By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
It is no longer news that Spain won the the nineth edition of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup title after defeating England by a lone goal in the epic final of the biggest women’s football competition in the world on Sunday, August 20, 2023 at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
Defender and team captain, Olga Carmona’s goal in the 29th minute was all Spain needed to win its first World Cup title and by this victory, Spain have become the first country in the world to win all the three global women’s football competitions in one fell swoop.
The 1-0 win against England’s Three Lionesses ensured that Spain also completed a treble as the La Roja last year won the FIFA U-20 and U-17 Women’s World Cup titles and joined Germany as only countries to win both men and women’s World Cup titles to put the country in exclusive company.
Spain’s men won the World title at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa while Germany’s men and women’s senior football teams have won the titles earlier.
Germany’s men are four-time World Cup champions, winning in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014. Also, Germany’s women are the only team besides the United States women to win multiple World Cup titles and were the first to repeat champions as the Germans won in 2003 and 2007.
Spain have now joined the Exclusive List of FIFA Women’s World Cup winners with United States, Germany, Norway and Japan as World Cup champions after winning the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup title in Sydney, Australia.
Aside the FIFA title, two Spain’s players won top awards as defensive midfielder, Aitana Bonmati won the Golden Ball Award as the best player of the tournament while rising star and forward, Salma Paralluelo scooped the Best Young Player Award.
However, Spain’s rapid rise in women’s football within a short period of time, bearing in mind that the European country did not start early like the Scandinavian nations of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Newly crowned FIFA Women’s World Cup champions have established themselves for a long run among football’s elite with their young and talented roster of rising stars.
Over the course of the month-long event, Spain played through the turbulence of last year’s player rebellion against long-term Head Coach Jorge Vilda and the recovery from injury of two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas.
Also, Aitana Bonmati, at just 25 years old, solidified her credentials as a top midfielder, and 19-year-old forward Salma Paralluelo proved to be a rising global star.
The La Roja were certainly among the top teams heading into the tournament, but not the favourite coming to Down Under. The favourite was United States, the two-time defending champions. But the Americans were eliminated on a penalty shootout with Sweden in the Round of 16, the team’s earliest departure from the tournament ever.
While Spain had been building to this point- nine players on the squad were from Champions League winner, FC Barcelona even as the country had claimed the 2018 U-17 World Cup and the 2022 U-20 World Cup- turmoil surrounding the team in the past year had created doubts.
Again, last September, no fewer than 15 La Roja players quit the national team citing mental health concerns and called on the Spanish Football Federation to create a more professional environment. They also demanded the sack of coach Vilda but the Federation refused, backing the coach to deliver.
However, three of the “Las 15”-Bonmati, Ona Batlle and Mariona Caldentey- returned to the Spain team for the tournament.
Then there was the uncertainty surrounding Putellas, the back-to-back Ballon d’Or winner, who tore her ACL last year and was clearly still working her way back during the course of the World Cup.
She started on the bench for the title match in Australia, while Paralluelo got her first start.
More than anything else, Spain’s victory showed that the rest of the world is catching up to the traditional powers just as Germany, Brazil and the United States all suffered surprisingly early exits from the tournament.
An expanded field of 32 teams was expected to expose the disparity in the women’s game. But instead, teams including Morocco, South Africa and Jamaica all advanced to the knockout round to defy expectations Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses were one of eight teams playing in its first Women’s World Cup.
A closer look at the performance of the 32 teams in competition showed that the semi-finalists included four teams that had never won a World Cup title before namely Spain, England, Sweden and Australia.
While Spain beat England 1-0 in the final on Sunday, August 20, Sweden defeated Australia 2-0 in the 0third-place match a day earlier.
Perhaps, Spain’s incredible achievements of winning the three FIFA Women’s World Cup titles all at once showed clearly that the country is doing what Nigeria and many countries of the world have failed to do, development of women’s football at the grassroots.
