a five-time winner of the Pichichi Trophy for the top scorer in La Liga. She is used to being somewhat in the public eye. But nothing could have prepared her for this.
Through her stance and actions, and those of her teammates, she has become a symbol of the fight for fairness, equality, equality and a safe environment for female footballers, and women in general. Broadly speaking, she has become a beacon for women in Spain who are fighting against a macho culture that is invading society and of which football is but a microcosm. This is not a role she would have chosen when she put on her first pair of football boots or started playing for Atlético at the age of 12, but it was thrust upon her when Rubiales placed his hands on her cheeks and his lips on hers.
“I forgot for a while that I was a footballer,” Hermoso told GQ magazine about the months after the World Cup. But she said: “I don’t know if fate has this in store for me or not, but it has helped me to look at life differently and realize that even though I have reached the top of my sporting career through a victory, World Cup, there is much more to do. It’s a real responsibility to have the voice I have now. I want to make the best of it.”
Hermoso has embraced a role she probably would have preferred never to take on, and that’s why she’s a more than worthy winner of the Guardian award. What is courage if not? What is success if it does not leave a groundbreaking legacy whose impact will be felt by generations? And as a young footballer, it will be the medals and trophies she wins on the pitch that she dreamed of, but it will likely be the wider victories that become the benchmark for her success as she grows older.