Yesterday, during his incendiary press conference towards the Spanish media, Florentino Pérez unfortunately distinguished himself by making misogynistic remarks towards a journalist from the media ABC. “You attack Real Madrid every day. Look at the two articles you published today. One of them was written by a woman who I don’t know if she knows anything about football. » Today, the incriminated journalist, Maria José Fuentealamo, broke her silence in an editorial to respond to the big boss of Casa Blanca.
“Florentino Pérez said in his first press conference in I don’t know how long – excuse me, I’m not from the Sports section – that he ‘didn’t know if I knew anything about football’. In other words, he left the door open for the possibility of me being a leading sports commentator. But no, I’m not. During my career as a journalist, I have touched, I would say, almost all sections: from the economy to investigation, from education to health… almost all except sports. That’s why, when my phone started to go crazy in the middle of the afternoon and I saw that it was my friends who were sending me messages about Florentino, with lots of exclamations, I didn’t understand anything. (…) At noon, I had already seen with some surprise the announcement of the president’s press conference, because, as a journalist, we know how it goes, but as I am not in sport, I did not pay more attention to it. Moreover, this made me a little happy, because as a communicator, I always defend the fact of showing up and assuming one’s responsibilities. This is why, what I absolutely did not expect, as the non-sporting journalist that I am, is that during a press conference on Real Madrid and its current situation, Florentino speaks – without naming me – about me. “A woman, I don’t know if she knows anything about football.” Here is this woman who still can’t believe it. That’s why, being in the news and publishing things that others don’t want, we get used to politicians throwing barbs at us, to corrupt or supposedly corrupt people trying to discredit us and even trying to take us to court… but for a president of Real Madrid himself to say a few words to me simply for giving my opinion? To this second-rate journalist who doesn’t write about sports? I didn’t expect that. But above all, I didn’t expect these references to football, because I don’t talk about football in my column. I’m talking about what Real Madrid, as a historical institution, represents for society. Of its colors. Sportsmanship. It’s as if at the Bernabéu we were playing basketball, baseball or marbles – mental note: ask my colleagues in the sports section if marbles are a sport. Because I am a mother and I know what children play, who their idols are and how to take care of these reference figures. Because I am also close to the stadium area. Yes, dear president, it’s all me. A woman, ah, a woman, who, no matter what she knows about football, knows well the harm that what happens inside the Bernabéu does outside. Because this isn’t about football. And now I’m the one wondering whether you know it or not. »
