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That CD Tacón would become Real Madrid was already clear when the team’s duo signed for the Spanish upstart last summer.
On July 1 of this year, the inauguration was made official and Real Madrid won a professional women’s team for the first time in its 118-year history.
– It has never been a natural thing for us to play for our favorite clubs, says Kosovar Asllani.
– Young people have always been able to have those dreams. We really couldn’t do that. So, for my part, this is very big, it is a completely new chapter in the history of Real Madrid that is being written.
Club mate and national team Sofia Jakobsson adds before the start of the weekend season in Spain:
– It seems to be an interesting year, the league has grown a lot.
– So it’s been a long time without matches. But now we have a date for the game and it’s incredibly fun to start.
Yes it has It has been a very, very long break for the Swedes and other players from Spain.
When last spring’s crown pandemic put all of European football on hold, then-CD Tacón was 10th in the rankings. But while the highest men’s series resumed this summer, those for women were impressed. And during the preseason, almost no training matches could be played, only internal matches, due to restrictions in Spain.
European Championship qualifier against Hungary (8-0) and Iceland (1-1) this week were Asllani and Jakobsson’s first real test in more than six months.
– It is clear that it is different when you have not played a game in seven months. It’s a different situation, but it means that the desire to play is greater than ever, says Kosovar Asllani and continues:
– I was still lucky enough to be in Sweden after the Algarve Cup (in March) while my teammates were locked up in Spain for several months. Anyway, I have been able to keep the training at a high level.
National team forward Sofia Jakobsson is one of three Swedes in the Spanish league.
Photo: Janerik Henriksson / TT
The season premiere for Real Madrid there will be none.
On Sunday he expects a Clásico live, at home, against the Champions League semifinalist, Barcelona. And now officially playing in the Real Madrid colors has meant changes during the climb, says Asllani.
– There has been a big difference, it is very noticeable that Real Madrid has entered, although we were at the facility and we already trained last year. Now it is on another level.
– We have many more employees – we probably have three or four physiotherapists who are with us full time – it is a high level and you want to build the club in the same way that you do with men.
Investing with Among other things, a future academy team has great symbolic value, says the 31-year-old who has previously played for damallsvenskan, the United States, France and England.
– That’s what you want, that all the big clubs on the men’s side have women’s teams. The fact that Real Madrid has it is a huge boost for Spanish football.
Kosovars Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson went to CD Tacón, now Real Madrid, after last year’s World Cup bronze. Here during a training session for the national team in Gothenburg.
Photograph: Björn Larsson Rosvall / TT
In an interview with SVT has questioned Asllani that the women’s league in Spain has been interrupted while the men’s was resumed after the crown break. But the fact that a club like Real Madrid is now on the women’s side, after all, has elevated the status of women’s football in the country.
The name change also pays more attention.
– When they call us Real Madrid, there are always very high expectations. “I have noticed especially on social media that the interest from the fans is brutal,” says Kosovar Asllani.
– They recognize you on the streets of Madrid, which I did not expect at all.
