Saturday, December 27, 2025, 8:27 p.m.
Football has been mourned this Saturday by the death at the age of 82 of Amelia del Castillo, one of the bravest figures in the development of women’s football in Spain during the last years of the Franco dictatorship, in a particularly adverse context for the participation of women in sport. A pioneer in sport, she was the first to preside over a football club in this country and founder, coach and delegate of Atlético de Pinto, which she gave birth to in October 1963.
The vital and professional career of this heroine, whose life has ended in Barcelona, was marked by her fight against machismo and discrimination. She directed and promoted women’s football at a time when it was not officially recognized in Spain and, therefore, lacked any institutional support and was absolutely rejected. In a context marked by restrictive social norms, gender prejudices and the absence of federative structures for women, Del Castillo assumed decisive leadership to organize teams, promote competitions and give visibility to female soccer players.
Their work was key for women’s football to begin to be articulated, going from isolated meetings to projects of a certain continuity. Thanks to their invaluable work, many women were able to train, compete and travel to play matches, something extraordinary for the time. She made a firm public defense of women’s right to practice the beautiful sport, facing the Spanish Federation itself and media and social censorship.
The Madrid leader herself, mother of the journalist Gema Santos, told it in several interviews, such as the one she gave to Marca in 2022. «I wanted to be a coach, to have the title, but the Spanish Football Federation did not allow it. “They only let me go to theory classes and as a very special favor.” «When I sat on the bench, look what they called me, everything. Some called me a tomboy and others called me a so-and-so,” he added in a confession that today causes shame.
Those were times when the FEF prohibited women from being players, coaches or referees, but Amelia knew how to find a legal loophole in the presidency. «It was the only route that was not prohibited. They prohibited everything else, but there was absolutely nothing written about presidents,” he explained. From there he supported a modest Madrid soccer club, working three jobs at the same time and fighting for its economic survival.
The help of Vicente Calderón
Entrepreneurial, in order to move the team forward, she resorted to raffles and even wrote to Vicente Calderón, then president of Atlético de Madrid. «It is known that he liked me. From then on he was the godfather of the team,” Amelia recalled in that same interview with Marca. “Thanks to this support, the club received kits, balls, medical assistance and help to close the field, an essential requirement to compete.”
He always earned the respect of his players, but pressure from the authorities and institutions forced him to resign in 1973, after receiving an ultimatum from the mayor of Pinto. “I fought as far as I could fight,” he said many years later. He accepted his departure to avoid the disappearance of the modest Madrid team.
Like so many men and women of the time, it happened that recognition for so much effort came late. It was not until 2000 when she was named honorary president of Atlético Pinto and the stadium was named after her. «It was a very big prize, the icing on the cake. “It was like winning the Champions League,” she recalled excitedly. Her figure transcended borders and surprised abroad, since CBS in New York came to travel to Spain to interview her, fascinated by a woman directing a men’s team in the sixties.
Amelia, a true revolutionary, could never forget the image she loved most, a photo sitting on the bench giving instructions. «Very few women have been seen there. Never then, and now little. “I couldn’t play with them, but I was participating in their joy.” As a lesson, Amelia del Castillo left a phrase that will always be alive: “When you have a dream and you fight for it, even if it costs you effort, you can achieve it then, now and in the future.” Her legacy is not measured by sporting results but by the social transformation she initiated to open a path of equality, visibility and rights for women in Spanish football.
