Case that shocked world football comes to court and the captain of the national team that won the World Cup is the first to be heard
“He grabbed my head effusively. I didn’t even have a reaction. They were thousandths of second. I felt it was totally out of context. I knew it was my boss who was kissing me, it shouldn’t happen. I felt un Respected. He launched one of the happiest days of my life. I did not look for this act or expected it. I missed respect. ” This is how Jenni Hermoso, one of the most important players in the Women’s Team of Spain until the 2023 World Cup winning.
At the beginning of the case trial, which has Luis Rubiales, former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), as the other figure, the athlete confirmed that he gave no consent to the kiss occurred after the conquest, but still in full lawn.
Jenni Hermoso remembers greeting the queen, the princess and then met with Luis Rubiales. “We hugged, and took me right away and said ‘we won thanks to you’. Then he put his hands on my ears and there is the kiss, ”described the player, pointing to the unambiguous images, and show a kiss from the then top boss of Spanish football.
“You see in the images. He pulls my body back, raises his legs and puts them around my waist, ”continued the player, ensuring that he did not hear anything in the sense that he pointed to what happened next.
“As soon as I put my hands on my ears the next act is to kiss me on the mouth. I heard what I told me, but I didn’t hear anything from the kiss. I didn’t see it the gesture, there was music and background noise, ”he said.
When the court asked him if he would have allowed the kiss if he was asked before, Jenni Hermoso replied that “no.” When the court asked him if he allowed the kiss, Jenni Hermoso replied that “no.”
After the kiss
Still in shock and without realizing exactly what had happened, Jenni Hermoso commented on what had happened on the lawn with Alexia Patellas. The companion exclaimed “how strong,” because Jenni Hermoso felt that “it had not been normal.”
Then he continued, asked him to leave the resort. On waiting for him was Luis Rubiales, who told him they could “stop” the developments.
“I told him he was going to fall upon him, that he was not well. He told me he had done it with effusivity. And I said ‘you know what you did.’ I don’t know how much it lasted, but I said I needed to get in [no balneário] To communicate something to the team, ”he recalled.
Although he did not feel good what had happened, Jenni Hermoso decided to celebrate with his companions, because he had “achieved the greatest feat” of his career. “It didn’t fit my head cry. For me and my mates. They had nothing to do with it. We took a long time to prepare this and would last days or hours. I wanted everyone to celebrate, ”he said to the judge.
The case then passes to the bus, with the team on its way to the airport. Then said Jenni Hermoso in court, they asked him to be quickly at the bottom of the car. “I don’t know who called me,” he said, but it was running.
“They stop the bus and go out. I just came out. I was waiting for Patricia Pérez and García Cuervo, press guardians. They showed me a mobile phone with a statement. They had written it to send to the news and be able to calm the revolt. They wanted to take this step to put out the fire. I read by loud. I didn’t want to know what exactly said. And I didn’t write this statement, ”said the player, confirming that the idea that was supposed to pass was that she had been writing the document.
But “no”: “I went down and was written,” namely “I and Mr. Rubiales had a good friendship, which was the effusivity of the moment and that there was nothing more.” Jenni Hermoso then said to do what they understood.
Already on the plane to return to Spain, the player again noticed “a lot of movement”. He was in the Business class area and ahead was Luis Rubiales with his team. “They were gathered, all in a circle. Something was happening, ”recalled Jenni Hermoso.
“There was a time when I went to the bathroom and met Rubiales. Please asked me to help him, that there was a great confusion there, they were calling him an aggressor. I said no, that I would do nothing. I didn’t want to have done that, ”he continued, referring that the date still president of RFEF still asked for the daughters, but the player did not access, because he felt unprotected by the federation.
“I was something that hurt me more, that it was’ you like the same as me,” explained the player, in which it was a reference to the athlete’s homosexuality.
The national hearing began this Monday the trial of Luis Rubiales, for whom the prosecutor asks for two and a half years for sexual assault on the follow-up of a kiss not consented to the player. But the former RFEF president also accounts for alleged coercions to the athlete in the following hours, with suspicions that he had tried to drown out, including with possible pressures so that the player clarified that there was no problem.
The court chaired by José Manuel Clemente Fernández Prieto has reserved three weeks for auditions, and it is expected that, in addition to Jenni Hermoso and Luis Rubiales, they will also speak prominent figures of Spanish football such as players Alexia Putellas and Irene Paredes, coach Montse Tomé and Even the current men’s team coach Luis de la Fuente.
Luis Rubiales’s statements should happen only after all witnesses speak. Alongside former RFEF President in the defendants are also the former director of the Spanish national team Albert Luque, the former selector of the women’s team Jorge Vilda and former RFEF Marketing Respondent Rubén Rivera, asking for the prosecutor a prosecutor year and six months in prison for each for coercion to the victim.
