Women’s International Cup and Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati will bypass Spain’s past friendlies for the rest, a decision that highlights growing fears of match congestion in men’s and women’s football .
“We have spoken with Barcelona and with Aitana and we believe that what she needs is to rest,” Spain coach Montse Tomé said at a press conference on Thursday, according to ESPN. “The national team has always cared about the health of the players first. As a coaching staff, we exhaustively follow all players in all leagues and try to call up those who can be at their best.”
Spain will play friendly matches against Canada on October 25 and against Italy on October 29.
Bonmati has had a limited rest since the start of the 2022-23 season with Barcelona, in which he played 37 games across all competitions. She briefly moved from Barcelona’s UEFA Women’s Champions League victory on June 3 to the 2023 Women’s International Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which began on July 20. Bonmati was an important part of Spain’s first victory in the Women’s International Cup. But not until closer to the GC in August 2023 did he play in Barcelona’s opening match of the 2023-24 season.
The midfielder went directly to play 41 games for Barcelona, ending the current season maintaining her consistency in the national team, and had spent some time and part of rest before Spain played the Euro Cup qualifiers and the Olympic Games during the summer. Bonmati was the closest to a season without playing ahead of the start of the 2024-25 season, and has already made five appearances for Barcelona.
Bonmati is the highest-profile player in the women’s game to skip international matches in the past, but she is far from the first to negotiate the downsides of match congestion. A handful of players in the men’s game have done the same in the past: US men’s national team star Christian Pulisic missed the second of two friendlies to dominate his minutes and Belgian Kevin de Bruyne opted not to. fully participate in global responsibility in the past to stay.
Player wellbeing is a growing concern in both women’s and men’s sports, as players push themselves physically and mentally to keep up with an unprecedentedly congested schedule. The continued expansion of women’s soccer has resulted in a buildup of matches even within the NWSL, where two unused competitions were introduced in this lifetime: the Concacaf Champions Cup W and the NWSL x Liga MX Women’s Summer Cup. FIFA also plans to start a 16-team International Women’s Club Cup in early 2026, one of several tournaments that had been conceived to replicate the men’s game. Golf clubs like NJ/NY Gotham FC have increased their high-performance teams in line with the packed schedule, an idea that suits many players who fear that the amount of resources needed will not be enough to maintain a congested schedule.
The calendar is also fuller than ever in men’s football. FIFA’s expansion of the International Club Cup to 32 teams, the first edition of which is scheduled for next summer in the United States, has become a high level of rivalry, although the expansion of the Champions League UEFA’s 36 teams have also been criticized. Golf clubs and players have also complained about FIFA’s decision to turn the International Cup into a 48-team tournament in 2026.
FIFPRO, the international players’ union and the EU Leagues recently brought criminal action against FIFA for what they describe as an “unsustainable” schedule, which they claim was done without their session. Players in the men’s game, including Manchester Town’s Rodri, have also said players are “close” to a collision over the situations.
