Spain women's national football team

After underground women's football clubs started appearing in Spain around 1970 one of its instigators, Rafael Muga, decided to create a national team. It was an unofficial project as football was considered an unsuitable sport for women by both the Royal Spanish Football Federation and National Movement's Women's Section, which organized women's sports in Francoist Spain. When asked about the initiative in January 1971 RFEF president José Luis Pérez Payá answered I'm not against women's football, but I don't like it either. I don't think it's feminine from an esthetic point of view. Women are not favored wearing shirt and trousers. Any regional dress would fit them better.[3]

One month later, on 21 February 1971, the unofficial Spanish national team, including Conchi Sánchez, who played professionally in the Italian league, made its debut in Murcia's La Condomina against Portugal, ending in a 3–3 draw. The team wasn't allowed to wear RFEF's crest and the referee couldn't wear an official uniform either. On 15 July, with a 5-days delay for transfer issues, it played its first game abroad against Italy in Turin's Stadio Comunale, suffering an 8–1 defeat. It was then invited to the 2nd edition of unofficial women's world cup (Mundialito 1981), but RFEF forbid them to take part in the competition.[4] Despite these conditions Spain was entrusted hosting the 1972 World Cup. RFEF vetoed the project, and the competition was cancelled and disbanded. The unofficial Spanish team itself broke up shortly after.

After the transition to democracy in the second half of the decade RFEF finally accepted women's football in November 1980, creating first a national cup and next a national team, which finally made its debut under coach Teodoro Nieto on 5 February 1983 in A Guarda, Pontevedra. The opponent was again Portugal, which defeated Spain 0–1. The team subsequently played 2-leg friendlies against France and Switzerland drawing with both opponents in Aranjuez and Barcelona and losing in Perpignan before it finally clinched its first victory in Zürich (0–1).[5] On 27 April 1985 it played its first official match in the 1987 European Championship's qualification, losing 1–0 against Hungary. After losing the first four matches Spain defeated Switzerland and drew with Italy to end third. The team also ended in its group's bottom positions in the subsequent 1989 and 1991 qualifiers. After the former Nieto was replaced by Ignacio Quereda, who has coached the team since 1 September 1988. Years later he would confess: There was never love or support from the Federation towards those women soccer players.

Teodoro Nieto left the most International Footballer Conchi sanchez (Amancio) out of the Spanish Team even when the player was the first Capitain during the 70s, She was playing in Italy at the time winning championships and Italian Cups, there was not substantial reasons to leave such extraordinary player out at the peak of her career, the damaged was done to such brilliant player who loved to play for her country and fully deserved more respect and recognition.

The 1995 Euro qualifying marked an improvement as Spain ended 2nd, one point from England, which qualified for the final tournament. In these qualifiers Spain attained its biggest victory to date, a 17–0 over Slovenia. In the 1997 Euro qualifying it made a weaker performance, including a record 0–8 loss against Sweden in Gandia, but the European Championship was expanded to eight teams and Spain still made it to the repechage, where it defeated England on a 3–2 aggregate to qualify for the competition for the first time. In the first stage the team drew 1–1 against France, lost 0–1 against host Sweden, and beat 1–0 Russia to qualify on goal average over France to the semifinals, where it was defeated 2–1 by Italy. All three goals were scored by Ángeles Parejo.

This success was followed by a long series of unsuccessful qualifiers. In the 1999 World Cup's qualifying Spain ended last for the first time, not winning a single game. In the 2001 Euro's it made it to the repechage, where it suffered a 3–10 aggregate defeat against Denmark. In the 2003 World Cup's it again ended last despite starting with a 6–1 win over Iceland. In the 2005 Euro's, where a 9–1 win over Belgium was followed by a 5-game non scoring streak, it ended 3rd behind Denmark and Norway. In the 2007 World Cup's the team again ended 3rd behind Denmark and Finland despite earning 7 more points.

