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BARCELONA: Spain attacker Jenni Hermoso lifted the Women’s World Cup in August 2023 but her joy was curtailed in the aftermath as she unexpectedly became the leader of a stand against sexism in Spanish football.
Luis Rubiales, the then-Spanish football federation president who later resigned in disgrace, forcibly kissed Hermoso on the mouth during the medal ceremony in Sydney, provoking a global wave of criticism.
Hermoso, 34, denied Rubiales’s claim the kiss was consensual and he stands trial starting February 3 for alleged sexual assault.
Rubiales, as well as former women’s team coach Jorge Vilda and two former federation officials, are also accused of coercion for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to say the kiss was consensual.
The world initially took the fight to Rubiales on Hermoso’s behalf while she was away on holiday with her team-mates celebrating the World Cup win, which she called “the best feeling” she has ever had in football.
After Rubiales produced a defiant speech in which he refused to step down, the situation exploded and Hermoso issued a strongly worded statement in which she clarified she felt the “victim of an assault, a macho act.”
Hermoso and 80 other Spain players announced a strike from the national team until the leadership changed, and world football’s governing body FIFA suspended Rubiales.
Eventually he resigned in September, while Vilda was sacked by the Spanish football federation.
Although all that followed overshadowed Spain’s success, the World Cup victory remains the crowning glory of Hermoso’s sporting career.
The grand-daughter of former Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Antonio Hernandez, Madrid-born Hermoso started at youth level with Atletico.
She enjoyed watching Fernando Redondo and Zinedine Zidane, who were then at Real Madrid, but had no real idol of her own until she joined Atletico.
There she met women’s team player Ana Fernandez, known as “Nervy,” and immediately looked up to her.
With no budget for scouts, the senior women players fulfilled that role and Nervy selected Hermoso and one other player from a field of 50 youngsters to join the club.
“She is left-handed like me, she played in the same position as me and I loved the way she was, she had a lot of charisma,” Hermoso told newspaper El Pais in 2020.
In 2010 she joined Rayo Vallecano, where she won the Spanish title, before a brief stint in Sweden with Tyreso, where she played alongside Brazil legend Marta.
Hermoso moved to Barcelona in January 2014, where she went on to become the women’s team’s all-time top scorer with 181 goals in 224 matches, across two spells.
In the summer of 2017 she moved to Paris Saint-Germain for a season before rejoining Atletico Madrid, and then returning to Barcelona in 2019.
Hermoso was part of Barcelona women’s first ever Champions League victory in 2021, winning a penalty in the final as her side romped to a 4-0 win over Chelsea.
She signed for Mexican side Pachuca in 2022 — which some suggested amounted to stepping away from the top level — and joined Tigres in 2024 in the same division.
“I was retired and I won the World Cup,” Hermoso sarcastically fired back at her detractors on social media platform X after Spain’s World Cup triumph.
However a far deeper controversy was already brewing after Rubiales’s forced kiss on Spain’s leading women’s scorer of all time, with 57 goals.
It led to the fall of Rubiales and Vilda, as well as the Spanish government overseeing the football federation “in response to the crisis in the organization.”
Hermoso took some time to find her own football idol, but for many of the next generation, she is already that figure.

LONDON: Manchester United and Tottenham put their inconsistent domestic campaigns aside and advanced to the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday.

Diogo Dalot tapped in a precise cross by Kobbie Mainoo on the hour mark and Mainoo netted eight minutes later for a 2-0 victory over Romanian champion FCSB in Bucharest.

Tottenham got goals from academy graduates to beat Swedish club Elfsborg 3-0 in London. Spurs waited until the 70th minute for substitute Dane Scarlett to break the deadlock before adding two more through substitute Damola Ajayi and 17-year-old Mikey Moore.

Of the 36 teams in the revamped competition, the top eight go directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the two-legged knockout playoffs on Feb. 13 and Feb. 20 with the winners making the last 16.

The draw is scheduled for Friday.

United, who are 12th in the Premier League, competed the league phase of the second-tier European competition in third place and undefeated with five wins and three draws, trailing the top by one point.

“Kobbie (Mainoo) played very well in that position, with more freedom and not so much responsibility running back all the time,” United manager Ruben Amorim told TNT Sports. “The lads did a good job, another clean sheet.”

Amorim’s squad has shown signs of improvement since he said the team was “the worst, maybe, in the history of Manchester United.”

Thursday’s victory was the third straight in one week after beating Rangers in the Europa League a week ago and Fulham in the Premier League three days later.

Tottenham are languishing in 15th place in the Premier League. Their seven-match winless run in the league is their worst since 2008. But they won five, drew two and lost one for the fourth place in the Europa League.

Lazio, the only team that qualified to the round of 16 with a game to spare, was handed their first defeat, 1-0, away at Braga. Still, the Portuguese team was eliminated.

Lazio still topped the standings with 19th points, the same as the second Athletic Bilbao.

Bilbao secured the second place after a 3-1 home win over 10-man Viktoria Plzen, who have a playoff spot.

Frankfurt completed the league phase in fifth despite a 2-0 loss at Roma. Angeliño and Eldor Shomurodov lifted Roma with the goals at Stadio Olimpico.

Lyon were sixth despite being held 1-1 at home by Ludogorets.

Olympiacos in seventh after routing Qarabag 3-0.

Rangers squeezed in to complete the top eight by beating Union Saint-Gilloise 2-1.

Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce avoided an embarrassing early exit with a 2-2 away draw at Denmark’s Midtjylland. The result sent both into the playoffs. The hosts were 20th while Midtjylland took 24th, giving Mourinho a chance to add to his European trophies.

Ajax ended a three-game losing streak by handing Galatasaray thir first defeat, 2-1 with both teams making the playoffs.

Hoffenheim’s 4-3 away win at Anderlecht was not enough for the Bundesliga team to advance. The Belgian club finished 10th.

Real Sociedad, FCSB, Porto, AZ Alkmaar, Twente and PAOK are among other teams that advanced.