Spain: Olga Carmona is a heroine after scoring the winning goal in the FIFA Women's World Cup, some Romani groups want to claim her
The heroine of Sunday's final in the FIFA Women's World Cup is Olga Carmona, whose goal in the 89th minute of play decided Spain's victory over England 1:0. Some organizations representing Romani people in Spain have been celebrating her as one of their own - not only was she the player who decided the final match, but as team captain she was on the field the entire tournament.
Is Carmona actually Romani, though, and does she identify as such? “Olga Carmona and her Romani goal got us to the final against England, let’s do it!” appeared on the Gitanos de España Facebook page after Spain’s semi-final match against Sweden; the page is run by the Asamblea Democrática Estatal del Pueblo Gitano [Democratic State Assembly of the Romani People] and 35,000 people follow it.
Carmona scored the deciding goal for the Spanish women’s side during the 89th minute of play. “Olga Carmona, you have to be Romani! Thanks to your goal, Spanish women won their first-ever World Cup!!!! We congratulate you!” posted the Association of Gitano Youth of Gràcia [Associació Joves Gitanos de Gràcia] in Spain after the win.
Several media outlets are also reporting Carmona is a Romani woman. For example, journalist Manuel Bohórquez wrote for news server El Correo that: “Olga is Romani, yes, but that’s not the most important thing to me, because it has to be normal that a Romani woman can be a football star, a good bullfighter, or can study philosophy and literature.”
Bohórquez went on to write that Romani people have lived in Spain for centuries. “Olga Carmona is a Romani woman, we can repeat this over and over again, and that’s all. For me, though, what is more important is that she is a woman from Seville and mainly that she is playing the football of her dreams,” the commentator wrote.
However, neither Carmona herself nor her family have ever said they are Romani. “We cannot be certain she is a Romani woman. She has never said in any publication that she is a Romani woman. No member of her family has ever said it. Many people believe she is Romani because ‘Carmona’ is a Romani surname, but it’s not just Romani families who have that surname,” Romani activist Demetrio Gómez told news server Romea.cz, adding that the El Espaňol news server has refuted the claim about her origins.
“The Carmona surname is quite closely connected with Romani people, but Olga actually is not Romani. That doesn’t matter, though. Olga is a world champion and the legacy she leaves behind is that anybody can identify however they want,” news server El Espaňol wrote.
Moreover, the mother of Olga Carmona has posted to social media that Olga is not a Romani woman. “Olga is not a Romani woman, but even if she were there would be nothing at all wrong with that – it’s just not true, though. This is her mother telling you this,” Olga Garcia Galvez posted in response to several statements mistakenly identifying her daughter.
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Olga Carmona started in Seville
Olga Carmona was born in the Andalusian city of Seville and started her career in football at the age of six in Seville Este. During her first professional season, she scored five goals in 25 matches, during which the Sevilla side ended up in 12th place.
In 2007 she transferred to the Sevilla FC youth club and spent nine years there. In the 2016-17 season she made it onto the first team in Spain’s second division.
She and her team managed to advance to the Primera División during that first season. While her club was stuck in the lower half of the league tables for the next three seasons, she did make it into the semi-final of the domestic championships in 2018–19 and 2019–20, during which Sevilla beat winners Real Sociedad and FC Barcelona.
In the summer of 2020, Carmona signed a contract with the newly-created women’s football section of Real Madrid. At the international level she won the European Championship in 2018 with her national side in the 19 and under category.
She personally contributed to winning the title with four goals in 10 matches during the qualifiers and the final. One year later she was in the European Championship finals again with the same side, where they lost 1:3 in overtime during the semi-final against France; in April 2021 she won her first match against Mexico for Spain’s senior representation.
After victory, a harsh blow upon learning her father had passed away
After the historic success of the Spanish women’s team, Carmona received the news that her father had passed away. The captain of the new women’s world football champions did not learn of the sad news until after the match and bid her father an emotional farewell on social media.
“Without even knowing it, I had my own star up above before the match even started. I know it was you who gave me the strength to achieve something unique. I know you were following me today and you were proud of me. Rest in peace, Dad,” she posted on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, beneath a photograph of herself kissing the gold medal.
Teams playing in the World Championship traditionally add a gold star to their team uniform above the national symbol. Reuters reports her father passed away after a long illness on Friday.
The 23-year-old defender for Real Madrid, who had been voted the Most Valuable Player of the finals, was not informed by her family of her father’s death so she could concentrate on the decisive match. Her brothers and mother traveled to Australia, according to the Relevo news website in Spain, to give her the sad news in person and support her.
