Cata Coll can’t stop smiling. He is a happy person. The starting goalkeeper of the women’s team welcomes us Las Rozas at the door of another historic event like the final of the Nations League that lives in the clouds after spending just one year sinking and even consider throwing in the towel to hold the sky in the conquest of the World Cup, the pass to the Games and new titles are at stake.
How are you feeling, Cata?
i’m good We have accomplished our first goal, to go to Paris, and now a grand final awaits us that we want to win to make history again.
How do you approach this fight?
With great desire. We have never beaten France. I have faced them many times in the lower categories and I have lost against them many times, so I know what they are like, how they play and it will not be easy. It will be a very physical match but we are more than ready to face them and win.
You’ve experienced the bitter side of football not too long ago, being sidelined for a year with a serious cruciate injury. Have you thought about throwing in the towel?
Yes. The first months I wasn’t very aware because I couldn’t walk, but when you see that you can run and train and they still won’t let you, you think: ‘Can I handle it?’ I have been unemployed for 400 days and you think about many things. I was lucky or unlucky to share that delicate moment Jane -Fernández-, who was with me everywhere I went and my strength to continue. Now I am grateful for that injury because it taught me to enjoy football again and appreciate every training session, every victory. I think I need it to mature as a footballer and as a person.
How did you get out of the tunnel?
I saw the light when Barça wanted to renew me and the bet of seeing that they believed in me made me say: I will return this trust. It says now or never. I remember my agent –Carlota Planas– Then he told me that I could go to the World Cup and I laughed: but I wasn’t even called for training… and the call from the national team and the debut of the World Cup with the title changed my life.
Didn’t you expect that call?
I don’t even have gloves. They had to be made in record time and shipped to Australia… it was chaos. Everything was a mess because I arranged the holidays to disconnect and I planned to be calm for a month and a half without football, but in the end the World Cup was good for me and a radical change in my life.
What life lesson can you take from that experience?
I am a very impatient person and I have learned to be calm, to know that there are things that do not depend on me and at work everything will come. It helped me to mature and be consistent.
You are also bored on the field…
I am the same in rural life, an aunt who is so impulsive that if she feels something, she does it. That’s my style and when they stop me I feel like I’m not myself and then I feel like I’m going to fail. I have to play with goal freedom and I’m not going to change my playing style because I failed once or twice.
That means we will continue to suffer from your departure…
Yes -laughter-. I’m like that.
You are 22 years old and you are part of a generation that has achieved great titles at Sub’7 and Sub’20. There is a group of young people who are going strong
There is a perfect complement between young and old, we provide the spark and they contribute their experience. This team has many years left to be at the top.
When you see yourself next to Alexia, Jenni or Irene, what do you think?
Phew… they’re references. We all want to be like them. Everything they fought for… we are here thanks to them, they are a mirror in which we look at ourselves and we are very grateful that they paved the way for us.
Apart from sports, the national team led a movement to promote the very important women’s sports.
This is something that is necessary in society and I hope that it has served to realize that we will be strong and that they will not stop us.
You have a reputation as a ‘party animal’… Do you know how you will celebrate the Nations League if it is won?
I want to have fun and if we win we will celebrate in a big way.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
