“Barça is my home, but I do not regret having left”

BarcelonaThis Tuesday begins a new edition of the Women's Champions League. The competition, which started with the qualifying round, begins the league with 18 teams that will fight to be in the Warsaw final at the end of May. Barça, one of the main favorites, will debut on Wednesday against Paris FC (9 PM, Disney+), and the other team from the State, Real Madrid, will do so this Tuesday against PSG (9 PM, Esport3).

The Champions League is always full of stories, and a Catalan footballer has landed at Juventus this season who will seek to consolidate herself in the elite of European women's football: midfielder Júlia Bartel (Castellbisbal, 2004). “The adaptation is being very easy –the club has helped me with it–, and it is important to then be able to perform on the pitch. I am happy to be in an entity that wants to win everything, it is what identifies me, and it is a project that draws my attention a lot”, she describes in a telephone conversation with ARA, in which she remarks that she misses her family, friends, and the beach.

Juventus is managed by the Catalan Isaac Guerrero, who has been a key piece in Bartel's arrival at the Turin team. “He knew me from when I was in Barcelona and he was the one who explained the project and the idea of the game to me. It helps to be able to speak in my language, it makes you feel at home”. The Italians have started the season in an excellent way: qualified for the Champions League league phase –after overcoming St. Pölten in the preliminary round– and winners of the Serie A Cup on penalties.

“The first goal was to pass the play-off of the Champions League, even though there was little margin to prepare for it because we were playing it early. Now we have to enjoy what is coming and, little by little, advance through rounds. We want to go as far as possible, but we want to go game by game,” explains Bartel before debuting against Benfica at home (9 PM, Disney+). One of the great duels will be the visit of Olympique Lyon to Turin (November 11 at 9 PM). “As players, we like people to come watch the matches and cheer. In Italy, things are being done well and the Champions League is a good stage to try to give more visibility,” she assures.

Italian women's football is in a growth phase, and this year three teams (Juventus, Roma, and Inter Milan) have qualified for the Champions League league phase. “I haven't been here long, but I am really liking how they work, especially here at Juventus,” describes Bartel, while also saying that Spanish women's football should be valued more. “From the outside, it is viewed favorably, but from within Spain, they should try to give it more visibility,” she points out.

A difficult decision

Eager to succeed at Juventus, Bartel arrives in Turin after growing up at Barça and trying her luck at Chelsea, Liverpool, and Atlético de Madrid. The Catalan player, who managed to debut with the first team for the 'blaugrana', decided to seek a change of scenery in the summer of 2024. "Barça is my home, but I don't regret leaving for Chelsea. Football-wise, it didn't turn out how I wanted, but personally, I grew a lot, and we also have a life after football. I have matured a lot after my experience in England," she confesses.

Currently, Bartel combines football with her studies. The native of Castellbisbal is taking the INEF degree remotely, a fact that reinforces her great connection with the world of sports. "Since I was little, I have always been on the football pitch with a ball. My father was my brother's coach and I was always around there playing. He liked me playing football, and one day, at 4 or 5 years old and without my mother knowing, he put me to play. After that, I just stayed," recalls the Catalan footballer, who jokes about the fact that she didn't even know how to walk when she started in the world of football.

At the beginning, Bartel looked up to Xavi and Iniesta, but as she has grown, her role models have changed to female players: Aitana Bonmatí, Alexia Putellas, and Patri Guijarro. “I think this is important, that we have female role models and they are not all male,” she claims, while reminding the younger ones that they must enjoy the day-to-day. “When you talk to people who have retired, they always tell you to take advantage of all the experiences you live because later you will miss them,” she concludes.