Women’s elite football is so advanced, so excellent, thrilling and of such as high quality that it certainly doesn’t require comparisons with the men’s game to popularise it. Yet there is one comparison which, once you watch Aitana Bonmatí forensically, and then get to know her, seems irresistible – and that’s with Andrés Iniesta.
Whenever I talk to her, as is the case now, I’m struck by the inquisitive intelligence behind her liquid, brown-eyed stare: she really listens to questions. And then answers with gusto and intensity. For starters, she doesn’t mind the comparison I’ve made and she enjoys talking about it.
“When I was a kid, my footballing inspirations were Xavi and Iniesta. They were two players from Guardiola’s Barça team, who I loved for their style of football. And I’ve always said that it was hard to find female role models at a young age.”
It’s one thing to be inspired by them, another to reach their level of exceptional football – their level of creativity, technicality and winning mentality.
FC Barcelona is not, any more, a unique club. Many others are daring, philosophy-driven, and consistent in what their football bible preaches. But from the moment Johan Cruyff, the most iconic No14 shirt-wearer, became head coach at the Camp Nou some concepts were established which have never been eroded.
That brains were greater than physical power, that mental alacrity beat athletic speed, that having technique was more important than towering over opponents – a design lab which meant that first Pep Guardiola, then Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and, currently, Aitana Bonmati found spiritual homes at this club.
They are/were variously slower – Pep and Busquets – smaller, more slender than the vast majority of other football organisations would have put faith in, to the extent that Guardiola always said that had it not been for Cruyff he would have had to carve out a career in Spain’s second or third divisions.
It’s no coincidence, therefore, that the woman who wears 14 on the back of her Blaugrana shirt, the woman who is the world’s best footballer and who produced two sensational moments of divine invention to win her club the last two Champions League finals, is Bonmatí.
Just like the male Cruyff-alumni I mentioned, Bonmatí will almost always find herself the most slender, the smallest, the most physically dominated player on the pitch, time after time across nearly 250 professional matches. And not only does that not matter, she proves and re-proves the Cruyff PhD thesis that it’s intelligence, game-theory, technique, daring and risk-acceptance which render size and power irrelevant. Boy, is that beautiful to watch in action too.
If our portrait of her, based on numerous interviews and matches, is your first exposure to this rebellious, forthright, fiery, ultra-talented 26-year-old Catalan then I beg you to go and seek her performances out this season. They are art.
The examples are multi-fold – enough to have won her the current Ballon D’Or, to make her the current Champions League player of the season, a triple Champions League winner and World Cup winner, amidst a host of other prizes. But, given the competition from which this magazine takes our name and our ethos, a couple of killer moments from those last two victorious Champions League finals stand out.
In the sunshine-dappled PSV Stadium in Eindhoven, where Barça had trailed Wolfsburg 2-0, last summer it was Bonmatí whose darting run down the right enabled her to first fake a cross and then, cutting back, leave her tackler, Ewa Pajor, sliding after a ball that wasn’t there any more while the Catalan cut onto her left foot, now with ample time to loft the ball onto Patri Guijarro’s head for 2-2.
At the time, during the match I wrote for UEFA.com: “Whoever wins this match, the technical experts will be absolutely dazzled by the second half which Aitana is producing. Showing for the ball under pressure, creative, daring, taking ultimate responsibility for the fightback. She’s been outstanding by any criteria.”
Then she created her, and Barcelona’s, back-to-back moment. It came in Athletic Club’s San Mamés stadium against a rival the Blaugrana had never beaten, Olympique Lyonnais. Things were ultra-tight – until Bonmatí struck like a cobra.
Aitana takes up the tale: “In matches like that one, where they are long, and the rival is a very physical team, you have to know how to find the moment and never squander it when it arrives. I’m usually a player who never stops running around the pitch, picking up possession around the defence, but against Lyon I interpreted the match differently.
“I understood that I’d find my moment, especially in the second half when the rivals tire, to find the kind of space that I like so much. Half of my goal [which made it 1-0] is owed to Mariona because she gave me a pass to leave me one-on-one with Lyon’s centre-back. It’s then that I shoot and earn a bit of luck, the ball gets a little deflection and goes in. But, hey, football is also about that, right?”
