Every summer since Real Madrid decided to absorb CD Tacon and finally create a women’s team, Madridistas have been treated to a variety of exciting new transfers. It’s been wonderful to welcome established stars, underrated gems and future legends to the ‘Madrid Family’, and it’s been even more special to see these players achieve great things together and lay the foundations for Real Madrid. Femenino.
Except there is a problem. The idea of Madrid being a ‘family’ doesn’t exist for the women’s team, and in the 2022 summer transfer window Madridistas don’t see the same ambitious activity. Instead, they watch beloved players leave the club, while elite players who seemed to dream of Madrid, like Lucy Bronze, head elsewhere.
In an interview with Expressen, Kosovare Asllani, one of the original Galacticas and literally the greatest player to ever play for Real Madrid Femenino, explained the situation. She spoke the honest truth about the organizational dysfunction that is holding back the women’s team and even creating unsafe working conditions for the players.
Asllani explained how she would be forced to play due to injury or illness. His comments are a damning condemnation of a toxic management culture that fires medical staff, pushing players to risk their health more. Asllani highlighted her own injuries and how she suffered a setback because she was told to keep playing. And she compared her experiences with the Swedish national team, which have won an incredible amount of silverware and are an elite organization, saying the environment there is considerably more professional.
Real Madrid have lost their three Galacticas
There is something you need to know about Asllani. She’s from Madrid. The definition of a Madridista. Real Madrid was her boyhood club, and she signed wanting nothing more than to be the star of the team and take the club she loves to great heights. Although she decided to leave this year, she considered a transfer last summer but decided to stick with it, in the hope that the club she loves would improve.
Real Madrid didn’t. If anything, things can get worse. Because Asllani isn’t the only high-profile departure. Marta Cardona, a current and future superstar who rose to fame in Madrid as ‘The Flash’, is leaving the organization under similar circumstances.
In the midst of this, we cannot forget Sofia Jakobsson, who left the club in 2021. Nor Chioma Ubogagu, the third of the original Galacticas who also left.
Florentino Perez and Jose Angel Sanchez manage Real Madrid, but they have little to say about the women’s team. Day-to-day operations are run by the same people who ran Tacon, in particular Ana Rosell, who has drawn the ire of Madridistas. Former Tacon players have said Rosell and other club officials behaved unethically, including telling a player to lie that they were injured at school in hospital at the instead of being treated by the club’s medical staff, as the club did not want to pay for his treatment. .
That’s just one example, and it’s more than plausible that Tacon’s treatment of promising young players has morphed into the treatment of professionals. But while it’s easy to silence young players who aren’t well-known and can’t give these kinds of high profile interviews, treating players like Asllani in this way will come out in the open.
Elite players won’t want to play for Real Madrid Femenino if this continues
It better lead to accountability. I mentioned Perez and JAS because although they don’t handle the day-to-day operations of Real Madrid Femenino, the buck stops with them. They are the leaders of this club, especially President Perez, and they are setting the standard. They need to step in and make it clear that it’s not OK.
I understand that playing for Real Madrid is demanding, but the male players don’t mind that. Medical personnel are not ignored. Players are not put at risk, not even in the most important matches. For example, Real Madrid’s best centre-back David Alaba was literally substituted in a vital half-time Champions League game against Manchester City because he was injured. Madrid’s coaching staff understood that risking Alaba’s health could worsen his injury and prevent him from performing at his best.
That the Real Madrid Femenino club management pushes the players beyond their limits and into the danger zone shows a lack of humanity and utter incompetence. These are people who cannot be associated with Real Madrid because not only do they go against the club’s values, but they also hold the club back.
Marta Cardona and Kosovare Asllani leave. What star player would want to play for a club that treats players like this? Real Madrid’s men’s team is known to be top-class, which is why players like Antonio Rudiger and Aurelien Tchouameni will join other offers. Which women’s football superstar will join Madrid if they treat their players like this? They can go and play at another top club – a club with more success in women’s football, I might add – and not have to deal with that BS.
If Real Madrid don’t improve, they will betray their ‘DNA’
Real Madrid must be as ambitious with Las Blancas as with Los Blancos. Losing their greatest Galactica, a player who still loves Real Madrid and did EVERYTHING she could to make things work despite the circumstances, is a huge warning sign. It is a warning sign that if this sporting project is to succeed – and any professional football team associated with Real Madrid MUST succeed – then it cannot continue.
Madridistas are very proud of their club and their players. What we see in front of us goes against the very fabric of the club, the DNA we loved to discuss so much during the men’s Champions League run. And looking at how Real Madrid Femenino beat Manchester City this year to qualify for the 2021/22 Champions League group stages, that DNA is very present in Las Blancas players.
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It just doesn’t seem to be in the DNA of the people running the team. And that needs to change, fast, before Real lose more great players and stagnate after showing remarkable growth thanks to the talents of those same players in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons. These players are accomplished and can achieve elite things. The people who lead on this side? They have accomplished nothing and know nothing. Players deserve better than to be wiped out by this kind of selfish incompetence.