Vanesa Gimbert: “This is the club where I will retire”

“I don’t want to move again”, Vanesa Gimbert joked when asked about her future. Athletic Club’s defender turns 40 today and, on such a special date, she has answered the questions that both the media and supporters have sent her through the Club’s social networks. Gimbert is certain the red-and-white shirt will be the last she will wear as a professional footballer. “I’ve been here for 7 years. Iñigo Juaristi had been interested in me coming to Athletic for a long time and, finally, that year (2013) I said ‘yes’. I don’t know whether I should have come before or not, but I’m really happy for having made that decision that day and this is where I will retire. That’s for sure”, the player from Bergara said firmly.

When she will hang up the boots is still unknown: “I feel I have the strength to continue, but we’ll have to see and evaluate whatever happens in the future. As a player, I demand a lot of myself and I don’t like just being there. If I continue it’ll be because I see I can get through another season performing at a good level. I don’t want to simply be there”, she insisted.

Gimbert has spent 21 years on the pitch and has lived a true transformation of female football: “When I played for other teams I was always looking forward to the matches against Athletic because, even knowing they were dangerous opponents, the fact of playing at Lezama, in its facilities, was a luxury”, the center-back, now a lioness for seven seasons, recalled.

In the present squad she shares her experience with players who are half her age, being a reference point in the Club: “I would advise the boys and girls who join us at Lezama to enjoy and to take in everything they can from all the coaches and the professionals who work here”. For the red-and-white number 21, being part of Athletic is “a privilege, a pride, and a responsibility.”

In her virtual press conference, Vanesa gave us a sample of the knowledge she has acquired throughout her footballing career and she even dared to give us some culinary advice for the lockdown period.