Ex-Spain women’s coach Jorge Vilda, sacked on Tuesday after eight years at the helm of La Roja, says he didn’t “understand” his dismissal, saying it was unfair after winning the World Cup last month. ” How I go ? I’m doing as well as I can after being world champion 16 days ago, then reappointed for five years with a higher salary 10 days ago and being fired today, I think unfairly, “said he told Cadena Ser radio late on Tuesday evening. A dismissal that he “did not understand” and which, according to him, “was not deserved”.
The 42-year-old coach, close to President Luis Rubiales and whose methods were criticized by his players, was sacked on Tuesday by the Spanish federation and replaced by his former assistant, Montse Tomé, the first woman to hold this position. This decision was presented by the RFEF as “one of the first restructuring measures” following the affair of the forced kiss of Luis Rubiales to world champion Jenni Hermoso, which plunged Spanish football into crisis.
In office since 2015, Vilda had been let go by all of her players, who announced that they would not play again under her management, and by the majority of her staff, including Montse Tomé, in reaction to Rubiales’ refusal to resign. . In a speech, the president of the federation, since suspended by Fifa for 90 days, had presented his gesture as a “little consented kiss”, while the Spanish number 10 said he felt “victim of an aggression”.
“I will not applaud the gestures that have been made in Sydney. I will never applaud anything macho,” defended Jorge Vilda on the radio, after being filmed applauding Luis Rubiales’ violent speech against “false feminism”. “After 17 years of women’s football, after everything I’ve achieved, after giving it my all, … I have peace of mind because I know I gave 100% every day,” added Vilda, considered by the Spanish federation as “the key man for the progression of women’s football” in the country.
