Borja Iglesias, a Galician forward, made a decision that could have cost him his career: in August 2023, he quit the Spanish national team in protest over Luis Rubiales’s non-consensual kiss on Jenni Hermoso. He did not know Jenni personally. He did not need to.
“I have made the decision not to return until things change”, he wrote at the time. When Rubiales left the Federation, Borja returned and made Luis de la Fuente’s squad for the 2026 World Cup. After the semifinal against France, he met Jenni for the first time, now a Tigres Femenil player. They shared a long hug.
After winning the final against Argentina, the Celta de Vigo forward sought her out again in front of TUDN’s cameras. “We already had a lot of affection for each other without knowing one another, and now that we have hugged, it was something super special”, he said. Through tears, he added that the title is a continuation of what they did in 2023 and what his teammates did in 2010: “When you make decisions from the heart, things work out well”.