“We are fighting for values so that we don’t feel inferior”

The happy times of Mallorcan goalie Cata Coll (Pòrtol, Mallorca, 2001) have burgeoned over the last three years, with the development of a meteoric career that seemingly has no limitations for the foreseeable future. Her debut at the age of 15 with the U. D. Collerense first team, and her recent selection to the women’s Spanish national team led by Jorge Vilda, have had the effect of making her sporting biography a compendium of profound emotions. A personal sacrifice which she enjoys with humility but with the certainty of knowing that, little by little, she is making a niche for herself in the history of Spanish football, with the same security that she transmits to her teammates under the three posts of the goal, when faced with a decisive penalty or a free kick that is impossible to divert (but not for her). All you have to do is search her name in YouTube and sit back and enjoy every one of her videos: Cata, wearing the Collerense jacket, speaks of their rivalry with the Son Sardina team in the local championship; Cata in the U-20 world championship, stopping a penalty by French player Katoto in the semi-finals; a feisty Cata singing on the coach of the youth team, which looks a lot like a school trip; Cata, back in Uruguay, melting in an endless hug with her teammates a second after they become U-17 world champions; Cata, excited and happy, gobbling up the TV camera with her gorgeous eyes and shouting “¡Vaaaamooossss…Somos campeonas del mundooooo…Ostiaaaaaaaa!”... 

Cata comes to the interview on the bus from Pórtol, where she lives with her parents in a flat located above the family business which consists of assembling tables and kitchens for restaurants, hotels and bars, run by her mother, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. “My family love football. My mother used to play at school, and my dad too. I’m still an amateur, but some day I would love to make a living from this, to play in the adult Spanish national team, win more titles, leagues, achieve my dreams... I’m not ready yet to play in a big team. I haven’t got enough experience. But if I get a good offer, I would love to play in a first-division team in Spain or abroad”. ADN Colle. El esfuerzo no se negocia (“ADN Colle. Effort is non-negotiable”) are the words that can be read on a poster showing the whole team at the entrance to the changing room. “I started playing football when I was 6, in the schoolyard. Sebas, my best friend, was always playing with a ball. And one day I said to him, “I want to play with you”. It’s true that some older boys would call me tomboy, and sometimes they wouldn’t let me play with them. But Sebas always chose me for his team and in the end we would win. They were all surprised and would shut up then, because they realised that I could do the same as them. Or better”. Nowadays Cata does not have to experience that discrimination any more. Except for the attitude of some referees. “I get really angry when I see some referees walking instead of running, as though to say ‘why would I run for a bunch of girls?’ If it were a men’s team, they would definitely behave differently”. “As women football players we know that we can’t earn as much as the men right now – earn the amount of money Messi does. That’s impossible. But we are fighting to have a decent wage, for values so that we don’t feel inferior. I would even say that there isn’t a single female player in the entire first division who isn’t studying at college. We know that football will end one day, and that we won’t be able to live from what we have earned from playing”.

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Read this article in full in IN PALMA 59. And if you like, subscribe to IN PALMA for 1 year and get the next 4 issues of the magazine delivered to your home.