Aitana Bonmati is a Ballon d’Or and World Cup champion who overcame difficulties.
“Where did this girl come from, where did she come from?” Those astonished remarks could be heard all throughout Catalonia whenever Aitana Bonmati stepped to the pitch. She resisted prejudices and cynicism from the start in the early 2000s, when football fields were typically not considered as a place for girls. Her first coach, Oscar Gamez, guided her as a seven-year-old girl on a CD Ribes boys’ squad. He recalls well the post-game moments in which parents from other teams would approach him in surprise.
“She was like a tsunami,” Gamez said, according to BBC Sport. “She was a force of nature on the pitch.” It was thrilling to see her perform. She had something the guys didn’t have – this effervescence, this attitude of constantly wanting to move… that was the primary difference.” Bonmati was not just the only female player on her squad; she was the only female player for CD Ribes as a whole. There was just one club, with 400 guys and one female.
“We know how boys can be, and at that time, they discriminated against her for being the only girl,” Gamez went on to say. “However, I’ve never had to mediate. Aitana had a strong personality and refused to be trampled on.” Bonmati would hurl herself into tackles on tough pitches, brush herself off, and never complain.
Small-town cynicism soon gave way to amazement. Bonmati’s narrative is more than just that of a football player; it is a chronicle of mental fortitude, intensity, and a never-ending drive that spans generations. Bonmati rose to the peak of women’s football from the dirt and grit of Ribes’ proving grounds, but the source of her fire and perseverance goes far beyond the game and even her own birth.
Rosa Bonmati, Aitana’s mother, was confronted with a form. And a choice. It was 1998. She had gone to the civil registration to record the birth of her daughter. Tradition, convention, and statute in Spain were all in agreement. Rosa’s father’s surname, Vincent Conca, must be the first of Aitana’s two surnames. Bonmati’s name would be kept, but only on official papers. Aitana is better known as Aitana Conca. Rosa fought back.
She put her own name – Bonmati – before her husband’s with Vincent’s complete approval. When the bureaucracy refused, Rosa instead registered as a single mother, taking Vincent’s information off the form altogether and giving Aitana only one surname, but an early example of sticking up for what she believes in. Rosa quit the registration, but she refused to let the matter go. She proposed changing the legislation to allow parents to attribute their children’s surnames in any order, together with lawmaker Imma Mayol and a committee of legal experts.