The last classic of the Women's League was played on November 17. 4-0 for Barça at Alfredo Di Stéfano. The stands delivered their verdict: "Toril, resign!"
It was the last straw. Florentino Pérez didn't listen and didn't want to act rashly, although nothing could take away his disappointment. He's so embarrassed by the state of women's soccer that he didn't even want to attend the classic in person.
Barça Wins and Real Madrid Loses
He probably imagined the result before the match was played. What bothers the white president the most is the official statements coming from his team's locker room.
"We're closer to Barça," "we're already competing with them," "we'll catch up with them soon." Then years go by, four in Toril's case.
The thrashings repeat, and there's no sign of the two teams getting closer. Barça wins and Real Madrid loses. Always.
However, Florentino Pérez doesn't like losing, not even at Parcheesi. After 4 years, he isn't satisfied by being closer to Barça. It's time to be above them.
The overall balance after four years is: 0 titles, 0 classics won, and 15 victories for Barça over Real Madrid.
In Europe, from Bad to Worse
Real Madrid is also a club with a European vocation, and things aren't going better in the Champions League.
In their Champions debut in the 2021-22 season, Real Madrid passed the group stage, finishing second. However, in the quarterfinals, Barça appeared and eliminated the whites with 8-3.
Since then, Real Madrid has gone backwards. In 2022-23, it got to third pace in the group stage and out of the round of 16.
In 2023-24, Real Madrid finished last in the group stage with one point out of 18 possible in 6 matches.
In the current one, the white team is set to finish second in the group after losing both matches to leader Chelsea.
Toril's Exasperating Statements
The balance couldn't be more negative for a winning club like Real Madrid. In the recent defeat against Chelsea, coach Alberto Toril resorted to his usual narrative. The same one that exasperates fans and the president.
-"We lost, but I'm happy with what I saw. We were superior to the.m"
-"We had more possession, more shots on goal, we were better. This competition demands more concentration, and mistakes are costly."
-"There are moments that need more experience, and over time, we'll learn."
-"We need more experience, more control of the situation, to manage the times better, and competition gives you that. We have players with few matches at this level, and they'll gain it over time."
Florentino is Fed up
Florentino is fed up, with a team full of internationals playing in the best national team in the world. It's already been four years of experience in high-level soccer.
Toril was already dismissed at Real Madrid when he was coaching Castilla due to a clash with Jose Mourinho. The president gave him a second chance, but he's more than regretful.
On November 29, 2021, Alberto Toril replaced David Aznar at the helm of Women's Real Madrid. He took over a team, derived from Tacón, second in LaLiga and a quarterfinalist in the Champions League.
Toril has been in charge for four years and hasn't improved the records of the dismissed coach. He achieves the runner-up in Liga because the first place is too far away and so is the third. In Europe, however, he doesn't come close to the quarterfinals achieved by Aznar, his predecessor.
From a 4-0 to Another 4-0 against Barça, but "we're Getting Closer"
Toril has played 13 times against Barcelona. 13 defeats, conceding three or more goals in 11 of those duels. He's been unable to snatch a single title from the azulgranas.
Barça settled the first women's classic five years ago with a 4-0. They finished the last one five years later with a 4-'. But "we're getting closer to them," the Real Madrid coach keeps insisting.
That title that Real Madrid has never won could have been the 2022-23 Copa de la Reina. On January 10, 2023, Barça played in Pamplona in the round of 16 of the Cup against Osasuna. They won 9-0.
The Federation, however, declared them losers of the match due to the improper alignment of Geyse Ferreira. She was a new blaugrana transfer who carried a one-match suspension from her previous stint at Madrid CFF.
Without Barça in the way, it was the great opportunity for Real Madrid to win a title. Still, not even then; Atlético was the champion, defeating the whites in the finals when they were losing 2-0 in the 87th minute.
28 Transfers Later, We're the Same
However, Toril has been renewed until 2026, and fans are speechless, tired of his hopeful narrative that never comes true.
However, Florentino is starting to lose patience. Four years later and 28 transfers later, there are no signs of getting closer to Barça. Real Madrid's women's team seems doomed to continue playing the role of a supporting act in the coming years.
Barça wins everything in Spain and has also conquered the last two Champions Leagues. There, the female version of Real Madrid doesn't exist.
Real Madrid can't sit idly by without fighting to change the course of events. The first step has been taken this year by signing Spanish talent and, in the process, weakening rivals. That's how Eva Navarro, Sheila García (Atlético de Madrid), María Méndez and Alba Redondo (Levante) arrived.
All of them had more than enough international experience as participants in the successful, world champion Spanish national team.
The Unknown Dimension of Marca
It's not enough, however. With these measures, Real Madrid secures the runner-up position, but Barça remains unreachable.
Even though Marca newspaper published four years ago on its cover "Women's Soccer Enters a New Dimension with the Arrival of Real Madrid," The dimension remains the same as always.
The director of Marca justified the cover of his newspaper by saying in advance what wasn't going to happen. It's more a matter of faith than conviction.
This is how Juan Ignacio Gallardo explained it in 2019:
"You have to be very blind not to see, and very ignorant not to understand, that the arrival of Real Madrid to women's soccer will guide this sport to another dimension.
"It's not about praising Madrid for the sake of it, as we've been reproached. But we're not going to hide our applause for the decision made by the white club. It will result in a great benefit for this sport: in the media, socially, and economically.