They’re not twins, and not to labour the point, but if you think of Iniesta’s second-half impact against Arsenal in the 2006 Paris Champions League final or his brilliant work to set up Ivan Rakitić for his goal in the 2015 Berlin final, you’ll see parallels.
Two different people but united by vision, technique, stature, impish creativity and an appetite for the big pressure moments. United by a club and its philosophy.
Aitana, someone who’s active in her social conscience, proud to be from a small town south of Barcelona, clear about her Catalan identity, has found it simple to grace gala occasions all over Europe while she’s been garlanded with awards – just as she’s been gritty, clever and inspirational in driving club and country to new heights on the pitch.
This tale, as ever, is the culmination of somebody born from special stock (her parents are significant influences on her), with innate talent but, also, blessed with a huge work ethic and mentality.
She’s good at explaining it all too. “For me, football is almost my whole life. I’ve been in this sport for many years, fighting every day to achieve my dreams, to become a better player, suffering a lot too because the path isn’t easy. And when you want to give your best version every day, you have to know how to handle your emotions because the demands aren’t easy.
“But I approach it all with will and responsibility. I also believe that football is an expression of life, an expression of how I am, too: that competitive, ambitious and ‘winner’ personality. Also, obviously as you see me on the pitch, that’s how I am: electric, energetic, among many other things. But I would say that football is the only thing that can give me these sensations I feel. It’s unique.”
Aitana too is unique. As a woman, a footballer and, now, a role model. Just as Iniesta once was for her.
Women’s elite football is so advanced, so excellent, thrilling and of such as high quality that it certainly doesn’t require comparisons with the men’s game to popularise it. Yet there is one comparison which, once you watch Aitana Bonmatí forensically, and then get to know her, seems irresistible – and that’s with Andrés Iniesta.
Whenever I talk to her, as is the case now, I’m struck by the inquisitive intelligence behind her liquid, brown-eyed stare: she really listens to questions. And then answers with gusto and intensity. For starters, she doesn’t mind the comparison I’ve made and she enjoys talking about it.
“When I was a kid, my footballing inspirations were Xavi and Iniesta. They were two players from Guardiola’s Barça team, who I loved for their style of football. And I’ve always said that it was hard to find female role models at a young age.”
It’s one thing to be inspired by them, another to reach their level of exceptional football – their level of creativity, technicality and winning mentality.
FC Barcelona is not, any more, a unique club. Many others are daring, philosophy-driven, and consistent in what their football bible preaches. But from the moment Johan Cruyff, the most iconic No14 shirt-wearer, became head coach at the Camp Nou some concepts were established which have never been eroded.
That brains were greater than physical power, that mental alacrity beat athletic speed, that having technique was more important than towering over opponents – a design lab which meant that first Pep Guardiola, then Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and, currently, Aitana Bonmati found spiritual homes at this club.
They are/were variously slower – Pep and Busquets – smaller, more slender than the vast majority of other football organisations would have put faith in, to the extent that Guardiola always said that had it not been for Cruyff he would have had to carve out a career in Spain’s second or third divisions.
It’s no coincidence, therefore, that the woman who wears 14 on the back of her Blaugrana shirt, the woman who is the world’s best footballer and who produced two sensational moments of divine invention to win her club the last two Champions League finals, is Bonmatí.
Just like the male Cruyff-alumni I mentioned, Bonmatí will almost always find herself the most slender, the smallest, the most physically dominated player on the pitch, time after time across nearly 250 professional matches. And not only does that not matter, she proves and re-proves the Cruyff PhD thesis that it’s intelligence, game-theory, technique, daring and risk-acceptance which render size and power irrelevant. Boy, is that beautiful to watch in action too.
If our portrait of her, based on numerous interviews and matches, is your first exposure to this rebellious, forthright, fiery, ultra-talented 26-year-old Catalan then I beg you to go and seek her performances out this season. They are art.
The examples are multi-fold – enough to have won her the current Ballon D’Or, to make her the current Champions League player of the season, a triple Champions League winner and World Cup winner, amidst a host of other prizes. But, given the competition from which this magazine takes our name and our ethos, a couple of killer moments from those last two victorious Champions League finals stand out.
