BarcelonaMaria Segura Pallerès (Barcelona, 1992) did not stand still when she played at Escola Sadako in Barcelona. She was chasing a ball by kicking it, but she ended up playing volleyball with some friends without imagining that she would become the best Catalan player of all time. At 33, after years playing in Italy and Germany, he retires with the sweet aftertaste of having played in a World Cup for the first time.
How was that World Cup? Let’s start with the World Cup.
— It was, honestly, the icing on the cake. I had already decided to leave it, but when I saw that we were going to the World Cup, I extended the race for another year. It had been almost half a century since the national team had gone to a World Cup, they wanted to be there. When I entered the national team we were at the bottom, we always lost. So being in Thailand was a way to close the cycle. And adding, in addition, a historic triumph against Bulgaria. If I had been given a blank slate, I would have written this ending for my career.
You were getting offers to keep playing. Why are you leaving now?
— I have always been clear that I would continue to play as long as sport weighed more than life on a scale. Friends, family… I have them at home. Being an elite athlete is very beautiful. Now I have friends in every country in the world, wherever I go I meet someone, but being a professional also leads you to a life of sacrifices. I can’t even remember the last time I was able to celebrate a normal Christmas. It had been 11 years without celebrating Christmas; sometimes I would have dinners a few days before to see my people since I was playing. I had been looking around for some time and was thinking about finding a new job. I have an interest in marketing, so I got a job at the representative agency where I did an internship. It is a large agency, with offices all over the world. For example, we bring the best Japanese player who plays in Stuttgart, where I retired. It’s time to leave it now, in a sweet moment. I loved this sport very much, but it was time to leave it.
Many athletes have a hard time when they retire.
– True. I have worked on it a lot with my psychologist. I started working with her in Stuttgart at a time when she was not well. i go peterafter so many years of demand. I was a bit lost and looking for a psychologist helped me a lot. Thanks to her, I have understood that retiring from sport is mourning. A part of you, the player part, dies. End a life. And you enter a process of denial, of acceptance… It’s a hard moment, but I lived it in a beautiful way, too. It’s been all round, as I was able to win the treble in Stuttgart, and then go to the World Cup.
To be able to win titles and live great experiences, you have to leave Catalonia. How did you experience it?
— Many people only see the beautiful face of elite sport, but it involves sacrifices. Having a sick family member in Barcelona and not being able to be there. You miss celebrations, beautiful moments. You win them on the one hand, you lose them on the other. There had come a time when I saw that the personal part was weighing more on me. Now I’m still in Stuttgart, but I can come home whenever I want. And the plan is this, to return to Barcelona.
You started playing at school, right?
— He was a restless ass and was always playing football in the yard or climbing trees. At the time of choosing the extracurriculars, I was very alone among those who wanted to play soccer and I switched to volleyball. And look, I kept doing it… and the coaches were already telling me that I would go far. He was playing against opponents two years older, he had a streak. That’s how I entered Mundet, then Vall d’Hebron and the key moment was entering Barça, where everything was more professional. Here you could train and have discipline. But Marta Gens, who has been a very important player here in Spain, told me she had to leave. He took me and said: “Maria, you are going abroad, you are not staying here.” And so it was.
And you go to Italy, where volleyball plays in a different league, with the best team at the moment.
— I arrive at a modest club, to keep improving. And then I moved on to stronger and stronger clubs. You soak up their volleyball culture. In our house, football takes everything away. In Italy they have football, but they take care of other sports. They play volleyball matches on TV, they have full halls… Volleyball is one of the most practiced sports in all of Europe: in France, Poland, Germany… everyone knows this sport! In Spain, on the other hand, it is not seen as a professional sport. Here we reached the World Cup… and it couldn’t be seen on TV!
What was it like the first time you were stopped on the street for an autograph?
— I thought it was funny. I didn’t think it could happen to me. I had a bit of impostor syndrome… Years later, it was still a thrill to walk into a packed hall and see people wearing my shirt. Queues of people to ask me for a photo.
After Italy it was Germany, where you won everything.
— When I left the Spanish league I was a chick. In Italy I kept improving and when I arrived in Germany I was already a complete player, who could carry the weight of the team. Being able to win titles has been special, the best time at a sporting level, even though it has cost a lot.
Your idea is to return to live in Barcelona. How do you see volleyball in Catalonia?
— We are working a lot with the Catalan Federation to do things, also with the Blume Institute… I am helping to find contacts for national team players, who can go to other leagues to improve. There is a lot of potential, but for the players to be stronger they need to go abroad, that’s the reality. What we lack is to have a more stable league and clubs, we would need more support from institutions or businessmen who act as sponsors.
