Ivana Andrés and Alba Redondo at the European Parliament: "We must give the girls of the world inspirational role models"
The Spanish national football team players spoke in the Chamber of the European Parliament in Strasbourg as part of the Women's Day celebrations.
Education and sport together form a powerful driver for building a better future and a fairer and more egalitarian society. Sport that "excites, transforms and educates" can give girls all over the world "female role models, women who inspire them and enable them not to give up and to carry on". This is what Ivana Andrés and Alba Redondo, the Spanish national football team players and World Cup winners, said at the event. Both spoke this morning in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as part of the events with which the European Parliament is commemorating International Women's Day.
Ivana Andrés and Alba Redondo invited the members of the European Parliament, who had gathered to listen to them at the plenary talk, to "help build strong female role models that help society as a whole, both men and women". They did so after recalling that Europe has always been known for being a global pillar in the fight for equality and the defence of human rights.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, welcomed our internationals at the entrance to the building and was flanked at the presidential table by the players during the different political groups’ speeches. Their spokespersons wanted to highlight, among other things, her pride at receiving "champions who are going to leave their mark on the new European generations", and who have sent "the message to women and girls that there is no barrier that can stop their dreams".
A full house in front of the World Cup
The two Spanish national football team players came to Strasbourg on behalf of all the international players from the World Cup winning team, with the aim of raising the profile of women's sport on the whole and women's football in particular at the seat of the EU legislature. The World Cup trophy won in Australia and New Zealand presided over the meeting in the plenary auditorium that Ivana Andrés and Alba Redondo starred at in front of representatives of the 27 member countries of the Union.
The 27 countries are represented on the back of a World Cup winners’' shirt that both players gave to Roberta Metsola, representative of the EU chamber. In the afternoon, the international players will have the opportunity to greet part of the Spanish delegation in the European Parliament.
