Mariona, the soccer player from the little-publicized team who gave two assists on the way to the Nations League final

There was a moment when he thought: “Earth, swallow me.”

She couldn't take it anymore and it was difficult for her to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“My heart is broken and I can't find the words to express how I feel.

“Football is not just football, it is my life,” Mariona Caldentey (Felanitx, Mallorca; 27 years old) wrote last year on social networks, when a string of injuries (a sprained ankle combined with two breaks in the femoral biceps of both legs) denied him the ball and be happy.

It is, however, the past.

Because Mariona smiled and cried with happiness after winning the World Cup, because this Friday she also raised her arms and received the claps and recognition of her teammates after clearing the goal ramp against the Netherlands - she gave two assists - in the League semi-final of Nations, in the safe conduct achieved for the Paris Olympic Games.

Nothing new for Mariona, she is always there even if she does not appear on the Ballon d'Or or

The Best

lists .

Although the story was about to be different.

Mariona was one of the 15 players who at the time, after falling in the 2022 Euro Cup, ruled out continuing with the national team until things changed, until the area was professionalized and the coaching staff changed, reluctant to continue with a Jorge Vilda who understood that he did not prepare the meetings and barely gave them freedom of movement.

It happened, however, that the World Cup arrived and the opportunity to return, the soccer players convinced that nothing was the same and also attracted to play in the greatest of tournaments.

“Tomorrow the list will be out.

We'll see what happens.

I can not say anything.

But yes, I am available,” Mariona resolved before any of her teammates, the starting signal for other soccer players like Aitana or Ona Batlle to return to the team.

“The moment I decide to go to the World Cup it is because I believe it can be won,” she revealed a week ago in the newspaper

As

.

And they won it.

But the toll he went through during that time almost kept him away from football.

The injuries, in addition to the social and media tension of declaring himself unselectable, took their toll on him.

He realized that something was not right, that he had lost that smile that always characterized him.

She did not eat or sleep well, somewhat overwhelmed by anxiety.

“We have to hit something now,” her agent, Carlota Planas, told her after a meeting they had, one of those days in which sadness and frustration took over Mariona.

So she decided to work with an outside psychologist.

“When things are going well, you don't pay attention to how you are.

But when you have times when you falter, when you hit rock bottom, you realize the importance of being well,” the midfielder accepted in the same interview;

“The topic of the selection had a great media stir.

You receive a lot of criticism, you also receive support..., but it all comes to you very suddenly.

I don't know what the trigger was, the specific moment, but I didn't feel well.

I couldn't play, I was injured.

I came to question whether I could continue.”

With professional help, in addition to changing eating habits - she hired nutritionist Javier Fernández Ligero, who also works with Jennifer Hermoso and Cata Coll - based on blood tests, Mariona returned and did it in a big way.

At first it was difficult for him to get the rhythm in the World Cup, as a substitute against Costa Rica, little of it against Zambia and Japan and again on the bench against Switzerland.

But when the playoffs began, the best version of Mariona arrived, a footballer who may not be a ten in anything but an eight in everything, because he knows how to always choose the best option, play with one or two touches, use the shot or the break.

“Rude,” wrote the award-winning Hope Solo when she saw her dribbling in the

Champions

style - the Oliver and Benji series - when she scored against a rival who fell to the ground and hit the ball over her.

“If we have problems, we know that we can give her the ball and that she will get out of trouble,” says an authoritative voice from her locker room.

Maybe that's why she also takes penalties, because she doesn't know what it's like to shiver.

“She has reached her soccer maturity because she had always had flashes, but now she maintains them over time and since the World Cup she has played everything and at a high level,” they concede from her entourage.

“She is a player with spatial intelligence, she has a high level and is very influential in our game.

Furthermore, she is having a great season with numbers to back it up.

We are very happy to have her with us,” explained Tomé after her challenge against the Netherlands.

She is sweet and mature.

The same thing happens at Barça, where this year, always a wild card because he can play in any position in the attack – “Sometimes Vilda, [former coach] told us: 'We position ourselves in natural positions.'

And I thought...: 'Well, where do I stand?', she says amusingly, - she is at a high level, fundamental in the Super Cup, when she scored two goals against Madrid in the semi-final, also decisive in the Champions League, Well, he has scored eight consecutive seasons in the competition - it is the only one on the football planet - and this goal from the middle of the field against Rosengard will remain in the memory.

Fond of playing the piano because her grandmother María taught her as a child, graduated in physical activity and sports sciences (she plans to dedicate herself to teaching when she hangs up her boots) and close to renewing with Barcelona, ​​Mariona has won everything: five Leagues, five Cups, two Champions Leagues, one World Cup and his name engraved on the soccer field of his town.

She now also has the ticket for the Games.

But she wants more.

“I don't think anyone can get tired of winning.

We have a generation that must be taken advantage of.

Winning is in our heads,” she agrees.

Next Wednesday she plays the final of the Nations League against France.

Mariona, just in case, polishes her boots.

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