Team Spain won the Women’s World Cup, despite a huge amount of drama behind the scenes. The Spanish women’s team has been vocal about how much they hate their coach, Jorge Vilda, and how their federation treats them like garbage. It must have felt so good to lift the trophy, and it must have been so nice to see their queen come out to support them.
As soon as Spain won their semifinal, Queen Letizia’s office announced that she would fly to Australia with her younger daughter, Princess Sofia. They got there in time, Sofia and Letizia watched the whole match, then they got the chance to go on the pitch to congratulate the Spanish team in person. Letizia hugged every single woman during the medal presentation, and the team got the queen and princess to pose with them for some group photos. It was lovely, a celebration of women athletes and women overcoming toxic men and misogynistic institutions. I love the fact that both the queen and the princess greeted every player with big, warm hugs on the podium. Letizia was getting bear-hugged by some of those ladies and she didn’t pull a face or look put out. She was loving it!
Obviously, Letizia’s presence in Australia only highlighted the fact that Prince William was too f–king lazy to show up for the Lionesses. It’s soooo funny how badly William miscalculated this and how well Letizia played it. I mean, no surprise – she’s a good queen who understands her job in a modern world.
The English women got more in-person support from Spain's Queen Letizia than they did from Prince William, president of the English Football Association. https://t.co/evvatNKWSy
— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) August 20, 2023
Not only did Queen Letizia of Spain and Infanta Sofia celebrate with the Spanish team, they also took time to meet and greet fans who were at the game. Great show of leadership and duty #FIFAWWC #WomensWorldCup pic.twitter.com/Gce8CaoJMc
— Jordon-Lee (@JordonLee) August 20, 2023
Photos courtesy of Getty.
The craziest part is that he is the actual president of the Football Association. The president of that should have been there, regardless of whatever other side gig he has like being a monarch.
Apologies, I meant To comment this on the other article.
Oh my f*cking god!!!! They’re now blocking videos of the Spanish Queen at the event, doing it under the guise of copyright infringement. This institution and hole salty island are the most pathetic, most miserable beings I’ve ever seen!!!!
I have a message saying I can’t access it in Canada. It’s no big deal, videos here can be found and watched elsewhere, I just wonder sometimes why they’re not allowed in Canada.
The video blocking is working. I haven’t seen a single one..all locked for ‘copyright infringement’.. Willy Cock blocked more like.. Pos.
That’s….some China/North Korea/Russia level censorship right there
This Canadian just watched the video on YouTube. How refreshing to see a joyful engaged royal!
Very Classy of them. Had to google Infanta lol from what i underatand it means Not Heir to tje throne !?
No, Infanta Sofia is not heir to the throne. Her elder sister Leonor, the heir, had just started her education at the military academy and couldn’t attend.
Yes, the heir to the throne is the Princess of Asturias, Leonor. Infanta is used to differentiate between the heir and the sibling.
I like reading about history and whenever I read about ‘infanta’, it always sounds so badass somehow. Like more than any regular princess 😀
@Flowerlake – That’s what I was thinking! I read books and watch documentaries – Infanta is such a cool title.
No, Infanta means daughter of the king and queen
Gosh, the video’s got me teary eyed. I don’t know why. Congratulations.
Same here! I think for me, it was partly knowing all the drama the Spanish team/players had to endure and seeing them win despite all of it AND having their queen and princess make sure a huge effort to support them.
The drama behind the scenes made the win extra sweet, I agree. i also think it was fun bc this team is so YOUNG, so the potential is there for the next WC and the one after that. When the one player was awarded the best young player award, Salma Paralluelo, and they said she was 19 I gasped. I had assumed she was at least 5 years older than that based on how well she played in the final (I only saw one other game with Spain bc of the time difference.)
(as a note I just looked up the bids for the next world cup bc the time difference here was killing me, LOL. Belgium/Germany, South Africa, Brazil, and US/Mexico.)
The picture of the players with the queen in the middle is historic. It’s just so bold and warm and victorious and joyful all at once. This was win for the history books and I’m so thrilled for the Spanish players – those women were so strong and skilled.
Yes she knows what her job is unlike a certain pegging Prince. It was lovely to see her hug and congratulate the team and also interact with the fans. What was even nicer was she thanked the losing team as well. This made Peg look even worse but he deserves to be admonished for his complete lack of usefulness.
I’m so happy for the Spanish team. And seeing Queen Letizia and her daughter celebrating with them was so special.
I agree girl ninja! Made my heart soar seeing this today! I love that she wore red! I love that she posed with the fans also. She’s awesome and it’s great she brought her daughter.
