Will men and women ever be able to play football together?
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Ever since she started to play football professionally, Tamira Singer's dream has been to start a new football competition: the respective male and female first teams of a club form a n...
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"And how is this supposed to work?" Gerard Piqué, one of the centre backs of the men's FC Barcelona football team, asked. "I'm taller than most men, how would a woman ever stand a chance?"
It was a justified question. The details were still a bit fuzzy, even if that meeting with Bartomeu the other day had taken a long time, in which said details had been discussed by the captains, trainers and the president at length.
"Still doesn't help you against 'la pulga' in a one-on-one, does it?" Neymar said with a good-natured grin on his face. His comment only earned him a playful slap on the back of his head by the tall centre back. Leo (who's nickname was 'la pulga', aka 'the flee', thanks to his moderate edging on small size) laughed alongside his teammates.
The men's first team had assembled in one of the bigger meeting rooms at the training compound Joan Gamper in Barcelona. Luis Enrique and the four captains were seated in the middle of a long table with the rest gathered around them. Seating arrangements had long since been forgotten – all of the guys were either sitting rather closely on the other side of the table or standing around those who sat.
The news of the new idea of a mixed team had come with mixed reactions from the players. There were guys like Leo, Dani Alves and Rafinha, who had immediately voiced their interest in participating in the risky business. Then there were the guys who were more skeptical and had their doubts about the whole affair, like Gerard, Jordi Alba or Adriano. And then there were the guys who didn't have any interest to participate and didn't really see the point of the initiative, like Javier Mascherano, Luis Suárez and Pedro Rodríguez. That left the rest of the players in the category of "undecided".
But Enrique didn't mind this rift in opinions. On the contrary – it made picking out the guys for this new mixed team that much easier. He did wonder shortly about Neymar's reserved attitude though. The kid normally went with pretty much everything Dani and Leo did. There was a frown on the Brazilian's face; unusual, true, but it showed that he was taking the issue seriously instead of the fail of a joke that some guys obviously still held this for.
"I guess we'll have to see and find out, won't we?" Enrique answered Gerard's question.
"Who decides who plays at what position anyways?" came another question, this time from Ivan Rakitic. Before the midfielder made a decision, he definitely wanted more information, but it did sound like a nice challenge to him.
"That will be decided during additional training sessions with the women", Enrique replied. Personally, Enrique was really looking forward to that. It was a new and never before seen challenge for the (as per vote) best football trainer in the world. And conveniently also a welcome excuse for most likely not getting the triple this upcoming season again.
"And who decides?" Ivan went on.
"Me and Llorens," came the answer from the trainer. "But ultimately Bartomeu approves of the final squad. He carries the risk of this whole operation after all."
