Atlético de Madrid player Virginia Torrecillareceived the “The Guardian” 2022 award for the best footballer of the year. An award that the English newspaper assigns”to a player who did something extraordinarywhether it’s overcoming adversity, helping others or leading by example in sport by acting with exceptional honesty.”
The history of Virginia is already known to everyone, in 2020 they took over a brain tumor for which she had to be operated on urgently and had to undergo a chemo treatment to overcome the disease. When he was in full recovery, she suffered a car accident when he was with his mother, Mari, in the car, in which the footballer escaped unharmed, but his mother ended up in wheelchair and with irreparable damage.
“I was sunk. I would have suffered from cancer 15 more times. 15, huh. I would do 30 chemotherapy to make my mother walk again. I promise, I promise. With all my heart. Three years of chemotherapy. Five! I don’t care, if only he can get back on his feet. I blamed myself. She says I can’t think like that. She is my mother, she will always defend me. But no, no. What my mother went through…”, he emphasizes through tears.
Virginia considered leaving everything
When they detected the disease, they told him I could no longer play football but two years later she managed to return to the field, in a very special match against women’s Barça where she was cloaked by her professional colleagues. “I got up, went out with the mask and the coat. I ran back to the bench, left it there, the mask and the coat. No shin guards. It was a disaster. I was super nervous. He hadn’t played for two years and could barely remember what to do. I was so desperate to get out, for people to see me. I wanted people to see that I was over cancer and that they could too”, recalls the player
The player confessed that the moment she suffered the most was the whole thing about her mother, “When people say I’m a fighter, an example, it’s adorable“nut, “But the pain I felt: it’s not the cancer in my body, it’s everything I’ve overcome psychologically, everything I’ve been through with my mother. It’s hard, honestly. Very, very, very difficult”.
Virginia made a special mention to her club, Atlético de Madrid, who have always been by her side and have shown their support.”I had Atlético’s support: otherwise I wouldn’t be here. People could not enter hospitals. My uncle died after five months because he couldn’t get treatment. He died of prostate cancer. no funeralVirginia reported.
Her wish for 2023 is to be able to return to competing at the level she did before her illness and to have her loved ones close to her to see her achieve her successes: “I dream of seeing my mother here, my father next door, watching me play football after everything we’ve been through.. And now we’re on our way.”
