Of the few things that are missing Vicky Losada is being able to play at the Camp Nou. The former women’s Barça captain, who lifted the treble last season, had covid when the derby was played with Espanyol without an audience a year ago. On Wednesday, the Manchester City player watched the historic Barça-Madrid match at the Camp Nou on TV. She had looked at flights but there weren’t any and, although she no longer charges 300 euros a month, as before, she doesn’t go on a private jet. She is a normal aunt, from the neighborhood, even though she has had an extraordinary life. Andres Corpas, journalist and friend of his, always told him that he had a story that deserved to be told. And he finally convinced her to explain it in ‘Vicky Losada, captain’.
It is the story of Vicky with the words of Andrés, author of the book. A biography with careful attention to detail, from the choice of each word to the formal commitment, with phrases highlighted in lilac. And some QR at the end with mini-videos of Vicky, thinking above all of the girls who are just starting out. The book that she would have liked to read to Losada when she believed that she was the only girl who played soccer and in her room she only had posters of male soccer players because women’s soccer was in the media underground. “It has not been easy, but I have done it with the more objective of helping, of being able to be a mirror for other people, for girls who can see themselves reflected. To normalize many things in which some people and girls can see themselves reflected. I guess it would have helped me when I was a kid. Certain situations if told to you by a player who has been in the elite for 15 years it’s easier to see yourself reflected. And if you see them on TV, it’s easier to be able to dream with the goal of getting there.”
She has experienced first-hand the transformation of women’s football in Spain. At first, neither she nor she imagined making a living from this and neither she nor she remembered going to look for the monthly checks of 300, which were accumulated in the Camp Nou offices. “I was a girl who played because I liked it, the companions were older and had more responsibilities, they told me ‘you go and I’ll go for you'”.
He had to go to the US to begin to see what it was like to be a professional footballer. “The girls at the New York Flash had full stands, sponsors, they gave them a lot of training clothes, boots, which at Barça I had to buy. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. Me when I left I didn’t speak English and I was 22 years old, which is not what I am now, and I had to survive as a woman.”
LGBTI symbol
She left as a girl and came back as a woman. Despite her cries when leaving Barça and her family’s security behind, it was worth it. Just like her when she left Barça again and went to Arsenal, where, in addition to a different type of football, she found love in the locker room. Her first kiss was with a boy but she saw right away that this was not for her and that she liked girls. She had made a rule of not having wardrobe troubles. But the heart wants what the heart wants and when she left Barça again she fell in love with Emma. Although initially she hid it in her locker room, she has never hidden her sexual orientation and she has turned into a symbol LGTBI, a cause that he has defended with his boots and words. “Feelings are not chosen, or when, or where. They are things that happen and hopefully the book can be of many help girls.”
Vicky wastes no time in the insults received (“insults are wasted words”) and does not even mention by name Ignacio Quereda, a women’s coach for 27 years who left his position after complaints about his macho behavior. “We wanted to leave a positive message even in the toughest times,” she explains. “In the end, many things happen in a team, there are always conflicts and as captain I have always put my face forward and I will always put it forward. I know what the bracelet means”.
With that bracelet he lifted Barça’s first women’s Champions League, although he was unable to play the only women’s match (without an audience) at the Camp Nou. Now she couldn’t be in the stands either in the first women’s match with an audience at the Barça temple from which the pioneers played on Christmas Day 1970. “The covid did not let me set foot in the Camp Nou and now there were no flights and I left It was impossible to come and go and arrive on time for training in Manchester,” he points out. “It was a historic and surreal match at the same time. There were moments when I was moved to listen to the people and know that there were more than 90,000 people. It’s a giant step for women’s football and hopefully every weekend the sports cities where the teams play are also full of people”.
The Camp Nou registered not only the best attendance of the year but also broke the attendance record for a women’s game, yet another feat for a team that continues to break down barriers. “People said that there was fear of opening the Camp Nou because it was very big and tickets were not going to be sold. Well, here is the answer. This shows without a doubt that it is of interest, that the work being done at Barça is a An example to follow and what the girls do too. I’m very happy for my teammates, for the club, because I think it’s going to be a very nice moment and that the Catalans deserve it”.
Will there be a fourth return to Barça?
Just after winning the Champions League, he made the decision to leave Barça again, something he had already done on three other occasions. Will the captain return to the club of her life again? “I don’t know, I hope I can go back home, because it’s my home. Getting to know the club would be another incredible experience, but now my life is in Manchester and I’m super happy.”
