Irene Paredes reveals blunt truth of Spain call-up situation - "We didn't want to come, we were obligated to"

For the first time since an agreement was reached for the vast majority of Spain players to play for their country again, some of those have spoken to the media. Not just any players too, two of the big guns in the La Roja squad – Alexia Putellas and Irene Paredes.

Putellas issued some strong remarks on the current situation, and Paredes did so too when she spoke. She started by revealing the blunt truth, that the players did not want to be there when the call-ups were originally announced.

“The other day we didn’t want to come. We were obligated to come. We were angry.

“We decided to stay, not because we were happy to, but because we believed it is what we had to do in order to advance things and ensure that agreements continued advancing.”

The meetings between the players, CSD and the Spanish Football Federation have proven to be productive, which led to the vast majority of the squad agreeing to remain called up, as Paredes outlined.

“The meeting between CSD-RFEF-players was constructive. We reached important agreements in order to advance. We know it takes time for things to advance.

Paredes concluded her part of the press conference by explaining that it has been a very tough process for the players.

“We are tired, you can see how we are from our faces. We have spent weeks sleeping very little, trying to train and give our best. I will say it again, all we want to do is play football. We are doing this so that at some stage, we can get to a point where this is possible.

“We have done all of this feeling alone, without support from the Federation. We want to ensure that if this happens again, there are protections and protocols to prevent it. We’re tired, but we still don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Paredes