In the 2009 Euro's Spain made its better performance since the 1995 qualifiers, narrowly missing qualification as England clinched the top position by overcoming a 2–0 in the final match's second half. Spain had to play the repechage, where it lost both games against the Netherlands. In the 2011 World Cup's Spain again ended 2nd, with no repechage, after England again overcame a half-time 2–0 in their second confrontation.[6]

Spain achieved 16 years later a place for the final stage of a European Championship. The team qualified for the UEFA Women's Euro 2013, after beating Scotland in the qualifiers playoff. In the group stage, a win over England and a draw against Russia was enough to qualify for the quarterfinals, where they were eliminated by Norway.

Two years later, Spain qualified for the first time ever to a World Cup, winning nine of its ten matches of the qualifying round. In the group stage of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Their campaign, however, ended up being a disaster. Spain managed only a 1–1 draw into the weakest team in the group, Costa Rica, before losing 0–1 to Brazil. In the last match with South Korea, they still lost 1–2 after an initial lead, becoming the worst European team in the tournament. After the World Cup, the 23 players on the roster issued a collective statement for the end of Ignacio Quereda's reign as head coach.[7] Later that summer, Quereda stepped down and was replaced by Jorge Vilda, who had previously coached the U-19 team, and was on the shortlist for the 2014 FIFA World Coach of the Year.[8][9] |image2 =|caption2 = Roster for the World Cup 2015 Spain has achieved to qualify for the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 by winning all the matches and ahead in 11 points to the second classified. In 2017 the national team participated for the first time in the Algarve Cup winning the tournament.[10] However, its performance in the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 was very disappointing: only one match won (against Portugal, the worst ranked team in Euro), two defeats against England (0–2) and Scotland (0–1) in group stage, Miraculously Spain advanted to the quarter-finals, where losing against Austria in a quarter-final finishing 0–0 after extra time, then 3–5 in penalty shoot-out. Eventually, the national football team was eliminated after more than 345 minutes without scoring a single goal.

Spain women's national team in 2018

At the 2019 Women's World Cup, Spain were in Group B with China PR, South Africa, and Germany. They finished second in the group to progress to the knockout stage of a World Cup for the first time in their history.[11] However, the team was eliminated in the round of 16 by the eventual champions United States.

In October 2019, the federation announced the creation of España Promesas (essentially Spain B), a team for players too old for younger age groups but not in the latest full squad, to provide training and occasional match experience for those in consideration for the future,[12] that was later reconverted and renamed Spain under-23.

Spain qualified for the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 undefeated and assembled what would be the strongest ever Spanish team in history, and was ranked among the top contenders for the title.[13] However, just before the tournament began, Spain suffered two big blows, with both Jennifer Hermoso and Alexia Putellas withdrew due to injury. Without the two taliswomen in the squad, Spain failed to perform at full expectation in the tournament and only reached the quarter-finals in second place after Germany. Spain then performed well against England, even took the lead in 54' by Esther González, but conceded a late equalizer by Ella Toone before Georgia Stanway crushed Spain's hope to win a major European title in extra time.

Las 15[14][lower-alpha 1]

Player	Club
Laia Aleixandri	Manchester City
Ona Batlle	Manchester United
Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona
Mariona Caldentey	Barcelona
Nerea Eizagirre	Real Sociedad
Lola Gallardo	Atlético Madrid
Lucía García	Manchester United
Patricia Guijarro	Barcelona
Mapi León	Barcelona
Ainhoa Moraza	Atlético Madrid
Leila Ouahabi	Manchester City
Sandra Paños	Barcelona
Andrea Pereira	Club América
Clàudia Pina	Barcelona
Amaiur Sarriegi	Real Sociedad

