Salma Paralluelo's journey from the fences to the European Championship

Salma Paralluelo (Zaragoza, 18 years old) has been this Monday the great surprise in the list of the Spanish soccer team for the women's European Championship that will be played in England from next week.

The Villarreal striker has yet to make her senior debut (she missed the friendly against Australia on Sunday due to some discomfort), but she has been among the 23 selected by Jorge Vilda.

“She is a player for the future, but differential.

She has great technical quality and this European Championship is going to help us see what she can give us”, explained the coach on Monday.

Paralluelo will be part of a squad full of world-class stars such as Alexia Putellas, captain and last Ballon d'Or winner. To date, Spain's best result in a European Championship has been third place in 1997. For Villarreal's striker, the tournament will not only be the biggest challenge of her career, but also the turning point that will define her as an athlete.

Until now, the player has combined her career as a footballer with her other great passion, athletics, in which she has also stood out from a very young age.

As an athlete, she holds the best Spanish record under-18 in the 400 meter hurdles (57.36 seconds in 2020) and is a national indoor record holder for both under-20 and under-19 (53.83 seconds in 2019). ).

Last year, a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee shattered his dream of competing in the Tokyo Olympics, and since then he has been moving away from the tracks.

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"This month will be crucial to decide his future," says Félix Laguna, his lifelong athletics coach.

The player had postponed the difficult choice between football and athletics, but for the coach, that moment has already come: "He has finished his contract with Villarreal and it will be very difficult for him to find a club that allows him to maintain the duality of disciplines long deadline," he explains.

Salma has been able to play both football matches and athletics tournaments thanks to the fact that the

club has agreed to combine the two disciplines.

A duality that is not strange in young athletes, but that becomes incompatible when they reach the age of maturity in which they must choose.

The coach emphasizes that his career as an athlete may be linked to his continuity at Villarreal.

“The team has done very well with her and the club has pointed out several times that Salma's athletic preparation has been very good for her as a footballer.

They were very clever in realizing that doing both enhanced his ability,” he says.

Laguna highlights Salma's potential as a sports prodigy, regardless of which one she competes in.

“Society does not know how to manage a talent like Salma.

It is a genetic exception.

I could do both sports and at a high level, but I would need a type of preparation that does not exist in Spain”, laments the coach, who explains how Salma's estrangement from athletics has been.

“This year has been very complicated, especially after the injury.

He was able to return to soccer training within a few months, but for athletics he needed much more recovery time.

It was never easy to combine the two things.

Before, if she arrived tired from the matches, we couldn't do a good training and we had to focus on recovering.

But in the last few months, after she came back from injury,

Salma reappeared on the pitch in March of this year after almost a year of recovery.

In the time he has left this season, he has played nine games with Villarreal, in which he has scored three goals, one against Barcelona considered one of the best of the season.

On the contrary, he has only competed in two athletics events, none with the expected performance.

“She has been able to compete in soccer because she does not require so much physical demand.

She was at 40% but still makes a difference.

But her in athletics she has been very different.

The girls that she beat easily have surpassed her because they really can train 100% several days a week”, says Laguna.

Faced with this situation, the coach understands what his pupil has chosen.

“To compete at her level again, I would need a lot of preparation.

She told me: 'If it's going to cost me so much to go back to athletics, I'm going to football, which is where they call me.'

I told her that I was very happy for her and I wished her the best of luck, but I insisted that she has the upper hand and that she can continue doing athletics if she wants”, says the coach, who still sees a thread of hope for that Paralluelo does not leave the slopes.

“If he took five years off for the next two Olympic cycles, I am convinced that he could fight for the medals and later, at 24 or 25 years old, he would still have time to exploit his career as a footballer,” suggests the coach, aware that it is of a very remote option.

Laguna insists that the choice belongs solely to the athlete.

His call for the European Championship could be confirmation that his future lies in football, but the coach refuses to give it up.

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