Does this bode badly for our interview? Fear not, the Spain centre-back is in as banterous and jovial a mood as you could imagine any new signing to be, as she embarks on her first major interview since signing for the Women’s Super League club. Across the course of our conversation, in bright sunshine outside a quiet hotel near Maidstone, it is evident that the 31-year-old could scarcely be happier about her decision to swap Barcelona for south-east England.
She is sorely missing her cat, Bagheera (“Here, you ask for so many things for pets, you can’t [really] fly with them, it’s so many documents, so many things”) but, that aside, she is buoyant, relaxed and clearly embracing English life. She says she likes the “little bread” in the morning, and we eventually establish she is referring to crumpets, and reveals: “I like the beans in the morning. My Spanish teammates like Alexia [Putellas] and Jana [Fernández] are like: ‘What are you doing eating beans in the morning?
You need to train.’ I go: ‘No, it’s fine I like it.’” However, English breakfasts were surely not what attracted her to Kent to play for London City Lionesses so, returning to that first question, she explains thoughtfully: “My body was craving something different. I spent many years in a comfortable position, because playing at Barça has been absolutely wonderful and very nice; it is a style of game that suits me a lot and coming to England, the football is very different from the Spanish one, at first glance. So, I think [the reason was] being able to challenge myself and see if I am capable.
I am going to make an effort to adapt to this league and also to show myself that I’m able to compete in another style of play that is not the one that makes me stand out the most.” An undisputed club legend at Barcelona, León certainly stood out in Spain as the best ball-playing centre-back of her generation, and won seven league titles, seven Copa de la Reina’s and – most impressively – four Champions League titles, during a nine-year period of relentless dominance with Barcelona, whom she joined from Atlético Madrid in 2017. This summer she was one of four members of the Spain starting XI that beat England 4-0 in June in Mallorca to leave Barcelona, together with Arsenal’s new signing Ona Batlle, OL Lyonnes’ new winger Salma Paralluelo and, most notably, her London City Lionesses teammate Alexia Putellas. Together, León and Putellas drew raised eyebrows across the women’s game by swapping the reigning European champions for a lesser-known team that finished sixth in the WSL last term, but they have been joined by a series of other world-renowned names including the former England goalkeeper Mary Earps and the France winger Kadidiatou Diani.
The club’s new signings meet the vision of their ambitious owner, the American businesswoman Michele Kang, of whom León says: “The impression I get is of an empowered woman, with a winning mindset, driven by a desire to see things improve and a drive to win. And that is a competitive and winning mentality. And if in the end, I want to be part of it because it is a club created for women and that is not common, I think it is beautiful and exciting.
I think it’s something very powerful.” The club’s signings of Putellas and León were announced five days apart in July, which prompts the question: did they discuss their decision with one another and was it a case of “If you go, I’ll go too”? I think we take the issue of personal matters very seriously,” León says. You come from a league where you win every year.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
