No babies on board: only one of the 92 Euro Cup semi-finalists is a mother

Mateo and Jara also won the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, although they didn't appear in the official photos with the trophy. It was the first major triumph for the Spanish players, who achieved something unprecedented until then: being able to be accompanied by their children during the long training camps at these tournaments. Jara isn't in Switzerland—because her mother, Ivana Andrés , isn't—but Mateo is. His mother, Irene Paredes , will captain Spain in the semifinal against Germany, and he will be the only son of a female footballer. Among the 92 players—Spanish, English, German, and Italian—there isn't a single mother who can benefit from a struggle that has been global.

At the Royal Savoy Hotel in Lausanne, he's the joy of the camp. The RFEF agreed in May 2023 to create a fund for travel for immediate family members to tournaments and, in particular, so that players with children under three could spend quality time with them every day during the camps. Mateo is with his other mother, Lucía Ybarra , a former international hockey player, in another area of the hotel, but they have a space where they can meet Irene comfortably, with games, small blue strollers, and coloring pages, including one of a lion that they've already finished. "We've made a lot of effort to make it a very accessible space for the players, in this case for Irene. It's close by and she doesn't have to waste time going to another hotel, because that's not conciliation," Reyes Bellver , the Director of Women's Football, explains to ELMUNDO.

It's an achievement the Germans already enjoyed during Euro 2022, when current Wolfsburg goalkeeper Almuth Schult was accompanied by her twins. She, along with former Real Madrid player Melanie Leupolz and Tabea Sellner, were the three players who opted for surrogate motherhood. All three are now retired, and no one in the German national team has taken their place.

Why is motherhood postponed?

The reason why female players don't have children can be traced back to a combination of factors. First, age. In the European Union, the average age at which women decide to have their first child was 31 in 2023, according to the Women's Institute . Motherhood is increasingly being delayed. In Germany, they're approaching that figure, and in England , it's 30, but in Spain and Italy, it's even higher: 32 and a half. When the average age of players in these four national teams doesn't even reach the 28 years of age of the Italians and drops to less than 26 in the Germans, it's not surprising to conclude that they don't feel their time has come to have children.

The elite level complicates everything. The physical and mental demands, along with the packed competition schedule, which requires constant travel, mean that many wait until the end of their careers. "It will be another exciting chapter in my life," British athlete Alessia Russo admitted to the BBC. "There are those who wait until the end of their careers to get pregnant. And I think it's a shame, because in another job you would get pregnant sooner. But you see the hostility of the situation... Pregnancy is associated with injury or worse, because you're choosing it . If you tear your ACL, it's a shame, and if you get pregnant, you're judged," said Irene Paredes on Mother&Footballer, a podcast produced by FC Barcelona.

"Should I have a child and play again?"

England's Ella Toone , who has a boyfriend with a child, brought that debate to the forefront before this European Championship. "Should I have a child and play again? Will I be able to come back? What if I try to be successful and then quit football?" she wondered aloud, reflecting the questions that often haunt players. It's not always easy to return from motherhood if you're at the top of your game.

" There's more trust in an injured player than in one returning from maternity leave ," reflected German Almuth Schult, who had her fourth child in 2024 and is still active. It's not always that easy. The Spanish example is Marta Corredera , who had a complicated pregnancy while playing for Real Madrid and has often confessed that she felt "abandoned."

And the work to make it easier for players to make their personal choices rests with the clubs. The national teams are making this visible, even though it's becoming increasingly difficult for mothers to be active.