Cata Coll, Vilda's unexpected commitment to the World Cup: "She always had reflexes and a goalkeeper pose"

It is unusual for a five-year-old girl to be clear about what she wants to do, but Cata Coll (Pórtol, Balearic Islands, 2001) knew it very well, her passion was football. “She started in the village, with her friends from school. I was determined that I wanted to play football. We took her to play basketball, but she didn't like it,” says her father, Fernando Coll, to EL MUNDO.

Who was going to tell that girl that a few years later she would be playing her first World Cup with the senior team and that she would start? She herself did not imagine it, but the dream has come true and in the early hours of Thursday to Friday she will continue against the Netherlands (3:00 am, TVE), with the quarterfinal match, which the Spanish team will play for the first time.

The Balearic soccer player was the great novelty in Jorge Vilda's eleven for the round of 16 match against Switzerland. Throughout the group stage, the starting goalkeeper had been Misa Rodríguez, but in the first round the coach gave Cata the opportunity, to the surprise of everyone, or, well, almost everyone. Mario Cabanes, who was one of her coaches in the Balearic team, points to this newspaper: “I told her that I was going to play, that I would end up being a starter and she replied that 'I wish, but I have it very difficult'. And the other day, when he debuted, I wrote him again and warned him 'I told you, Cata'”.

From substitute to starter

She knew that it was very difficult for her to play, and that she was coming to the tournament as a substitute goalkeeper, but Mario, who knows her so well, is sure that the Spaniard “has not stopped fighting and showing in every training session that she wants to play.”. It should be noted that it is not the first time that the player has come to a tournament knowing that she will not be a starter and in the end she manages to surprise. Chus Tamurejo, director of the Football Federation of the Balearic Islands affirms: “Cata already experienced this situation in the 2018 U20 World Cup, she had two goalkeepers above. She was very young, she was sub'17 and, who would have thought that at that moment Pedro López was going to summon her and that later she was going to be a starter in all the games?

To get here, Cata has not stopped working since she started in this sport, demonstrating her passion for her work.. In its beginnings it was central, but it was always anxious to experience what was lived under sticks. Her father recalls that in her early days, at Sporting Sant Marçal, “she was lucky enough to be coached by Ernesto Varga, Pinocchio. He was the first goalkeeper coach she had and the one who instilled her competitive character.”

Fernando also does not forget the work of Pablo Roca's school and the importance it had in the formation of his daughter. “Pablo began to train her at the age of 12 and from the age of 14 he prepared a specific plan for her in which he left the imprint of his competitive character and goalkeeper technique,” says the goalkeeper's father.

I was going to be a professional player

Those who know her say they knew she was going to dedicate herself to soccer professionally.. “We knew that she was going to be a player because she looked. In other notes that have quality, but they live it more relaxed, maybe they can't with that pressure or they don't want to leave the island and Cata was clear that she wanted to play sports”, reveals Chus.

The same opinion is shared by Mario, who acknowledges that “from a very young age we already saw confidence, reflexes and a goalkeeper's pose, that the people who have been in football for many years already said that this girl could reach the top of the football and that's how it is.”

Cata Coll's palmares is remarkable. The Balearic Islander already knows what it is to be a World Champion, she achieved it with the sub'17. With the same team he managed to raise a European. All this with 22 years. Definitely a dream. One that has now been completed with his participation in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

But Cata is much more than an excellent footballer. Mario Cabanes says that off the pitch he is very outgoing. “Cata is a fun person, who makes you laugh, who makes jokes, who is the first to help you, to propose things, to pull the classmates and encourage them,” he says. She is also very close with her family, especially with her father, the first one she called as soon as she found out she was going to be a starter, even though it was five in the morning in Spain.. “When you see your daughter's name on the phone, you get scared and you answer by asking what happened? he was very lucky because just as his daughter was playing her first match, he and his family had returned from New Zealand. Even so, this morning Fernando will be glued to the television and the phone waiting for his daughter's call to confirm if he is the owner again.