Aguirre and Villacampa review the current situation of Women’s team

Athletic Club’s sports director, Joseba Aguirre, and the first team’s coach, Ángel Villacampa, appeared at midday today in the Jose Iragorri press room in San Mamés to evaluate the current situation of the team. In the second week of preseason, with a view to the Primera Iberdrola, and to only 48 hours of the first friendly match of preparation, the technician of the lionesses has valued this beginning of the campaign. “In these friendlies, the important thing is to take sensations and that the players who have gone up from the B acquire the concepts – emphasizes Villacampa-. That we are creating that sign of identity that allows us to compete to the maximum from September 6. I am convinced that at the beginning of the first day of the League we will be ready.”

The red-and-white coach refused to make excuses for the important absences of Oroz, Damaris and Amaiur in order to reduce the demands for the new season: “We are going to set our goals on a daily schedule, but our ambition in Athletic must always be the highest. It has to be like that at a club like this, I refuse to think small despite the losses. I think I can compete and fight for the top places. We have nine girls from the subsidiary training with us and I have a lot of confidence in them. We have a Copa semifinal coming up and I feel that we still have a lot of things to do. It is true that the break came at the best time, eight games without loss, the Copa semifinal… Now when the new date of that game comes out everything will be different, but we do not take any excuses and we will do our best.”

Joseba Aguirre: “We are making a stronger team each time”
For his part, the sports director, Joseba Aguirre, highlighted the work that the red-and-white club continues to do in favour of women’s football: “Athletic has been committed to women’s football for many years, even if it costs money. We believe that it is a sign of identity and that it should occupy that space. I think we are continuing to make progress, building an increasingly powerful team to give women’s football what it deserves. All the steps the club is taking are in this direction. We have always been a little bit the envy of many women’s teams and that is not going to change, we are going to be number one.”

Aguirre has highlighted several facts that have made the team growth significantly over the last season, such as “the step forward in the nutritional aspect of the first team (breakfast and lunch in Lezama), which is a structure that is specific to the first team, with the incorporation of an analyst and a coach”. Likewise, in the subsidiary of Reto Iberdrola, “all the footballers have a professional contract, quoting at least half a day” and the newly created Women’s C “has fulfilled its objective this year and will seek promotion to the National League to try to have the first three categories covered”. In addition, three more professionals have joined (2 in Bizkaia and 1 in Navarra) to work with the partner clubs, among which was incorporated the Mulier, “a club with a great tradition in Pamplona.”

On the sporting side, the sports director of Athletic Club Women’s team has underlined the consolidation of Oihane Hernández, Oihane Valdezate and Ane Azkona in the first team, the debut in the First Division of Oguiza, Amaiur or Naroa Uriarte and in Reto Iberdrola of five players from C: “This means that things are being done well and that we have players who are taking steps forward. We have 14 international players in all categories and that is very remarkable”.

Aguirre also referred to the departure of Maite Oroz, Damaris Egurrola and Amaiur Sarriegi: “They were important players and it was a pity not to be able to convince them to continue in the project. In the case of Oroz and Damaris, they believed that sportingly the Club could not give them what they wanted. With Amaiur it was different: we thought that she had to be in the dynamic of the first team, but to have a contract in the B to not be without playing in the age in which she is. She saw that Real gave her the option to play only in the first team and preferred to leave. It makes us reflect to be more attentive and to work even more in the capture of the talent and every time at younger ages. We have to stress from a young age that Athletic is the best team they can be in”. Regarding Oroz and Damaris’ training rights, Aguirre said: “The compensation list has been validated and now we have to wait for the BOE to publish the agreement to see if it has retroactive effects. The Club is working and we do not consider anything closed. We believe that we have an opportunity to defend training rights and we are going to go all the way with it”.