Alba Mellado seemed to spend more time on the phone than doing training, so keen was she for her players to have suitably difficult opponents to compete against. If that meant the girls had to play three or four games in a single weekend because it was the only available time for the opposition, then so be it. Mellado could not risk saying no, as many times her requests for games were declined.
Within the youth football scene in Spain, and particularly in the capital, Madrid CFF were a well-known women’s club with no men’s teams. Among its ranks were a group of girls who competed against boys’ teams, yet still won everything on offer. In the Segunda Infantil (a category for 12-13-year-olds), the team won the championship one year, scoring 269 goals, the most of any team in the Madrid Comunidad, including Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid or Getafe. By then, Madrid CFF had already claimed the La Liga Promises (a national U-12 league), among other championships and promotions.
In that gifted squad was a tall and very fast girl with incredible ball-control skills by the name of Vicky Lopez. So adept was she at changing the course of a game and so accomplished and competitive were her team, that many potential opponents, and indeed boys’ tournaments, declined to invite them.
“There were tournaments where organisers told us that if a girls’ team won, it would leave a little ‘stain’. Imagine if a youth team from Atletico Madrid team lost to a team of girls! So, every time someone said yes to a request to play, we went without thinking twice,” Mellado told FIFA. The 31-year-old, who played for RCD Espanyol in 2023, discovered Lopez as an eight-year-old and coached her for a long time.
Lopez became the youngest Barcelona player to score in the Liga F when she found the net aged 16 years, five months and 27 days. Previously she was the recipient of the adidas Golden Ball at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2022, where Spain were crowned champions after beating Colombia in the final. On 5 September 2021, the attacking midfielder made her senior debut for Madrid CFF and in so doing became the youngest player in Liga F history.
The Barcelona starlet recently grabbed another record by becoming the youngest ever player for the senior national team, when she featured in Spain’s UEFA Nations League semi-final win over the Netherlands that stamped La Roja’s ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics. However, none of these distinctions fully do justice to the talent and potential of this unique player.
At the end of the match against the Dutch, which set up a final against France that Montse Tome’s charges would go on to win, Lopez’s team-mates surrounded her and, with interlocking hands, repeatedly hoisted her skywards to mark the occasion. For the 17-year-old wunderkind, it was a case of literally and metaphorically touching the stars.
Lopez normally plays as an attacking midfielder. As well as her usual repertoire of fine ball-striking, getting in on goal, shaking off markers and good ball-control with either foot, she can move with the ball at electrifying speed, making her something of a serial dribbler.
Mellado first came across her in a children’s team and tried to get her to sign for her Madrid CFF, but Lopez said no. By chance, they met again on a beach vacation and, over the course of several days, the coach managed to break the ice, build a relationship and convince the teenager to join the capital side.
“What struck me the most when I saw her play was how fast she was. Back then, she may not have been technically outstanding – although her forward runs were good – but she didn’t have the wonderful dribbling ability she has honed over time. What she did have, though, was incredible speed compared to the rest of the kids. I used to put her alongside boys of her age, and she still outran them,” says Mellado. “The way she understood what was asked of her in training was also very striking. Every time you asked Vicky to do something, she understood it perfectly and the reason for it. That’s before you add in her talent… You could tell that with the right coaching, she could go all the way if she wanted.”
Lopez racked up 60 goals in 17 games in the 2020-21 youth league. Her time in Madrid CFF’s senior team was short lived, with Barcelona watching her closely and eventually signing her in July 2022. There, she will be able to continue her development alongside some of the world’s best, including Aitana Bonmati, Alexia Putellas and Salma Paralluelo. “We have to take things slowly, but she has so much quality,” said her coach Jonatan Giraldez. And while Lopez may struggle to make Spain’s reduced squad of 18 for the Paris 2024 Olympics, she could well be the star of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Colombia 2024, which kicks off on 31 August with Spain as defending champions.
“She’s a very young girl who’s at the best club in the world, I don’t know exactly when they will give her more responsibility, but she will assume it without a problem,” added Mellado. “She’s very intelligent and knows how to interpret the game very well. I know that right now she’s doesn’t have to assume the kind of responsibility that other players there do, but as soon as they tell her to take the shackles off, she’s going to do very well.
“I remember we were in a tournament at Valdebebas (Real Madrid’s training ground), and in our first game we beat the eventual runners-up. One of the boys from that team was in tears afterwards as his parents complained that the boys had ‘played terrible’. Of course, they couldn’t admit their team had lost because the girls had played fantastic… The crying boy then said we’d cheated because we had a boy in our team. But what happened was that they’d mistaken Vicky for a boy, as she had short-cropped hair and was just so decisive,” recalled Mellado.
Like Jenni Hermoso and Linda Caicedo, two of the megastars of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, Lopez developed playing against boys in a team that also featured Cristina Libran and Marisa Antolin, among others. She competed against opponents who, at least initially, were more dominant physically. For all that, there were numerous times when, faced with prospect of containing the irrepressible Lopez, teams turned down invites rather than going up against her.