In the sunshine-dappled PSV Stadium in Eindhoven, where Barça had trailed Wolfsburg 2-0, last summer it was Bonmatí whose darting run down the right enabled her to first fake a cross and then, cutting back, leave her tackler, Ewa Pajor, sliding after a ball that wasn’t there any more while the Catalan cut onto her left foot, now with ample time to loft the ball onto Patri Guijarro’s head for 2-2.
At the time, during the match I wrote for UEFA.com: “Whoever wins this match, the technical experts will be absolutely dazzled by the second half which Aitana is producing. Showing for the ball under pressure, creative, daring, taking ultimate responsibility for the fightback. She’s been outstanding by any criteria.”
Then she created her, and Barcelona’s, back-to-back moment. It came in Athletic Club’s San Mamés stadium against a rival the Blaugrana had never beaten, Olympique Lyonnais. Things were ultra-tight – until Bonmatí struck like a cobra.
Aitana takes up the tale: “In matches like that one, where they are long, and the rival is a very physical team, you have to know how to find the moment and never squander it when it arrives. I’m usually a player who never stops running around the pitch, picking up possession around the defence, but against Lyon I interpreted the match differently.
“I understood that I’d find my moment, especially in the second half when the rivals tire, to find the kind of space that I like so much. Half of my goal [which made it 1-0] is owed to Mariona because she gave me a pass to leave me one-on-one with Lyon’s centre-back. It’s then that I shoot and earn a bit of luck, the ball gets a little deflection and goes in. But, hey, football is also about that, right?”
They’re not twins, and not to labour the point, but if you think of Iniesta’s second-half impact against Arsenal in the 2006 Paris Champions League final or his brilliant work to set up Ivan Rakitić for his goal in the 2015 Berlin final, you’ll see parallels.
Two different people but united by vision, technique, stature, impish creativity and an appetite for the big pressure moments. United by a club and its philosophy.
Aitana, someone who’s active in her social conscience, proud to be from a small town south of Barcelona, clear about her Catalan identity, has found it simple to grace gala occasions all over Europe while she’s been garlanded with awards – just as she’s been gritty, clever and inspirational in driving club and country to new heights on the pitch.
This tale, as ever, is the culmination of somebody born from special stock (her parents are significant influences on her), with innate talent but, also, blessed with a huge work ethic and mentality.
She’s good at explaining it all too. “For me, football is almost my whole life. I’ve been in this sport for many years, fighting every day to achieve my dreams, to become a better player, suffering a lot too because the path isn’t easy. And when you want to give your best version every day, you have to know how to handle your emotions because the demands aren’t easy.
“But I approach it all with will and responsibility. I also believe that football is an expression of life, an expression of how I am, too: that competitive, ambitious and ‘winner’ personality. Also, obviously as you see me on the pitch, that’s how I am: electric, energetic, among many other things. But I would say that football is the only thing that can give me these sensations I feel. It’s unique.”
Aitana too is unique. As a woman, a footballer and, now, a role model. Just as Iniesta once was for her.
Women’s elite football is so advanced, so excellent, thrilling and of such as high quality that it certainly doesn’t require comparisons with the men’s game to popularise it. Yet there is one comparison which, once you watch Aitana Bonmatí forensically, and then get to know her, seems irresistible – and that’s with Andrés Iniesta.
Whenever I talk to her, as is the case now, I’m struck by the inquisitive intelligence behind her liquid, brown-eyed stare: she really listens to questions. And then answers with gusto and intensity. For starters, she doesn’t mind the comparison I’ve made and she enjoys talking about it.
“When I was a kid, my footballing inspirations were Xavi and Iniesta. They were two players from Guardiola’s Barça team, who I loved for their style of football. And I’ve always said that it was hard to find female role models at a young age.”
It’s one thing to be inspired by them, another to reach their level of exceptional football – their level of creativity, technicality and winning mentality.
FC Barcelona is not, any more, a unique club. Many others are daring, philosophy-driven, and consistent in what their football bible preaches. But from the moment Johan Cruyff, the most iconic No14 shirt-wearer, became head coach at the Camp Nou some concepts were established which have never been eroded.
That brains were greater than physical power, that mental alacrity beat athletic speed, that having technique was more important than towering over opponents – a design lab which meant that first Pep Guardiola, then Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and, currently, Aitana Bonmati found spiritual homes at this club.