In the summer of 2022, senior players in the squad felt that it needed "a fresh start", particularly after going out at the quarter-finals at UEFA Women's Euro 2022 in July.[14] There was discontent among players in the months before, however; in the documentary Alexia: Labor Omnia Vincit, star player Alexia Putellas is shown expressing futility towards the team's situation in April 2022.[16][17] With players having previously experienced malaise at the team's conditions, being one of the favourites at the Euro made it more disappointing when they did not perform.[15] In August 2022, at the first Spain team camp after the Euro,[18] three team captains (Irene Paredes, Jennifer Hermoso, and Patricia Guijarro) spoke to manager Jorge Vilda on behalf of the team, saying players "believed a change was needed in both training and tactics" and also had complaints about Vilda being too authoritarian.[15][18] Some players felt that the national team training was not up to the standards of their high-level club team training. The captains also communicated their concerns to Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). With the sense of the dispute entering the press, at the start of September, Paredes and Guijarro spoke at a team press conference to say that they believed in the team and had spoken to Vilda to "convey a message of general unease".[15][18]

Later in September, fifteen national team players (who would quickly come to be identified as "Las 15") each sent the same letter by email to the RFEF, expressing concerns with the conditions and asking to not be called up. Parts of the email were subsequently leaked to the Spanish press, with some outlets also reporting that the players were demanding the resignation of Vilda; the captains disputed this, saying that the leaks were inaccurate and the email had only expressed how the players felt the team could be improved to deliver better results, asserting that they felt the need to take collective action in order to be listened to. Following the leak, all fifteen players, as well as Putellas, who had already not been in the squad since July due to injury, tweeted a statement reiterating that they did not want to be called up. The RFEF responded to this by saying they backed Vilda and that the players would have to apologise and rescind their complaints to be allowed back into the squad.[14][15] Several of the fifteen play in England, with British outlet The Guardian reporting in the hours after the leak that the RFEF's response, using "belligerent tone and language", indicated that any resolution would be difficult.[18]

When discussing the Spain women's team that played in international friendlies after the dispute began, media have referred to them with the shorthand name "Spain B", describing it as Spain's B team. In the friendlies, the B team still performed well, including managing to defeat the top-ranked, if injury-stricken, United States team.[19]

The Women's Clásico rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona had previously not been a serious affair. The rupture in the national team, which saw many Barcelona players denounce the squad while none from Real Madrid did – reported by some to be due to the Real Madrid administration pressuring them not to be involved, created a growing dispute between the clubs, "a new and emerging Barca-Madrid divide" for the women's teams. At the first Women's Clásico after the dispute began, Barcelona's Aitana Bonmatí refused to shake hands with Real Madrid's Misa Rodríguez in a "shocking" moment.[15]

Vilda did not call up any of the fifteen players, or those who publicly supported them, for October 2022 friendlies. He said that what he was going through was something he would not wish on anyone, and that what the players were doing to him was unfair.[14]

The 2022–23 Supercopa de España Femenina in January 2023 was contested by Barcelona and Real Sociedad, teams whose players comprise more than half of the fifteen. When no RFEF representatives would go to the pitch to award Barcelona their winners' medals and Real Sociedad their runners-up medals, Spanish media reported that sources said the RFEF had not wanted to be seen with the players in the fifteen.[20] The RFEF disputed this, and Barcelona management said that it seemed unlikely as there had not been a tense atmosphere at the match.[21] Afterwards, England and Barcelona player Lucy Bronze shared on Instagram a photograph of her at their winners' ceremony, which prominently showed the back of her shirt and her squad number, 15; she captioned the photograph "Las 15", considered a double entendre expressing her support for the fifteen players. Bronze, a prominent global player and advocate, had previously expressed support for them on other occasions.[22]

The following players were called up for the friendly matches against Norway and China on 6 and 11 April 2023.

