Ana Romero, better known as Willy, is one of the players who played a key role in the explosive growth of Spanish women’s football in recent years. An iconic figure in the last decade of La Liga F, she played for Espanyol, Barça, Sevilla, Betis, Valencia, Rayo Vallecano, and Ajax. In a recent interview with Blaugranagram’s partner, Flashscore, Willy discussed the present and future of this Barça Femení team, among other topics.
When asked about the departures of Ona, Mapi and Alexia, Willy thinks Barça will be fine, “in the end, the Liga F loses more than Barça, since Alexia is also a very important player beyond football, she has a lot of media presence”, and “I think Barça has some fantastic players, and they have Aitana and Patri Guijarro , whose absence would be a huge blow for th team. However, if they maintain the core of the team that I believe they’ll keep, I don’t think they’ll have much of a problem for now.”
Ana played with a youngster Alexia, who already seemed to have a bright future ahead of her, “she was a player with tremendous potential even in the youth categories. When I was with the senior national team, we’d also watch videos of the youth squads in the Spanish federation system, like the U17 national team and so on,, and of course she stood out. Later, we played together at Espanyol, when she was 17; and it was clear she had tremendous potential.”
Willy also explains how a more favorable ontext helped Alexia, “I think she came into the game at the right time, a good time for Barça, a good time for the national team, and her talent made her a key player for both teams, and ultimately, all of that combined to make her who she is today.”
