BarcelonaHe left for Italian Milan days after lifting the Champions League with Barça. Laia Codina decided it was time to step aside, to walk away from the club of her life to move forward. The goal was to get out of the comfort zone and growing has been the consequence. Beyond the playing fields, footballers play a key role and she takes on it with taste and dedication. Days before wearing the Barça colors again, Campllong’s defense attends to ARA to reflect on menstruation, sacrifices, crusade injuries and ambition.
Does the preparation you had in Milan change a lot than you need to return to Barça?
– The intensity level is much higher. The quality is much higher at Barça, as it is one of the great teams in the world, but I can’t tell you if it is physically demanding. I really enjoy getting physically fit and I’ve been pretty much on the same line. I think what can change is more in terms of intensity.
Is that what worries you the most?
– Good question … What could worry me most is picking up the pace of the ball. The pace at which Barça play is difficult to find in other teams. I am lucky that I have been playing for Barça for seven years, so I think I can solve this small difficulty that can worry me quickly.
What football is played there?
– I have gone from having 80% possession to having 60%. This means that you defend a lot more and then, when you have the ball, your decisions define the outcome of the match much more. The league is much more evenly matched.
Is there constant competitiveness?
– What surprised me the most was I got the first matches and competed them all. It was weird to compete in the 90 minutes! It costs a world when you win five to zero, as happens at Barça in every game. Here when I finished the first game, where the 90 minutes was tied, and I missed it.
Was it difficult to cope with change?
– One of the things I talked to my psychologist about was that I noticed that I needed to stay focused for ninety minutes. When in the 95th minute you have to do the same as in the 1st minute because it may be the play you decide in the match, you have more mental attrition.
How important has the psychologist been to you?
– It helps me a lot. I’m a person who lives a lot of football, sometimes I take things a lot and you have to know how to relativize. When you have failed, you have failed. Everyone is wrong and no one is perfect. The best way to learn is to fail and it is a cliché but it is true. Entering a party, no matter how important, and knowing how to relativize it is also key. I always think, “When does a game last? 90 minutes. How many hours does the day have? 24. Imagine the minutes the day has! 90 minutes is nothing, why do we give it so much importance?”. We have to give it weight because it’s our job, but we put that pressure on ourselves and I think, “What are 90 minutes? If we train six times a week 90 minutes every day!” The psychologist helps you get rid of the pressure we players have now that women’s football is growing and we are taking on other kinds of responsibilities and pressures that are part of our job.
We have many athletes because no one still knows how to answer us ”
Does this extra pressure affect you much?
– It’s a very personal thing. There are people who find it harder to wear it and people who don’t. In Italy there was less of this pressure, but I am a very self-demanding person and I put a lot of effort into it. Coming from Barça, a team that had just won the Champions League, was already an added pressure. But I am of the opinion that pressure is not a bad thing. I think you have to know how to carry it and it can motivate you.
Now footballers are not just footballers. You have become the face of a struggle for your rights and those of many women in the world of sports. Does this responsibility weigh on you?
– Yes a little bit. Not only do I one day go to training or play a game, but there is a social movement. People watch you, follow you on the networks 24 hours a day … I can’t go to a party and start uploading videos. Being a footballer is not just training or playing, you are 24 hours a day.
How do you wear it in everyday life?
– Really good. Sometimes it’s more complicated for my environment to understand it than it is for me. I see it as natural because I’m so clear I want to be a footballer that I know it involves. My friends, on the other hand, may not understand it as much. No longer just posting things on social media when we stay, but my priorities. For example, that instead of going to dinner, I stay home and come to chat for a while but I go to bed early.
This, moreover, is relatively new to women’s football. Two years ago you didn’t have those responsibilities.
– It has been a very quick change. In the last two years I have noticed a lot. From the year the Champions won, all that way, all that process until now … I’ve noticed a lot. And I also noticed it from last year when I left for this one when I came back and the Camp Nou has been filled twice. People have become very attached.
You were one of the icons of the year of the Champions with the celebration with the ratafia.
– It was totally improvised! [Riu.] Then I grabbed my cell phone and started receiving a thousand messages! It was totally improvised and is already part of the celebration.
Moments like these bring you very close to the amateur.
– It is one of the things that women’s football should not lose and that differentiates us from men’s. I find it nice that the players after the game get closer to the fans, regardless of whether you played a good or a bad game. We have also been fans and what we liked was to feel the union of the team with the fans. The pineapple between team and fans differentiates the feminine from the masculine.
You missed both games last year at the Camp Nou. Do you have a thorn?
– I really want to play. I lived it in the distance with a lot of pride, as they are companions and friends, but also with envy, because I thought, “It could be me, at least on the bench.” It’s a breakthrough that won’t go back and I hope we play it again this year.
Did it hurt to leave this season?
– Guess what? When I left I only had this in mind: “I will lose things, I will not live things with the team …” Just arriving in Milan I just thought about it. Until I made a chip change and started enjoying what Milan is and the new experience I was living.
If she had to be a Barça player, she would be. They already know how I play, who I am, I didn’t come out a year ago if they wanted me ”
What is the moment when you have to make and accept the decision you have to leave Barça?
– I lived it very calmly and very safely. It was a decision of mine and I thought it was time. He was clear that if he had to return to Barça he would return, that he would not come this year. If she had to be a Barça player, she would be. They already know how I play, who I am, I didn’t come a year off if they wanted me.
Now back to a dressing room with changes and reinforcements but with a solid foundation. How is the competitiveness in there?
– It’s hard but healthy. There is a lot of quality. She is so healthy that she comes out of every workout having learned something. You really enjoy competing for your place, you help each other and we have a very healthy affinity between us.
In the world of sports, female athletes have been forgotten in many ways and medicine is one more. We are now seeing a lot of crusader injuries. Is it a topic of particular concern?
– When I see someone breaking the crusades I suffer it as if it were happening to me. We have so many cases in women’s football … One day it can really happen to me. These are silly moves that a footballer does many times a day and one day, unfortunately, that can happen to you. I prepare as much as I can so that the risk is minimized. There are inevitable things but what I can try is to reduce a risk that is always there.
Another aspect that has never been considered is the impact of the menstrual cycle.
– Totally, and it’s something that Barça is working on a lot. Many times we are not aware of it, but we are having an injury or an overload and it just coincides with a key moment in the cycle. It is important for the players to understand this and have the knowledge to understand us as footballers. It is something that is not given a voice and certainly has a lot to do with many things that we are seeing in terms of injuries or performance.
You have many unanswered questions.
– Now a lot of voice is being given to everything around us in the world of women’s football. As players we have many more questions and knowing how to answer them is still complicated: not enough progress has been made to have all the answers. As female athletes, it’s not that we feel misunderstood, but we still have a lot of reasons that are yet to be resolved. It’s respectful because you don’t know if one day it will be you or not.
