Looking for a soccer simile, it could be said that Nuria Martínez Navas is the Busquets of the Spanish Federation. A pivot through which all the balls pass. She receives and distributes them diligently, and with a smile, analyzing the most appropriate passing lanes. Her to-do list is kilometric, and she is even more amplified when a tournament like a World Cup arrives. She is the RFEF’s link with FIFA, and is also in charge of managing all the team’s needs, both sports and logistics. It takes care of the accreditations, the transfers, that the training camps meet minimum requirements… Related news QATAR WORLD CUP 2022 standard Yes From the shadow of Fernando Alonso to the light of Luis Enrique: the eye that sees everything in the selection Javier Asprón Álvaro García, chamber of the Federation, worked in Formula 1 and at Real Madrid before following the Spanish internationals everywhere. Qatar has traveled once a month in the last year to mount the entire operation that was going to find selection. Nine previous trips that also included working days with the International Federation and the rest of the team managers of the 32 classified. He visited venues and training camps until he found the option that best suited the needs of Spain, in this case Qatar University. From there he also supervised the assembly and preparation of the complex that now houses the national team. He is also responsible for the player’s files, reporting discards, uploading the lineups to the official application… a succession of chores that force her to live glued to an Excel and a calendar full of cross-outs and delivery dates. «You have to have everything very controlled, but luckily I have a photographic memory and I am quite organized». Luis Enrique and his team, during the anthems in the Spain-Costa Rica EFE Nuria joined the Federation in June 2021, just before the start of the Euro Cup. In that tournament she learned from within all the functions that she was going to assume, and in October she already made her debut as a team manager, what was previously known as a delegate. “Now everything has evolved and has been computerized.” Her trajectory reflects his off-road character. She is, as she herself says, “a restless ass.” She studied Journalism and a Master’s in International Conflicts because she wanted to be a war correspondent, although her other passion ended up winning that pulse. “I really like playing sports, I’ve done it all my life,” she explains expressively as she recalls her time in the Estudiantes youth academy. From editor in the ‘Diario AS’ she jumped to the Spanish Basketball Federation as director of the President’s Cabinet. There she lived her first World Cup with an unbeatable result, because Spain was champion in Saitama. Hence, she now dreams of a double that could be unprecedented. Luis Rubiales met her at the AFE, where she was the women’s soccer coordinator. But before the RFEF president recruited her, she still had time to go through Atlético de Madrid, where she was director of Institutional Relations, Gil Marín and Cerezo’s right-hand man in all acts with a rojiblanco tinge. So, she changed her subscription to the south end of the Metropolitan to watch the games from the box. Today she watches them carefully from the bench, something to which she has had to get used to. “Learning to see football from below is perhaps what has cost me the most,” she says. Tracksuit and heels A lover of reading and movies, the best surprise people can give her is to take her to a culinary experience. She loves music, in general, but Pearl Jam puts her batteries into it. And in her suitcase to Doha she does not miss the iPad, with which she watches series and movies, and a lot of sports clothes, although also street clothes. “I don’t want to see myself in a tracksuit all day. I don’t know if I’ll use it, but at least I put on the dress and the heels in my room », she tells her with her face illuminated. Nuria is aware of the interest that her image arouses every time they focus on the Spanish bench. “In the networks I am the blonde who appears next to Luis Enrique,” she says with a laugh. MORE INFORMATION noticia No Asensio: “We like what Luis Enrique tells us and that makes us always want more” noticia If Gavi exploits the treasure of youth noticia No Luis Enrique’s gang starts shouting noticia No “Everyone to Eva’s house »: The Spanish fans in Doha organized themselves into Whatsapp and Facebook groups «I enjoy my work every day», he says to finish off. «I am a positive and happy person and there is not a single day in which I do not laugh at anything. We are a family and that makes any moment special.”
