Cata Coll's speech at the Ballon d'Or gala, in Catalan: "This award is also from Mallorca"

PalmaThe Mallorcan Barça goalkeeper, Cata Coll, was awarded the Yashin Trophy, which recognizes her as the best goalkeeper in the world. During her speech at the Ballon d'Or gala, the Mallorcan chose to give part of her speech in Catalan, a fact that was very appreciated from the very first moment on social media: "congratulations for making Catalan visible in your impeccable speech, using our beloved Mallorcan language".

Furthermore, the Barça player did not forget her roots and her island and concluded her speech by assuring that "this award was also Mallorca's". Her speech, as is customary in this type of gala, began by thanking the work and effort of her club, her teammates, coaches... but little by little the Mallorcan woman made a plot twist to talk about other topics that she also considered important, such as "those women who years ago had broken down barriers so that she could be a football player".

At this moment she also made reference to the pride she feels for the work that she and her generation of players do so that girls today also dream of being football players and "to show them that with effort they can also be footballers".

Here, after this message, was when Cata Coll switched languages and began to give her speech in Catalan. To address her family and thank them with an individual and very emotional message to each one, the Mallorcan goalkeeper used the language of her homeland. In fact, she even used a very well-known expression here in the Balearic Islands: "A poc a poc i bona lletra" (Slowly and with good penmanship), referring to the way her mother used to encourage her and help her see that she should be consistent with what she was doing and that dreams could come true.

The fact that Cata Coll gave part of her speech in Catalan created a funny moment at the gala, as the next person to speak was Unai Simon, a Basque goalkeeper who also received the same award as the Mallorcan. When the Athletic Club player went up to the stage, shouts were heard from the stands asking him to give his speech in Basque as well, just as the Barça goalkeeper had done in Catalan.