Congratulations, Spain!
The most poignant thing in relation to the William fiasco is that she was also congratulating/comforting the English team.
That was fantastic, what a beautiful experience for them all. Letizia jumping up and down with the team was amazing. You would never, ever see William or Kate do that. All the spontaneity has been hammered out of them.
The Spanish ladies do love their football – Queen Sofia famously went to the dressing room of the men’s team after they win the semifinal in 2010 prompting some hasty tidying up and startling one player as he emerged wrapped only in a towel!
Didn’t know about that story about Queen Sofia 😀
For any American readers: it is not that uncommon amongst royalty to be enthusiastic and join in with fun. It’s British Royalty that is cold and distant compared to many of the other ones.
Princess Di, Harry and Meghan are notable exceptions, but we all know what happened there.
And that is also a big part of the reason why they were frozen out: a warmth and connection with others that the others are incapable of.
Maybe Letizia is available to be queen of England too. She was pretty much everybody’s queen yesterday. Can’t believe I’m even saying this since I’m a Republican.
Good Lord! That one got by me. I’m a republican. Definitely NOT a Republican! Stupid spell check.
The Dutch royals are famously chilled, and Queen Maxima is never afraid to show her emotions in public – she’s often seen in tears at tragic events or memorials. King Phillippe of the Belgians is quite shy but he does try – he’s got strong dad energy – and Queen Mathilda is warm but not OTT. The Scandinavian/ex-Greek and Spanish families are all pretty closely related so big events tend to be like giant family parties with tiaras . They all seem to be genuinely fond of each. A lot of the heirs are close in age – Christian, Catherine-Amalia, Ingrid-Alexandra, Elisabeth, Leonor and Estelle – so hopefully they’ll have a solid support network between them all.
What makes you think they had any spontaneity to begin with.
Great comment!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hit the nail on the head without swinging a hammer.
It was so fun to see the videos of her dancing with the team. To the extent I follow her (which is basically just on here and some random posts throughout the year on social media) she always seems so poised and professional in public settings, so it was fun to see her letting loose a bit here. You could feel her genuine excitement for the team and Spain.
Her behavior towards the english team was also notable, the way she greeted them warmly, etc.
It gets tiresome sometimes to always say “imagine if this was William” but seriously, can we see William OR Kate acting like this? She was the exact right mix of professional and personal which can be a fine line to walk in a situation like this.
Peg would probably be awkwardly interacting with the ladies or checking them out and the jealous weirdo would be seething in a corner because she’s being ignored once again.
Right…we could never imagine Will doing this, warmly congratulating team members etc. But do you know who we could easily imagine doing this? That’s right, Harry and Meghan. What a shame that jealousy and hatred deprived English teams of this kind of enthusiastic support. How lovely and what incredible soft diplomacy Queen Sofia displayed to also console the English team. She gets excellent marks, William chalks up a failure.
not only was the Queen super warm but she looks bad ass in the red suit.
I am a staunch republican but while royalty exists this is what ! expect from them, supporting your compatriots in their endeavours and representing your country to the wider world to show it in a good light.
How is that so hard for some other royals?
Will we be talking about the kiss in another post? I’ve already dragged Willnot into this one and don’t want to sully a lovely thing for Spanish women any further.
What kiss?
At one point the Spanish coach full on kissed on the lips one of the Spanish players and I don’t think she was super thrilled about it. He also ripped the trophy out of one of the player’s hands and gave it to Princess Sofia to hold. There was a front page article on CNN and everyone was calling out the coach for his inappropriate actions.
Apparently it was the President of the Spanish Football Federation, not the coach. I read somewhere that he also grabbed his crotch “in celebration” after they won. Pretty sure it had nothing to do with one of those, sir.
The Spanish players have been very vocal about how they all hate their coach and that they get little support from their football federation. Its clear they also have to put up with a lot of inappropriate behaviour from the ‘men’ who are supposed to be supporting them.
It’s nice that Letizia is letting her hair naturally gray. Hair color is a personal choice. I don’t have a problem with women who choose to color. But often women feel forced to “hide” their gray hair. So it’s nice to see a woman in such a high profile, public position go gray. And her obvious overwhelming joy was so authentic. It was beautiful to see her and Sofia.
I noticed and thought the exact same thing about her grey hair! Nothing at all wrong with women choosing to color their hair — I probably would if I could justify the extra budget and time for upkeep! — but whenever I see a high-profile woman (especially one known for her style and professionalism) embrace the grey, it makes me feel even more validated/confident in letting my silver streaks shine 🙂
I was coming to say the same, how refreshing. I grew mine out during covid, when there were no hairdressers open, and I don’t regret it. Like Letizia, I don’t have that much grey yet, so it wasn’t bad growing it out.
