‘Oliver, Benji, the ball wizards; Benji, Oliver, champion dreams…‘. This is the theme song for the cartoon series that Sonia Cea (Madrid, 1985), like so many other boys and girls of the time, enjoyed glued to the television in her home in Móstoles, letting her imagination fly and projecting herself into the best football stadiums in the world.. “I loved playing football. They were difficult times because it was frowned upon and even, in certain layers of society, almost prohibited. We were looked at badly for wearing a football shirt!”, says the protagonist in MARCA. “Most of the time, both at school and on the street, I used to be the only girl and it was very difficult for a boy to pass the ball to you. In the teams I had to play with boys and when I did it in the women’s team the age difference It was very big,” he adds.
From Madrid and a Real Madrid fan, Sonia has always been a rebel. “It’s ugly to say it, but my whole family was from Atleti and I, when I was four years old, decided to switch to Real Madrid. To my father [Germán]who didn’t really like me playing football, I made him happy,” he says with a laugh. “They started by taking me to the Calderón, I ended up going to the Bernabéu and where I went a lot was to the old Real Madrid Sports City, where I paid so much attention. in the players as in the journalists, which was what I wanted to dedicate myself to,” she confesses. “I would have liked to be a soccer player, but I admit that I was very bad; also a sports journalist, but he had no references -quote Chus Galan-. Fortunately this has been evolving and now we see more women who are there for what they are worth and not for being a pretty face or meeting a quota -quote Naomi of Miguel-“, he emphasizes.
Everything they told me I couldn’t do because I was a girl or woman, I have tried to do twice as much.
Study Journalismspecialized in Corporate Communication and Marketing and is on the verge of completing a doctorate in Political neuromarketing. After graduating, he went to the United States and collaborated in Obama’s presidential campaign and upon returning to Spain he made his way into politics through social networks. She went from being responsible for digital communication to Councilor for Sports of the Madrid City Council and President of the Municipal Board of Chamartín. “Everything they told me I couldn’t do because I was a girl or a woman, I have tried to do twice as much,” she highlights. “Women of my generation have rebelled and when they have tried to trip us up we have jumped over them,” she adds. “The perfect world in which I think, I would like people not to be evaluated by being a man or a woman but by their potential and their talent. The same when we talk about sport. I don’t like it when they call it a feminine sport; sport is sport and that’s it,” he emphasizes.
Sonia Cea: “I don’t like being called women’s sport; sport is sport and that’s it”
A decade working alongside José Luis Martínez -Almeida, mayor of Madrid and self-confessed athletic player, has given him a lot of play – football-wise –. “We had a lot of fun and had a great time,” he says. “He is very athletic and I am a Real Madrid fan, so the team meetings are very funny because there is always some joke. At the end of the day, the sauce of football that we love so much is that healthy atmosphere that is generated. Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid are practically brother teams,” he asserts. This Sunday, both teams will meet in the first Madrid derby of the season in League F. “As a councilor I can’t comment on favoritism, but you already know what my colors are,” he haggles. “It will be a great event for Madrid as a whole. They are two very good teams that have players who are great references. They are doing an immense job and more and more girls want to play football. In Madrid we have noticed the increase in licenses women’s soccer [12.489, 2.384 más que el curso anterior]although I don’t like to call it that,” he resolves.
Sonia has learned to watch and enjoy football from the sidelines and make sure the saga continues. “I watch 50% of men’s and women’s football. I have a five-year-old son [Guillermo] to whom I play the girls’ games and tell him: ‘Look, they play better than you.’ He picabut what I am trying to convey to him is that what he has to like is football and that just as he can like Kylian Mbappé or Cristiano Ronaldo, he can admire Jenni Hermoso, Aitana Bonmatí or Alexia Putellas,” he says. “At the City Council we work through of the creation of references. We have (since 2018) the ‘Women Athletes Gala’ where we reward and recognize their work; We encourage sports clubs with subsidies to pay for girls’ records; and we propose various sports programs in the school, both inside and outside the classroom. The great challenge we have ahead of us is to motivate girls to play sports, especially in that age group of 12 to 14 years when many decide to quit,” she explains.
Sonia Cea: “We know that Madrid owes the Olympics”
Madrid has become one of the world’s epicenters of sport, highlighting top-level events in football, tennis, golf, cycling, basketball, rugby,… “We work so that Madrid is considered the capital of the world of sports. There are more and more events that want to come to Madrid and for us it is a great source of pride. We carry out a strategy in which we mix sports with tourism and culture “Sport is the magnet and we know that when people visit Madrid, they repeat,” says Sonia who dreams of an Olympic Madrid. “Madrid is owed the Olympic Games. We don’t know when they will arrive, but we are doing a great job so that when that possibility arises, they cannot say no to Madrid,” he says.
The girl who wanted to be a soccer player and who put aside (you never know) the project of being a journalist, is now working to make the dream of many little girls come true. who now sit in front of the television to see flesh and blood footballers instead of cartoons. “For me, sport is a way of life. From the hope of practicing it and adopting it as a part of my life to developing my professional career around it. That was always what I wanted to dedicate myself to and now I live it from this perspective” , final.