Caps and goals as of 12 April 2023

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	María Isabel Rodríguez	(1999-07-23) 23 July 1999	12	0	Real Madrid
12	1GK	María Asunción Quiñones	(1996-10-29) 29 October 1996	3	0	Athletic Bilbao
23	1GK	Elene Lete	(2002-05-07) 7 May 2002	1	0	Real Sociedad
4	2DF	Irene Paredes	(1991-07-04) 4 July 1991	90	11	Barcelona
5	2DF	Ivana Andrés	(1994-07-13) 13 July 1994	46	0	Real Madrid
6	2DF	Laia Codina	(2000-01-22) 22 January 2000	3	1	Barcelona
14	2DF	Berta Pujadas	(2000-04-09) 9 April 2000	2	0	Valencia
18	2DF	Jana Fernández	(2002-02-18) 18 February 2002	1	0	Barcelona
19	2DF	Olga Carmona	(2000-06-12) 12 June 2000	22	1	Real Madrid
20	2DF	Paula Tomás	(2001-09-11) 11 September 2001	2	0	Levante
3	3MF	Teresa Abelleira	(2000-01-09) 9 January 2000	14	1	Real Madrid
7	3MF	Irene Guerrero	(1996-12-12) 12 December 1996	22	4	Atlético Madrid
8	3MF	Maite Oroz	(1998-03-25) 25 March 1998	8	2	Real Madrid
16	3MF	Fiamma Benítez	(2004-06-19) 19 June 2004	6	1	Valencia
21	3MF	María Pérez	(2001-12-24) 24 December 2001	2	0	Barcelona B
24	3MF	Sheila García	(1997-03-15) 15 March 1997	18	0	Atlético Madrid
9	4FW	Esther González	(1992-12-08) 8 December 1992	35	23	Real Madrid
10	4FW	Jennifer Hermoso	(1990-05-09) 9 May 1990	97	48	Pachuca
11	4FW	Alba Redondo	(1996-08-27) 27 August 1996	26	11	Levante
12	4FW	Ascensión Martínez	(2002-02-20) 20 February 2002	2	0	Valencia
15	4FW	Eva Navarro	(2001-01-27) 27 January 2001	8	2	Atlético Madrid
17	4FW	Salma Paralluelo	(2003-11-13) 13 November 2003	6	5	Barcelona
22	4FW	Athenea del Castillo	(2000-10-24) 24 October 2000	25	6	Real Madrid