I was really happy to see gray hair! I love that more and more prominent women are allowing gray hair to show and looking fantastic and dignified with it.
By the way – what a fantastic opportunity for mother and daughter to have fun and support their national team at the same time.
Congrats to Spain. well done. And yes, the Spanish queen understands leadership and duty. Well done to both the soccer team and the royal family for showing how great Spain is and how warm and loving the people are – from the soccer team to their queen.
I had never imagined a scenario where the queen of Spain would (unwittingly ( make Will look so bad! Had it been Meghan or Harry, they would be accused of stealing the limelight or something and shifting the blame for Will’s failures.
I think the BM would have used their favorite phrases of “stealing William’s thunder” or “blind sighting.”
Considering that William is so desperate for an international profile it is very puzzling that he didn’t see this event as an opportunity to get that attention. Letizia did her job. She’s been very supportive of the team.
She did both her job and William’s too.
And she did it brilliantly!
Will wants all the praise but none of the work.
Every little thing can affect an athlete’s confidence and performance. You have to think that knowing their Queen was there was inspiring and exhilarating for the Spanish team, while the Lionesses would feel abandoned and slighted by their own royalty’s lack of interest. It cannot have not impacted them no matter how professional and skilled. William betrayed them and his country.
Loved watching Letizia excitedly celebrating with the Spanish team, So spontaneous and natural.
Watching the BBC news last night it was noticeable that the attendance by Spanish royalty was barely mentioned. There were no shots of Letiza or Sofia celebrating with the Spanish players. However, I do believe it was too little too late as the viewing figures for the match peaked at nearly 15 million so, enough people in Britain watched and saw that our royals weren’t there.
I felt so sorry for our girls. Not because they lost but, because they were so badly let down by our institutions. It shouldn’t matter but, watching the Queen of Spain offer commiserations knowing that the persons who will be future king and is in charge the FA is sat on a beach somewhere just makes me so angry. I really want him to resign. If a member of royalty couldn’t have been then a senior representative from the FA should have been. William failed on both counts.
The Spanish King was present on one of the Tennis Finals, Wimbledon. Alcaraz, a Spanish player won that one. I like the Spanish King and Queen. Very serious when it comes to royal duties. Their girls are beautiful. Princess Leonor is now attending the military academy at 17 years old.
How insecure and petty are the British royals that they don’t want images of Queen Letizia at the final circulating in British media? (It’s a rhetorical question, obvs.)
I’m anti-monarchy, but the Spanish queen is doing royaling as it should be done.
I saw the trophy ceremony on Peacock on the US with no issues so not sure what was going on on the UK
The English team did get some hugs on the podium from the UK Minister for Culture and Sport. She and the Defense Minister were the official English reps. No disrespect to either of them but it’s bad optics compared to Spain having the Queen and Princess there.
I do love how the Spanish royal family is very huggy. When Juan Carlos stepped down, Felipe hugged him, and I believe both grandparents smooched their granddaughters’ heads. It’s nice that their cultural tradition says that public affection with family is always fine.
The Spanish culture is sooo different from British culture.
Leti and Sofia showing how it’s done. She was gracious to the Lionesses and exuberant with the Spanish ladies.
this world cup was sooo thrilling! sooo competitive!
amazing how far the women’s game has come, y’all.
if you didn’t watch you missed out.
Australia v France will forever be embedded in my brain as one of the most epic sporting moments of my life!
If it is indeed true that the BM didn’t show footage of the Spanish team with their royals, then the pettiness and insecurity of the British royals knows no bounds. Good thing that William has no power to brief against the Spanish royals. And is counterpart is Leonor, Princess of Asturias who just who started her military training and couldn’t attend the Cup with her mother and sister or surely she would have been there. Really, something needs to drag the Windsors out of their insulated little world created by their media. However, I have always thought that the Windsors need only the support of Britain to maintain their position.
“The uploaded has not made this video available in your country” is unfortunately 90% of the YouTube vids I try to watch as an Australian.
Queen Letezia really is awesome. Just watch some of her videos of her working. She is genuine. And she works often. She is engaged and doesn’t make it all about herself. And she is friendly without looking fake like with her and the athletes here. Im so happy she turned up with her daughter and he didnt. What’s more concerning is them trying to block her pictures/videos for “copyright” infringement. What a joke. Wank is pathetic.
Look at the queen and infanta, out there showing support and looks like having fun. Such a moment to be a part of. Woohoo Spain!!!
👏👏👏👏👏👏