In November 1970 he was 18 years old. She was not even of age. At that time she was the one who was 21. But she planted herself in the Camp Nou offices to talk to Agustí Montal Costa, president of Barcelona. “She was a woman with a very determined and impulsive character,” he recalls. Manuel Thomasclub historian.
It was a 30-minute conversation, where she explained the need or aspiration for the club to have a women’s soccer section. The answer of montal it was yes, as long as she set up the team.
She left with a sea of doubts and alone, since she did not know what to do to gather so many players and, in addition, none of her friends was a soccer player or a ‘soccer fan’. All this at a time when the feat of creating a women’s soccer team was little more than titanic.
Final years of Francoism
Spain -and Barcelona- live in the last stage of Francoism. Thanks to the entry of tourism, as well as the Stabilization and Development Plan, the mentality begins to open up and young people absorb a series of changes through music, cinema and culture that will later spread to the rest of society. .
“In those times, for a woman to like football and want to practice it like men was something unusual as well as revolutionary,” says Manel Tomas about Immaculada Cabecerán
Five years after the visit of Immaculate head to the office of montal would die Frank, which would mean a social liberation with the transition to democracy and the equalization of political and social freedoms with the rest of Europe. All this was yet to come, but in 1970 the reality was still very distant from what was going to happen a few years later.
“In those times, that a woman liked football and wanted to practice it like men was something unusual as well as revolutionary,” he explains. Thomas, writer of the book ‘Barça Femení: Història des dels origins fins al triplet’. A story built through the personal testimonies of the soccer players who helped build the current Barça women’s team.
exploring history
Due to the difficulty of finding documentary features on which to base a realistic story, Manuel Thomas defines himself as an “explorer who enters the virgin forest with a machete and removes the undergrowth when he finds himself in unknown terrain.”
In the same way that Immaculate head when she left the Camp Nou offices, mired in uncertainty, Thomas has had to assemble a coherent thread through the memories of different protagonists.
There was a journalist from the Revista Barcelonista who found out about the meeting and contacted imma head to propose that he advertise in his magazine for the creation of the women’s team. As was the case in 1899 when Joan Gamper decided to place an ad in number 34 of the weekly ‘Los Deportes’, in the Barcelonista Magazine the following appeared:
‘Women’s football in sight’
“Women’s football is making its way. And it is coming to Barcelona. So much so, that a nice lady comes to us to ask us for help in her desire to complete a squad of good players. Immaculada Cabecerán, which is her name, has the project of organizing a women’s soccer team within the sphere of CF Barcelona. For this, she has already taken the first step, which was to speak with Mr. Montal, who has welcomed the idea with sympathy but warning that she will say “yes & rdquor; as long as the team wins every match. Miss Cabecerán already has several players, but more are needed. For this, she hopes that all those ladies who are between 18 and 25 years old and naturally wish to be part of this women’s soccer team, call 247 84 67 and Miss Cabecerán will inform them of everything. Potential aspiring players should keep in mind that the “debut & rdquor; of the team will be on Christmas day at the Barcelona stadium. As complementary information, let’s say that in the North there are already 24 women’s teams and in Madrid 3. So, ladies, let’s play football”.
Immaculate head he put on his home phone and received 115 calls from girls who wanted to play soccer. “There had to be a selection process, I don’t know how they did it, but in the end there were 16 girls with little technical knowledge, but who were all willing and a story as beautiful as this one was put together,” emphasizes Tomás.
A few weeks later, the first football match played by a Barcelona women’s team was played. It was Christmas day 1970. The match faced the Barça players at the Camp Nou, trained by the legendary former Barcelona goalkeeper Antoni Ramalletsagainst the UE Centelles.
In white and without a Barça shirt
That team was not recognized by the club, and therefore could not wear the Barça shirt or use the name of FC Barcelona. The City of Barcelona Selection, the name of the team, wore a white shirt, blue shorts and Barça socks. These were the first 16 players who defended the current women’s Barça: Mínguez, Gimeno, Gazulla, Vilaseca, Arnau, Jaques, Maite, Cabecerán, Llansà, Estivill, Blanca, Lolita, Pérez, Nieto, Ros and Glòria.
