This World Cup has often been talked about as a revolution, which, once and for all, should serve to consecrate women’s football. It is true that, although the behavior of some reminds us that there is still so much work to be done, in recent years it has been normalized by parents for their daughter to play football. And this is a big step because, not so long ago, it wasn’t like that. In 2007, at Cassà, a girl “who I think was the only one in the entire League” was playing there, recalls a teammate at the time, Eloi Ribas. “For us, it was the most normal thing in the world, one more for the team, but it had an impact on the rivals.”
Yes, it was Laia Codina, brand new world champion who, then, already showed traits that she maintains today. “She walked over the children and she never had enough,” explains Enric Mestre ‘Pitxi’, who trained her for four years. “In fact”, he comments, “every year he had the option of going to play at a women’s club, but he preferred to stay with the children to grow more”. “Laia is like that! She was and is the most competitive, at a sporting level and in life. It must always be on top of everything”, adds Robert Bou. Ex-teammate, friend from school and close-knit families, he knows her well, and these days he has felt “enormous pride”.
Both he and Eloi and Picxi agree that “she never wrinkled” and that “she was a leader”. He didn’t care who was in front of him. It didn’t matter to her to be, as Robert says, “the girl of the league”: “If I had to yell at you, command, give orders, I did it and, you know what? He was always right!” He has not lost his character.
This same World Cup she has been seen more than once haranguing the team, as in the final, and leaving her skin despite the discomfort that ended up forcing her to leave the field in the final. And that, at the beginning of the competition, he didn’t even start as a starter. But he won Vilda as, years before, he had also won ‘Pitxi’. “She was always prepared, she was never lazy about anything and she did everything one hundred percent, because she is a person who really likes football, and she had this desire to learn and want more, and that’s how it has been.” World champion, in case we haven’t said it enough. That it is worth repeating.
Cassà’s “Dream Team”.
His former coach still doesn’t know what to do: “Who was to say that? I am very happy, at 23 years old he already has everything». And here she remembers the World Cup, the Champions League and the leagues, yes, like everyone else, but also the 2018 U19 European Championships, because she has never stopped following her.
Nor when, at the end of the youth stage and he could not continue playing with boys, he went to Barça. The whole year before, in fact, he went to train there one day a week, and Enric Mestre accompanied him “often, whenever he could”. There, “with the means of the club, it is very noticeable the improvement he has been able to make, technically and tactically”. The hunger, however, does not disappear, nor does the desire to know more. “She always says that Mapi León and Paredes are her teachers, and that says a lot about her.” The ex-technician also tells an anecdote that Codina told him. “It’s up to the players to defend Oshoala because she’s the only one who can withstand their attacks, of course!” Eloi already remembers it, how he “shared the same as everyone else”.
She was missed, when she left, because it was a united block, that one, together from the first years, when there was also Arnau Comas, now in Basel. “We were the Dream Team!” smiles Eloi. Robert still remembers, with the permission of the almost ten years that have passed, the end of that training when, with ‘Pitxi’, the trainer, Laia explained it to them. “We congratulated her, obviously, and the following year it was an honor to have someone who was also training with us at Barça.”
As a person, moreover, Codina has left an indelible mark on all of them. “I took her when she was 10 and I didn’t know her very well, but after a year I made her captain, because she set an example with everything”, says ‘Pitxi’. “She was an excellent companion and she is a person with the honor of the clouds”, adds Robert. It costs, among football stars, to maintain humility. Codina does it, working with club and national team as much as possible and obeying what the coach asks. No matter how much a world cup shines, this is indeed a source of pride for those who are worth it, because it will not be in any history book, but in the hearts of the people who have been there from the beginning.
Check here all the news from Diari de Girona
2023-08-22 04:30:54
#girl #wanted #play #boys #improve #world #champion