They are/were variously slower – Pep and Busquets – smaller, more slender than the vast majority of other football organisations would have put faith in, to the extent that Guardiola always said that had it not been for Cruyff he would have had to carve out a career in Spain’s second or third divisions.
It’s no coincidence, therefore, that the woman who wears 14 on the back of her Blaugrana shirt, the woman who is the world’s best footballer and who produced two sensational moments of divine invention to win her club the last two Champions League finals, is Bonmatí.
Just like the male Cruyff-alumni I mentioned, Bonmatí will almost always find herself the most slender, the smallest, the most physically dominated player on the pitch, time after time across nearly 250 professional matches. And not only does that not matter, she proves and re-proves the Cruyff PhD thesis that it’s intelligence, game-theory, technique, daring and risk-acceptance which render size and power irrelevant. Boy, is that beautiful to watch in action too.
If our portrait of her, based on numerous interviews and matches, is your first exposure to this rebellious, forthright, fiery, ultra-talented 26-year-old Catalan then I beg you to go and seek her performances out this season. They are art.
The examples are multi-fold – enough to have won her the current Ballon D’Or, to make her the current Champions League player of the season, a triple Champions League winner and World Cup winner, amidst a host of other prizes. But, given the competition from which this magazine takes our name and our ethos, a couple of killer moments from those last two victorious Champions League finals stand out.
In the sunshine-dappled PSV Stadium in Eindhoven, where Barça had trailed Wolfsburg 2-0, last summer it was Bonmatí whose darting run down the right enabled her to first fake a cross and then, cutting back, leave her tackler, Ewa Pajor, sliding after a ball that wasn’t there any more while the Catalan cut onto her left foot, now with ample time to loft the ball onto Patri Guijarro’s head for 2-2.
At the time, during the match I wrote for UEFA.com: “Whoever wins this match, the technical experts will be absolutely dazzled by the second half which Aitana is producing. Showing for the ball under pressure, creative, daring, taking ultimate responsibility for the fightback. She’s been outstanding by any criteria.”
Then she created her, and Barcelona’s, back-to-back moment. It came in Athletic Club’s San Mamés stadium against a rival the Blaugrana had never beaten, Olympique Lyonnais. Things were ultra-tight – until Bonmatí struck like a cobra.
Aitana takes up the tale: “In matches like that one, where they are long, and the rival is a very physical team, you have to know how to find the moment and never squander it when it arrives. I’m usually a player who never stops running around the pitch, picking up possession around the defence, but against Lyon I interpreted the match differently.
“I understood that I’d find my moment, especially in the second half when the rivals tire, to find the kind of space that I like so much. Half of my goal [which made it 1-0] is owed to Mariona because she gave me a pass to leave me one-on-one with Lyon’s centre-back. It’s then that I shoot and earn a bit of luck, the ball gets a little deflection and goes in. But, hey, football is also about that, right?”
They’re not twins, and not to labour the point, but if you think of Iniesta’s second-half impact against Arsenal in the 2006 Paris Champions League final or his brilliant work to set up Ivan Rakitić for his goal in the 2015 Berlin final, you’ll see parallels.
Two different people but united by vision, technique, stature, impish creativity and an appetite for the big pressure moments. United by a club and its philosophy.
Aitana, someone who’s active in her social conscience, proud to be from a small town south of Barcelona, clear about her Catalan identity, has found it simple to grace gala occasions all over Europe while she’s been garlanded with awards – just as she’s been gritty, clever and inspirational in driving club and country to new heights on the pitch.
This tale, as ever, is the culmination of somebody born from special stock (her parents are significant influences on her), with innate talent but, also, blessed with a huge work ethic and mentality.
She’s good at explaining it all too. “For me, football is almost my whole life. I’ve been in this sport for many years, fighting every day to achieve my dreams, to become a better player, suffering a lot too because the path isn’t easy. And when you want to give your best version every day, you have to know how to handle your emotions because the demands aren’t easy.
“But I approach it all with will and responsibility. I also believe that football is an expression of life, an expression of how I am, too: that competitive, ambitious and ‘winner’ personality. Also, obviously as you see me on the pitch, that’s how I am: electric, energetic, among many other things. But I would say that football is the only thing that can give me these sensations I feel. It’s unique.”
Aitana too is unique. As a woman, a footballer and, now, a role model. Just as Iniesta once was for her.