• The following players were also named to a squad in the last 12 months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Enith Salón	(2001-09-24) 24 September 2001	2	0	Valencia	v.  Norway; 6 April 2023 PRE
GK	Dolores Gallardo WD	(1993-06-10) 10 June 1993	38	0	Atlético Madrid	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022
GK	Sandra Paños WD	(1992-11-04) 4 November 1992	55	0	Barcelona	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022 PRE
DF	María Méndez INJ	(2001-04-10) 10 April 2001	2	0	Levante	v.  Norway; 6 April 2023 PRE
DF	Rocío Gálvez	(1997-04-14) 14 April 1997	8	0	Real Madrid	v.  Czech Republic; 22 February 2023
DF	Oihane Hernández	(2000-05-04) 4 May 2000	7	0	Athletic Bilbao	v.  Australia; 19 February 2023
DF	Bibiane Schulze INJ	(1998-11-12) 12 November 1998	0	0	Athletic Bilbao	2023 Cup of Nations PRE
DF	Alejandra Bernabé	(2001-11-12) 12 November 2001	1	0	Real Sociedad	v.  Argentina; 11 November 2022
DF	Ana Tejada	(2002-06-02) 2 June 2002	1	0	Real Sociedad	v.  Argentina; 11 November 2022
DF	Nuria Rábano	(1999-06-15) 15 June 1999	1	0	Barcelona	v.  Sweden; 7 October 2022
DF	Lucía Rodríguez	(1999-05-24) 24 May 1999	0	0	Real Madrid	v.  Sweden; 7 October 2022 PRE
DF	Leila Ouahabi WD	(1993-03-22) 22 March 1993	53	1	Manchester City	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022
DF	Andrea Pereira WD	(1993-09-19) 19 September 1993	42	0	América	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022
DF	Ainhoa Vicente WD	(1995-08-20) 20 August 1995	6	0	Atlético Madrid	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022
DF	Laia Aleixandri WD	(2000-08-25) 25 August 2000	16	2	Manchester City	v.  Hungary; 2 September 2022
DF	Ona Batlle WD	(1999-06-10) 10 June 1999	28	0	Manchester United	v.  Hungary; 2 September 2022
DF	María Pilar León WD	(1995-06-13) 13 June 1995	54	1	Barcelona	v.  Hungary; 2 September 2022 PRE
MF	Claudia Zornoza INJ	(1990-10-29) 29 October 1990	10	0	Real Madrid	v.  Norway; 6 April 2023 PRE
MF	Marta Cardona INJ	(1995-05-26) 26 May 1995	28	3	Atlético Madrid	v.  Czech Republic; 22 February 2023
MF	Marta Carro	(1991-01-06) 6 January 1991	9	1	Valencia	v.  Australia; 19 February 2023
MF	Anna Torrodà	(2000-01-21) 21 January 2000	5	0	Valencia	v.  Argentina; 11 November 2022
MF	Maitane López	(1995-03-13) 13 March 1995	2	0	Atlético Madrid	v.  Argentina; 11 November 2022 PRE
MF	Rosa Márquez	(2000-12-22) 22 December 2000	1	0	Real Betis	v.  United States; 11 October 2022 PRE
MF	Andrea Falcón	(1997-02-28) 28 February 1997	12	1	América	v.  United States; 11 October 2022 PRE
MF	Patricia Guijarro WD	(1998-05-17) 17 May 1998	52	11	Barcelona	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022
MF	Aitana Bonmatí WD	(1998-01-18) 18 January 1998	46	16	Barcelona	v.  England; 20 July 2022
MF	Alexia Putellas	(1994-02-04) 4 February 1994	100	27	Barcelona	UEFA Women's Euro 2022 INJ
MF	Nerea Eizagirre WD	(2000-01-04) 4 January 2000	10	2	Real Sociedad	v.  Australia; 25 June 2022 PRE
FW	Nahikari García	(1997-03-10) 10 March 1997	18	3	Real Madrid	v.  Japan; 15 November 2022
FW	Inmaculada Gabarro	(2002-11-05) 5 November 2002	1	1	Sevilla	v.  Argentina; 11 November 2022
FW	Ane Azkona	(1998-07-15) 15 July 1998	1	0	Athletic Bilbao	v.  United States; 11 October 2022
FW	Amaiur Sarriegi WD	(2000-12-13) 13 December 2000	15	12	Real Sociedad	v.  Ukraine; 6 September 2022
FW	Mariona Caldentey WD	(1996-03-19) 19 March 1996	54	19	Barcelona	v.  Hungary; 2 September 2022
FW	Lucía García WD	(1998-07-14) 14 July 1998	37	9	Manchester United	v.  Hungary; 2 September 2022
FW	Clàudia Pina WD	(2001-08-12) 12 August 2001	6	0	Barcelona	v.  Germany; 12 July 2022
INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury. PRE Preliminary squad. WD Player has been withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

• Premios Nacionales del Deporte (National Sports Awards): Baron de Güell Cup (2014)[24]

Clean Sheets: Goalkeeper must play at least 60 minutes to obtain the points of a clean sheet.
Average: percentage of clean sheets achieved per game
Ratio: goals concered per game

The Spain under-23 is a football team operated under the auspices of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Its primary role is the development of players in preparation for the senior Spain women's national team.

FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
2008:	did not qualify	2010:	Third Place	2012:	did not qualify
2014:	Runner-up	2016:	Third Place	2018:	Champion
2020:	cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	2022:	Champion

UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship

UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship
2008:	did not qualify	2009:	Runner-up	2010:	Champion
2011:	Champion	2012:	did not qualify	2013:	Third Place
2014:	Runner-up	2015:	Champion	2016:	Runner-up
2017:	Runner-up	2018:	Champion	2019:	Third Place
2020:	cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	2021:	cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic	2022:	Runner-up