After the match at the Barça stadium, a period of difficulties began for the City of Barcelona National Team, later called the Peña Femenina Barcelonista and later the Barcelona Feminine Club. “You have to recognize those heroines who were at the foot of the canyon, chewing dirt and carrying out a journey through the desert,” says Tomás.
“You have to recognize those heroines who were at the foot of the canyon, chewing earth and carrying out a journey through the desert,” emphasizes Tomas
A journey that lasted 32 years, until in 2002 FC Barcelona integrated the women’s into the club’s structure. Manel Tomás talks about the conditions in which they had to survive: “They played in infamous fields, with bad conditions, they trained in a bad way and at ungodly hours, not to mention depending on which environments they found with a rude public that said all kinds of rudeness to them We are not talking about titles because they did enough to carry out an amateur section and put money out of their pockets enduring sexist insults and all kinds “.
The other great name: Núria Llansà
A time in which the key figure of Núria Llansà emerged, the club’s goalkeeper during the 1970s and who organized and directed the team since the 1980s. Montse Vidal, a former Barça soccer player, expressed on the club’s website that for her it was ” between a mother and a friend.
🗣️ Alexia: “Tomorrow could be the beginning of a new era. The match will inspire many people, especially girls, and in the future the fruits will be reaped” pic.twitter.com/DturcXk9GI
– FC Barcelona Femení (@FCBfemeni) March 29, 2022
Llansà tried to ensure that the players only had to worry about playing while she was concerned with the kits, boots, carrying the money and doing everything that was necessary. Pilar Moreno, another former player of the club, highlighted in an act of homage to Llansà that it is “thanks to her that Barça is where it is now”.
“Núria Llansà was president of the Barcelona Women’s Club from 1984 to 2003 and before that she had been a goalkeeper (1970-73). She did everything, she was a real woman orchestra, she managed the trips, formed the teams, organized the training sessions, acted as a mother and even as a psychologist with some players who had a hard time at that time. All those pioneers consider her a key piece of the team and the club. She even put money out of her pocket and thus prevented the disappearance of the club, “adds Manel Tomás.
Inma, Nuria, Alexia…
On the one hand, Tomás acknowledges that “if it hadn’t been for Immaculada Cabecerán, it wouldn’t have come this far”, but he also speaks of Llansà as the second great figure to understand current women’s Barça.
Without her, the club would surely have disappeared and with it the possibility of everything that is being experienced today. The plot line begins with Immaculada Cabecerán as the founder of the first embryo of what is now the European champion team and Núria Llansà for keeping the ship afloat when it seemed to be sinking.
“Now everyone gets on the train, but the hard part is building it. When it’s finished you get on and that’s it, but the workers in this case are the ones who have all the merit,” Tomas points out.
“Now everyone gets on the train, but the hard part is building it. When it’s finished you get on and that’s it, but the workers in this case are the ones who have all the merit,” says Tomás.
🗣️ Alexia: “I couldn’t imagine playing at the Camp Nou. I feel very proud that Barça makes it possible, I think it can mark a before and after in women’s football” pic.twitter.com/NetZqi1azv
– FC Barcelona Femení (@FCBfemeni) March 29, 2022
So many pioneers who have worked for a goal end up, for the time being, in the current generation of soccer players, led by a benchmark both on and off the pitch. “Alexia has a lot of merit for what she is doing for women’s soccer, women and athletes in general. She has a very coherent speech. I really like it when she says that she is excited that many girls want to be soccer players thanks to her and her teammates. Everything she is doing on and off the pitch is phenomenal. The big step is that there are children whose model is her. That children of 5 or 6 years old say they want to be like Alexia is a spectacular qualitative leap”, says Manel Tomás.
Related news
On Christmas 1970, Immaculada Cabecerán got the Selecció Ciutat de Barcelona to play their first match at the Camp Nou. 50 years later, a lot of work and struggle involved, on January 6, 2021 Barça played a match again in the Barcelona fiefdom against Espanyol (5-0), although without an audience due to the pandemic.
This Wednesday, March 30, 2022, the Camp Nou opens the doors to experience a Barça-Madrid Champions League quarter-final (1-3 in the first leg for the Catalans) before an entrance of possibly more than 60,000 people. “All the pioneers and veterans who attend or can watch the game on TV will have a few tears,” says Tomás. They are the granddaughters and great-granddaughters of Immaculada Cabecerán.