As earlier stated, Spain had in recent time claimed the 2018 FIFA U-17 World Cup; the 2022 U-20 World Cup and now has grabbed the ultimate crown, World Cup title with the bulk of the youth players who lifted the FIFA trophy in Australia on Sunday coming from the ranks of the youth teams.
Interestingly, unlike Nigeria that has qualified for every World Cup final since 1991 in China (along six other countries-United States, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Norway and Sweden), Spain has appeared only on two previous occasions before 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
Spain senior women’s football team made first appearance at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015 and followed it up with 2019 appearance where they reached Round of 16 stage before bowing out.
Spain crowned the incredible run of qualifying for three straight World Cup with victory at the 2023 edition of the tournament.
It calls for questioning why Nigeria, the only African country that has qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup final nine times has not gone beyond the quarter-final stage achieved under an indigenous Head Coach late Ismaila Mabo in 1999 in United States.
In the past two editions in 2019 in France and 2023 in Australia and New Zealand, Nigeria had crashed out of the competition in the Round of 16 even when the co-hosts Australia that Nigeria defeated in the group stage went on to finish in the 4th Place.
It is becoming ridiculous that Nigeria will continue to make up the numbers every four years without making any impact at the world stage despite the huge talents available in the country.
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) hierarchy has to borrow a leave from Spain’s football governing body that pays more than passing interest in the development of Spanish Women’s Liga with many Nigerian players playing club football in Spain.
This is even as Nigeria’s key players in the just concluded World Cup in Australia and New Zealand play for top Spanish clubs like FC Barcelona (Asisat Oshoala), Athletico Madrid (Rasheedat Ajibade), Sporting Alavès Osinachi Ohale and Sevilla FC (Toni Payne).
Suffice to say that Spain’s World Cup title-winning team was dominated by players from Spanish Liga with FC Barcelona feminine contributing nine players including Aitana Bonmati, Salma Paralluelo and Alexia Putellas, the back-to-back Ballon d’Or winner.
It goes to confirm that except NFF hierarchy develope the Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL), the Super Falcons, Falconets and Flamingos will continue to struggle at FIFA World Cup including the U-17 and U-20 levels.
A simple background check revealed that Nigeria performed better in the 3rd edition of FIFA Women’s World Cup final in United States because all the 23 players registered for the competition played for Nigerian clubs with Princess Bola Jegede Babes FC of Lagos producing the bulk of the players.
The women’s football league was running well at the back of the multi-million naira sponsorship deal signed by PepsiCo/ Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc and then Nigeria Football Association (NFA) which ran from 1997 to 2001, courtesy of British-born Mr. Iain Nelson.
Therefore, the successes Spain’s women’s football teams have recorded in the recent time did not just happen but were carefully planned to happen because Spain has invested in youth football at all levels and it has began to yield bountiful fruits. READ ALSO:
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This line of thought was shared in Australia after Spain beat England 1-0 to lift the coveted senior World Cup trophy by no less a personality than veteran coach Jill Ellis, former US Head Coach, who led the Yankees to win back-to-back World Cup titles.
“I just think, all of these pieces here speak to the fact that if you do invest in this, you will reap incredible benefits”, Ellis said about the beautiful game of football after the tournament Down Under.
Besides, who would have expected that Spain and her players not United States, Germany, Japan and Norway, formerly World Cup winners and perhaps England and Brazil, will dominate the honours list in Australia and New Zealand.
But Spain has surprised the world by making near clean sweep of the World Cup top prizes and also broke into the exclusive list of FIFA Women’s World Cup winners because of the country’s deliberate efforts to invest in youth football.
*See 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Honours List*
1. Winner- Spain
2. Runners-up- England
3. 3rd Place- Sweden
4. Golden Ball- Aitana Bonmati (SPA)
5. Golden Gloves- Mary Earps (ENG)
6. Best Young Player- Salma Paralluelo (SPA)
7. Golden Boot- Hinata Miyazawa (JPN).
*Full List of FIFA Women’s World Cup Winners*:
1991: United States
1995: Norway
1999: United States
2003: Germany
2007: Germany
2011: Japan
2015: United States
2019: United States
2023: Spain.
