Paula Navarro, the coach who breaks down walls in Chilean soccer

Determined, planned, and structured. This is the story of Paula Navarro.

Paula Navarro has been linked to Santiago Morning for fourteen of her 48 years. She is excited to remember her first years working in this field because nothing has been easy. They did not pay her at the beginning at the institution, and she even fought to get them to give them a ball to be able to use it in training, something basic and essential for a soccer team, but which for women seemed to be a utopia.

"Just this year they will give us five balls for every opportunity in which our team plays home, after 14 years. Why have they never given us any ball, since I have been asking them for all this time?", assures Paula as she moves the pages of her notebook, where she has soccer notes and a blue pencil as if she were directing a weekly training session or a game on a Sunday lunchtime.

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A month ago, when she was still the technical director of Santiago Morning (she ended up resigning to dedicate herself to more administrative tasks due to personal projects), her team played a new edition of the Copa Libertadores, an award they won after being champions of the Chilean tournament again, where they managed to access the quarterfinals like the last championship, something historic that was truncated by the Brazilian Corinthians on both occasions.

Being more painful the elimination of the edition of this year, since the Chileans succumbed in an unappealable way 7-0 against the Brazilians, and after a month, Navarro continues to see again and again the seven goals with which the "timao "he eliminated her team looking for answers without solutions. It wasn't the first time, and that hurts more. "Many people criticize because they scored seven goals, but we died with our game model."

Perseverance as a flag of struggle

In the time that she has been a soccer coach, Paula has had to show in first person the difficulties faced by women who dedicate themselves to this sport, as well as the resilience that must be had to overcome all the obstacles and always look ahead.

"It has been difficult, I worked for a long time without being paid, that is free for many years, and after I got paid I started to achieve different things with the teams, to have players, a coaching staff, but all that was a very long process, of my evolution as a coach and many times I thought about giving up, but I have a capacity to be persistent and never give up".

But not everything is negative, and it is that she recognizes that the situation of the team she directs is in a privileged position with respect to the vast majority of the teams that make up the First Division of women's soccer in the country. Santiago Morning is very supportive of the women's branch and in 2019 it became the first Chilean team to give its players professional contracts and equipment and, in addition, Paula earns the same as the coach of the men's team.

This is clearly reflected in the results, with the recently obtained three-time championship, with the two times that the team classified Libertadores and with a large number of nominees for the Chilean team for the Olympic play-off against Cameroon (six players on the roster) and that ended with a historic classification to the highest sporting event in the world.

Having seen that classification on television fills her with pride, but it is measured with respect to Chile's possibilities and is critical of the statements of the president of the ANFP, Pablo Milad, who pointed out that Chile's objective was to finish among the four best teams in the competition.

"You cannot go out and say that Chile is going to be among the four best teams, be careful. That speaks of the disconnection and the little knowledge we have regarding the area you are talking about."

2017, the year all the spotlights were put on her

The team made Jaime García official as their new coach and Paula was appointed as an assistant and member of the coaching staff. "For me, it was very difficult to manage a team where I did not choose the players. Because we coaches are measured by the results, and if I did wrong with players that I did not choose, they would criticize me. But I decided to accept and I must say that I learned a lot from Jaime, the coaching staff, and the players ".

Its future and the future of Chilean women's soccer

She does not see herself directing in the women's team, since she considers that there are people more capable than her currently to occupy that position, nor occupying a place in the ANFP as she once stated. Her goal is abroad, but she understands that the health situation due to the Coronavirus pandemic makes everything difficult, and she also feels quite comfortable in her current club and with the game model that she develops.

The successes that have meant the runner-up in the Copa América, the qualification for the last World Cup in France, and what will be the participation in the Olympic Games may well be a before and after in national women's soccer, but there is still a long way to go. to be professional and able to compete at the highest level.

"There are many things to do in women's soccer and for that, we need more and more women present. That is why I would tell them to be persevering and that they can achieve it and be soccer players, leaders, doctors, kinesiologists, and whatever they set out to do."

Sometimes she is tired because she talks about the past and remembers everything she had to go through to get to where she is. Many times gates were closed to her, but she did not give up and was able to tear down walls, which she hopes that more women will be able to overthrow in the future.