When there was still no conflict of Jorge Vilda with ‘the 15’ of the Spanish team, Damaris Egurrola (Orlando, 1999) was the first to renounce, and definitively, the Red. Born in the United States, to a Basque father -he made a youth academy in Spain, became known at Athletic and was about to sign for Barça before going first to Everton and then to Lyon- and a Dutch mother, she decided on the latter nationality when he had to choose which team to play at an absolute level.
Before, however, she had opted for the inferiors of Spain, with whom she was the European under-19 champion in 2017 and the runner-up in the world under-17 in 2018, along with Aitana Bonmati, patri pebble and Ona Batlle, among other. She hoped to get to the top. She was waiting for the call from vilda for a long time and never received it for an official match. Of course, she made her senior debut in a friendly, against Cameroon, when he was 19 years old. He played less than ten minutes.
Just before making public that he had decided on the Netherlands team, Jorge Vilda He assured in a press conference that “we have tried to summon her on two occasions” and that “we have tried to maintain telephone contact.” She responded bluntly in ‘El Confidencial: “That’s not true. The last time I was called up was for these friendlies before the 2019 World Cup and there have been no more attempts to call up with the Spanish National Team. No one has contacted me.”
He continued: “I understand that a coach has every right to choose his players, but that doesn’t give him the right to lie. And I couldn’t keep waiting for a call-up with the National Team, since, like any other player, I aspire to play in the European and World Cups. Seeing that they didn’t give me any opportunity in Spain for so long, I decided to change the team”. And he concluded: “The last time I spoke to him was for a call-up with the under-23s, in which Covid swept our team two weeks before receiving PSG. He did not understand my decision not to go, when he did it for Covid reasons. We were just out of quarantine with 15 positives… he threatened me that he could take a couple of lawyers and go against me and the club. That he had no problem doing it ”.
Fate, capricious, has wanted that Jorge Vilda and Damaris Egurrola face to face again. This time, on the pitch and on the biggest stage: the World Cup. The Netherlands and Spain are competing this Friday for a ticket to the semifinals and, with the noticeable loss of Danielle Van de Donk Due to the accumulation of yellow cards, everything indicates that the Basque will be the starter.