It's good news, no matter how you look at it. And that's how the rest of the clubs and players understand it, whose desire (and I know personally) was to reach this moment. For the leap in visibility it was going to generate in women's soccer."
13,000 More People Too Many in Bernabéu to See Barça's Girls
The visibility of women's soccer is given by the Spanish national team and Barça. The only club capable of putting 13,000 more people in Camp Nou than it is possible in Bernabéu to applaud their girls.
There's no news about the presence of the Madrid women's team at Bernabéu. Nor of large crowds at their matches at Di Stéfano. The dimension doesn't allow for more.
The emergence of Real Madrid in the competition has been irrelevant. Unless being a supporting act, losing 15 out of 15 classics, and not winning a single title in five years is considered relevant.
The same newspaper recently decided that the best player in the Spanish League at the moment is Linda Caicedo. They gave the Real Madrid player an award as such. It was their contribution to the new dimension of women's soccer.
They live in their closed inner world, the other dimension. Who has Linda Caicedo tied with to deserve such an honor?
Megía Dávila's Wife Controls Women's Refereeing
Real Madrid debuted in the Women's Honor Division with a 4-0 against Barça. Four years later, we're the same.
That's despite the fact that Megía Dávila's wife, Yolanda Parga, controls women's refereeing in Spain. Having a Real Madrid salary enter her home is not a problem.
Her husband, a famous referee known for his Madridism, is half-delegate, half-public-affairs with the referees on Florentino Pérez's payroll.
Florentino's Pending Revolution
It's not enough, though, because this Barça isn't intimidated by refereeing. Something else is needed. The pending revolution that Florentino Pérez has in mind.
One solution would be to take down the section and move on. It would be an unpopular measure, however. What's more, Florentino has already filled the quota of unpopularity with his decision to boycott the Ballon d'Or.
Moreover, Florentino Pérez is intrigued that Barça's women's team, with the highest budget in Spain, is self-financing. It also offers positive results to the club, to the point of being the only sports section from which Barça profits.
The white president is willing to reverse the situation by making an effort. He'll have to put in money and he will. He regrets having made 28 transfers that are useless, but he has to try.
The Solution is in Barça
This year, Madrid has secured the runner-up position by taking stars from Atlético and Levante. The idea would be to do the same with Barça: taking their stars.
Real Madrid needs to add to the team by subtracting from Barcelona. There's no other short-term formula to change the landscape. The pending revolution starts with the coach.
The Two Coaches Florentino Has in Mind
Real Madrid is targeting Jonathan Giráldez, now at Washington Spirit, with which he has signed for three years. Even so, Florentino Pérez trusts in convincing him to repeat his successful experiences at Barça with Real Madrid.
Things are going well for him in the United States. It will be difficult for him to break the three-year term he's signed with Washington Spirit.
If Giráldez fails, the man who won absolutely everything and several times with Barça, Florentino has another candidate: Lluís Cortés.
He's the coach before Jonatan Giráldez at Barça. The one who achieved the first Champions League, who led Barça to the top. The one who set the line of youth policy alongside great foreign players.
His departure from Barça, when he was at the peak, was related to a murky issue at the locker room level. Cortés found work with the Ukraine national team, but the war surprised him and he returned home.
Morocco called him to be the coach. He had already accepted when they told him that Jorge Vilda would be above him as sports director. Cortés, like most of his players at Barça, is allergic to Vilda and declined the position.
Now he's in Saudi Arabia as the women's national team coach. Florentino is convinced it won't be difficult for him to leave everything for Real Madrid, even if he's Catalonian and a culer.
One of the two coaches has to take charge of Real Madrid to launch a winning project in the short term.
After the Coach, Transfers from Barça
Then the reinforcements will arrive. They have to come from Barça. At least two or three key players must change the Barça jersey for Real Madrid's.
It's about adding and subtracting from the rival at the same time. Aitana and Alexia, Barça's two megastars, are newly renewed. It will be difficult to get them out of Camp Nou with their deep roots in the club.
Other important players could be in the spotlight: Carolyn Graham-Hansen, Salma Paralluelo, Mapi León, Ona Batlle, Patri Guijarro, Fridolina Rolfo.They are candidates to wear white.
There are also others who were from Barça but not anymore, like Mariona Caldentey, Leyla, Alexandri, Geyse, or Luzy Bronze.
It will cost money, but there's no other solution. Real Madrid can't accept that the current situation of inequality with Barça continues over time.
The future and the new dimension start now at Real Madrid. Now it will.
5 Years of Failures against Barça
REAL MADRID CF 0 - 4 FC BARCELONA | RESUMEN LIGA F
2020-21. 6 transfers: Misa Rodríguez, Olga Carmona, Ivana Andrés, Kenty Robles, Teresa Abilleira, Marta Oroz
2021-22. 4 transfers: Bonsegundo, Núria Martínez, Lucía Pardo, Gaby Nunes,
2022-23, 4 transfers: Sandie Toletti, Kathellen Sousa, Caroline Weir and Naomie Feller
2023-24. 6 transfers: Signe Bruun, Hayley, Emma Raso, Mylène Chavas, Oihane Hernández, Zurbano
2024-25. 8 transfers: Eva Navarro, María Méndez, Sheila García, Alba Redondo, Maëlle Lakrar, Angeldahl, Leupolz, and Antonia Silva
TOTAL: 28 transfers in 5 years. 5.6 transfers per season.
RESULT: 0 titles. 0 classics won, 16 classics lost. 53 goals for Barça and 6 for Real Madrid.