At 29, you've retired from football. Is it a little early?
I'm young and I'm still wearing football boots, but the last few years have been difficult. I've had a severe back injury, and once I've gotten over, I haven't been able to participate in the field. I have had to stop for a long time, and in those cases others take care of me. Young people are on a very good level, and I started thinking that I was about to finish school, and that maybe it was my time to address other challenges. No other individual.

Because of the back injury, you were sore for a long season. How do you remember the last few years?
I started with the injury in 2020. I stayed for a couple of months without moving, and I played again. The thing is, even though I started playing, since then, I suffered back pain until I had surgery in 2023. When you're in competition, you don't want to stay, but in September 2022, the pain became unbearable and I decided to stay. I was afraid because I didn't know what process I was going to go through and the pain was conditioning my life: I was limping, I could sleep in one posture, I couldn't stand long, but I didn't sit -- I had two disc hernias on my back and I was told that these days they go without cuts. I thought they were going to solve the problem with conservative treatment and that it was going to be at stake for a few months. The treatment helped me decrease my symptoms, but I was forced to go back to first division football.

In January 2023, we decided to go through the operating room and it was the best decision. I recovered very well and went back to the group, but I had been standing for two years now. I was able to train at the pace of the team, but I couldn't participate in the games. I've been out of official parties for two years, and even though I've overcome physical pain, I had emotional pain. That made me the toughest experience.

The pain has disappeared, but also football. What is Garazi's life like now?
I'm still doing sport. I've tried rugby without a platelet, for example. I play football on Friday with the team of the bar association and I enjoy the sport from another place: the good thing, I know the people, it serves me to establish new relationships… In Euskadi Irratia I am also commenting football matches, and at ease. It's nice to be informed of those matches that you can't play. Yes, whenever I can go to Lezama: my team is still my team.

You play football on the team of the bar association, as you are a lawyer and economist. You haven't been alone in football for these years.
Like many other women, in the years that I've played soccer, I've also studied. When you're in Primera División, it's not easy, but with your pace of study, they're compatible with football.

In this sense, very different references are created between men and women, right?
It's inevitable. The distances between us are great. Contracts in male primary football, both in sport and in advertising, are not comparable with ours. They're in another dimension. We are also professionals – see, I still speak first person! – but on a much lower level. Our savings capacity has nothing to do with yours, and it is clear to us that when we finish the sport route we will have to work on something else. So, at the same time as we develop our career, we also prepare that transition to the future.

You speak in the first person, yes. You've been a captain for many years. Do you feel the team? I've had
that honor and that responsibility. I will always remember my sports journey with a lot of tenderness and affection.
In the case of boys and girls, at least in Athletic, the captains of it are not chosen manera.En the male group the captains
are designated by veteran, but in the case of women the costume chooses by vote. I have had the honour that my colleagues have appointed him captain. It's beautiful that your peers choose you to be their captain.

Does it show trust and respect?
Yes, and after all, it is one of the most beautiful things that you can keep in your sporting journey: the affection and respect of your colleagues.

You're from Getxo and most of the years you've played them at Athletic Club. But you started playing soccer in the United States.
I've always played football, but as a kid, when I wanted to get into the school team, I couldn't take that step. So my parents' work took us to Nevada at about 10 years old, and there I started playing on a mixed team. I started back in Bizkerre, in the village team. At first I played with the boys, but in that jump to ESO, the law said that from the children's category there could be no mixed teams. So I went on to the Bizkerre girls' team until Athletic signed me.

In your farewell video, Bizkerre has also been present.
I spent many years there. We were kids and someday we had the dream of playing in the first division, we wanted to wear the Athletic shirt… I lived football intensively then. In addition, Bizker has always wagered on women’s football. Like Algortarra, and if not, I am very proud and happy to come from the quarry of Bizkerre.

In the same video he says that the boots are not hanging, that they are inherited and that they have been given to another girl.
When we were children, most of our referents, if not all, were men. It was football that showed us television. For me, 2002 was a turning point. Athletic Club’s first female team took the League and played their last match in San Mamés, with a final score. That's where for the first time I saw a group of women dressed in a red-white t-shirt in San Mamés. I realized that I, too, could do it with that dream. I know that in addition to dreaming, we have to work, we have to be lucky… but at least that party gave me the opportunity to dream. Therefore, one of the most beautiful things in our sport career has been that we can make our contribution to the development of women’s football and that we can now be the referents of girls (or boys) who start playing football.

You are from 1995, and in 2002 the women’s team of Athletic Club was formed. What has women’s football developed for good and what have you stopped for?
When I got to the first group, the road was already quite a long way. Our seniors played in the worst camps, in the worst schedules. They did so with little means and without any statement. When I got to the group, there were some part-time contracts, for example. Things have been improving: there are full-time contracts, collective agreements have been signed – we still have to do more. The level of professionalism of women remains low and the media’s treatment of women’s sport should also change. As far as resources are concerned, artificial grass fields must be removed and women's football must be transferred to major stadiums. It's not just for having a better scenario: stadiums are always in the center of cities and training camps on the periphery. Access to women’s sport must be made easier for fans. I would also like, in the not too distant future, men and women to negotiate a collective agreement.

