Aitana Bonmatรญ, a leading figure in women’s football, has consistently demonstrated a commitment to fighting for her rights and advocating for gender and social equality. Her activism includes being one of 15 international players who boycotted selection in 2022 to push for reforms within the Spanish Royal Federation (RFEF). She was also among the 23 world champions who exerted pressure in 2023, leading to the removal of corrupt leadership from the RFEF.
Bonmatรญ,whose full name is Aitana Bonmatรญ Conca,attributes her passion for equality to her family.Her parents, both Catalan language and literature teachers, actively challenged the conventional Spanish naming convention where the father’s surname precedes the mother’s. They successfully fought to have this default primacy suppressed,and since 2018,Spanish law allows families to choose the order of surnames. The irony, as noted, is that their daughter is now widely recognized as “Aitana” – the name displayed on her jersey – and celebrated as “the best footballer in the world.”