April 29, 2007. Joan Gamper Sports City witnessed the relegation of FC Barcelona’s women’s team. That 1-3 defeat against Real Sociedad certifies the loss of category of one of the worst teams in a competition that saw Athletic Club as the winner. Real Madrid didn’t even exist, while another of the current greats, Atlético de Madrid, had to settle for eighth place. Above the mattresses were Puebla, Torrejón, Híspalis, Rayo Vallecano, Levante, Espanyol and the aforementioned Athletic Club. That day was the last time that Real Sociedad defeated Barça, a statistic broken 18 years later, on 2 November, thanks to a solitary goal from a penalty by Edna (1-0) which gave the victory to the txuri urdin.
The new Zubieta stadium was the scene of an almost unprecedented feat as Barcelona became the world reference point for women’s football. In 2024 they were named best team at the Ballon d’Or gala. The election was the logical and direct consequence of a perfect season, 2023-24, in which the team led by Jonatan Giráldez won all the titles up for grabs: Champions League, League F, Queen’s Cup and Super Cup.
Ainhoa Moraza, one of Real’s protagonists in Barça’s strange defeat – to date Barça has 12 victories in 13 matches, with 61 goals scored, only 3 conceded, between League F and Champions League -, he was just 12 years old when Real won 1-3 against that culé team that ended up losing the category. At the time, the woman from San Sebastián only dreamed of reaching the first team and emulating what her idols did. Upon her return to San Sebastián 11 years after her departure, after a successful career at Athletic, with whom she was also league champion, and Atlético de Madrid, with whom she won the Cup, Moraza is “proud” of the ambition she found in the club upon her return. “Many women before me have experienced old-fashioned football and what I have discovered here is that, little by little, steps are being taken. We are in a privileged place and in a club that is making a very important commitment to us and, for the moment, we are responding very well on the pitch”, congratulates the native of San Sebastian, who this Sunday will face Athletic (12.00, Dazn) in an Anoeta stadium that hopes to sell around 12,000 seats, one of the few seasonal F League games with a number of attendances well above the championship average (1,227 in the tournament as a whole).
For Moraza, Barça is an example to follow because “they have been doing things for many years to improve and win. And, along the way, they have lost finals. Let’s just remember that Barça only wins now, but Barça now wins because it has also lost before. I think it is a reference club on how things must be done well”, clarifies the realist, grateful, despite the matches against the culé team being synonymous with defeat. “For me, the greatest respect is that that team doesn’t stop hurting me. In the end, if that team stops attacking or stops doing things the way they did from the beginning, to me it seems like a lack of respect, but because I’m a competitive player and it seems to me that if you don’t compete at the level you have, for me that’s a lack of respect,” she underlines. “Mentally it’s a very demanding match because at the end there are always a lot of movements, there are a lot of breaks, there are some for one and you constantly feel overwhelmed,” he adds.
Despite this huge distance from Barcelona, Moraza believes that the League F forces have “evened out” among all the teams. Although, she says, there is still a long way to go: “We have had to fight and protest and we are moving forward, but there are still many things to improve. We are in a men’s sport and, unfortunately, I think women will always have to fight to have their place. It’s true that before they didn’t have it at all, now they have it a little bit and I hope that in ten years you will be here talking to another player and they will say: ‘I haven’t experienced this’. The players who have been around for years have long been trying to work so that in future, the young people who come will not have to struggle like this”, he underlines.
“When you come to train – she says, pointing to the Zubieta facilities – we have everything here. Before I went to train at 8 or 9 in the evening”, recalls the blue and white footballer. “You adapt. I think that as everything evolves, you also evolve and renew yourself. Now we don’t train like before. I think the ability to adapt depends on the era, on the coaches, on the physical trainers. There is more and more knowledge, especially among women, on how to train an athlete. So you renew yourself, just as everything evolves a little”, says a footballer who made her debut in the First Division at the age of 16 in the 2012-2013 season. a season in which FC Barcelona was already starting to show clear signs of what it wanted to become: the best team in the world.