Would it be just as fair to bring down the male footballers as to raise wages for women?
I do not know how it will evolve, but the minimum conditions should be the same. It is a matter of equal opportunities, which would create more opportunities for professional footballers in the new generations.

You say that women also have to play in the big stadiums. Remember the first time you played in San Mamés? The first time I played in
San Mamés was beautiful: It was a Champions League game and we won. However, the day I remember especially is the Queen’s Cup’s eliminatory: We played Athletic in Madrid and 46,000 people arrived in San Mamés. I went out to the camp wanting to cry. I played in the first eleven and it was amazing to climb the staircase and see San Mamés full. 46,000 people supporting and pushing us. What I felt when I went out to that game I felt very rarely.

Is there a lot of difference between playing in Lezama and playing in San Mamés?
Yes, and not everything is for good. He may get too nervous in the big stage. In any case, we women also deserve to live such a moment, and I would like to see women’s football every fifteen days in San Mamés.

This year, the men’s first division team brought the Copa del Rey de Primera to Bilbao. All of Bizkaia has turned to the celebrations. In 2016, women won the last league. The gap of the barge is still there in your case. Barges who
have not been able to return will not do so, but when the women's team has won another title, the barge has to leave. It is not an exclusive symbol of men: it is of all.

The celebration of this year has been criticised. How did you experience it?
In fact, it was a beautiful day, but it was in 2016, when there was no recognition in the four leagues previously won by women. This and the lack of references to it make the celebration of men sour. In the future, the barge will also come out to celebrate women’s victories, and I believe that society will respond. For the discourse of equality, it is important to work on the symbolic aspect and the new generations have to understand that the barbeque belongs to all.

What was Athletic for you?
Thanks to Athletic I was able to enjoy at home my childhood dream and my passion, thrown by my family and friends. I am very grateful.

Now you're commenting on the matches on the radio. Do you see yourself working or training in the quarry?
I'm finishing my master's degree in advocacy and I try to enjoy the opportunity that radio gives me to be linked to football. But I have a hard time imagining where I will be in six months' time. Maybe linked to football, but not to the coach.

Coach no?
Being a coach takes a lot of work. Football today is related to data: you have to watch the videos, it is your responsibility to manage a human team, the results must be good… when things are going well you are the best in the world, if you do not go to the street. It is a difficult and lonely trade.

People usually talk about football teams, but there's also a federation. After winning the last World Cup of Female Selections in Spain, some things became very clear. The news related to selection in recent
years has been regrettable and shameful. Everybody hoped that winning an international title would give a big boost to women's football, but look at what happened. Things are slowly improving and that is also the result of a lack of will.

Does the media also have a responsibility?Women's
sport, in general, has little space, the treatment of information is not comparable…

Did you talk about those things in the locker room?
Yes, but in the end we have normalized these situations as well. When we have won a title, all the press has come upon us, but otherwise we do not have a constant presence in the media, and we have become accustomed to it. Our fate is that football is football, because other women's sports are still less respected. As we have always lived in the shadow, we have normalized our presence. You know it's not fair, but you don't always want to be angry.

Who have been the major referents in their trajectory?
A lot of people are important in the sports trajectory of a single person. In that San Mamés game of 2002, for example, I saw the team in person. My first references were the following and I also shared the costume with some of them: Ainhoa Tirapu, Eli Ibarra, Iraia Iturregi, Erika Vázquez… later, as a zaguero, having the opportunity to play with the great Irene Paredes has been wholeheartedly. Not only because he is one of the world’s best rangers, but also because he has been a benchmark on the road to equality. I am very grateful for the people who brought me to Athletic, for those who helped me in the difficult times, for the comrades… I’ve been in Athletic’s locker room for many years and made friends for my whole life.

Yours was published with the men's captain's farewell. Comparisons are disgusting, but you didn't stop talking about the collective. Football,
in addition to doing sport, has given me the opportunity to play my part in the development of women’s football. That has allowed me to be part of a much greater change than I am. And I know that if I've had the opportunities that I've had, it's because others have done a job before.

Do you have to withdraw a moment from your route?
I would tell you the injury, but at the end of the sports race, as in life, there are good and bad moments. The injury has been emotionally hard, but I want to accept my entire sports trajectory. I am happy and proud to have fulfilled my dream.
Have you ever thought that if you played on the male team, you'd be somewhere else now? Do you have any remorse?
Regret not to be a man? Ha, ha, ha.

Well, the regret of living football in a different way.
This is what has touched us and I repeat: we have been part of a greater change than us and that is beautiful. Nothing would change.