{"id":1646077,"date":"2025-02-03T15:49:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T14:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pre.efe.com\/?p=1646077"},"modified":"2025-02-03T18:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T17:44:14","slug":"rubiales-unwanted-kiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pre.efe.com\/en\/latest-news\/2025-02-03\/rubiales-unwanted-kiss\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenni Hermoso: Rubiales\u2019 kiss stole my world cup joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Madrid, Feb 3 (EFE).- Women\u2019s World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso said Monday that she felt “violated” and “disrespected” after receiving an unsolicited kiss from former Spanish football federation chief Luis Rubiales.
She denied hearing Rubiales ask for “a little kiss,” as he claimed, but emphasized that even if she had, she would not have consented.
\u201cI did not approve it,\u201d said the Tigres UANL player during the first session of the trial at Spain\u2019s National Court, where Rubiales and three former senior RFEF officials face charges over the non-consensual kiss and alleged pressure on Hermoso to justify it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kiss, which Rubiales gave Hermoso after Spain won the World Cup final in Sydney on Aug. 20, 2023, changed her life “from the very first moment” and prevented her from fully enjoying the victory, she lamented.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nPatricia Perez (C), former press chief of Women’s Spanish national soccer team, leaves Audiencia Nacional Court after she testified as witness at the first session of the trial of Luis Rubiales (unseen), former president of the Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF), for his non-consensual kiss to soccer player Jenni Hermoso after the team’s victory in World Soccer Cup’s final in Sydney (Australia), in the town of San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain, 03 February 2025. EFE\/Fernando Villar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
She said her life has felt like it has been put on “standby.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I knew my boss was kissing me, and this should not happen in any work or social environment,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hermoso revealed that she felt relieved to live in Mexico, where she plays for Tigres UANL, away from the intense media scrutiny she faced upon arriving in Madrid, where reporters followed her “24 hours a day.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During questioning by Deputy Prosecutor Marta Dur\u00e1ntez, Hermoso said she wanted to report the incident “from the very beginning,” even before appearing at the prosecutor’s office, and denied being coerced into doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nLuis Rubiales (C), former president of the Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF), leaves Audiencia Nacional Court after he attended the first session of his trial for his non-consensual kiss to soccer player Jenni Hermoso after the team’s victory in World Soccer Cup’s final in Sydney (Australia), in the town of San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain, 03 February 2025. EFE\/Fernando Villar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
“I Had No Time to React”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hermoso reiterated multiple times that she neither consented to nor approved the kiss. She also described the pressure she and her family endured from the other three accused: former men\u2019s national team sports director Albert Luque, ex-women\u2019s team coach Jorge Vilda, and former RFEF marketing manager Rub\u00e9n Rivera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recalling the moment, Hermoso said after greeting the Queen and Infanta Sof\u00eda, she approached Rubiales, and they embraced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The mess we’ve caused,” she joked, before Rubiales suddenly lifted her off the ground. “I had my legs almost around his waist,” she recalled, adding that he then grabbed her face.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nPatricia Perez (C, on the screen), former press chief of Women’s Spanish national soccer team, testifies in the first session of the trial of former Spanish Soccer Federation’s President Luis Rubiales (unseen) and three other people for the non-consensual kiss of Rubiales to soccer player Jenni Hermoso in a photo taken to a screen at the press room at Audiencia Nacional Court in Madrid, Spain, 03 February 2025. EFE\/Chema Moya <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
“The next thing I remember is his hands on my ears, and then the kiss,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She firmly denied Rubiales’ claim that he asked for permission. “At no point did I hear him say, \u2018Can I give you a little kiss?\u2019 And even if I had heard it, I would have refused.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen he put his hands on my ears, the next thing that happened was the kiss,” she reiterated. “As soon as I got down, I knew it wasn\u2019t normal. I felt disrespected. That moment tainted one of the happiest days of my life. At no point did I seek or expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the ordeal, she said she still wanted to celebrate Spain\u2019s victory. “My attitude or how I carried myself doesn\u2019t change how I felt,” she said. “I don\u2019t need to be crying in my room or throwing myself on the floor for people to understand my pain.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pressure to Justify Rubiales<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the kiss, Hermoso detailed the pressure she faced\u2014from the locker room to the return flight to Spain and even during a post-tournament trip to Ibiza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She claimed that Rubiales and others repeatedly urged her to issue a statement or record a video in his defense. He even appealed to her in Doha, saying it was for his “daughters,” and allegedly made a remark that hurt her deeply: “You and I like the same thing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When that failed, Hermoso said her then-coach, Jorge Vilda, tried to persuade both her and her brother, even suggesting she would be “compensated.” Once in Ibiza, she was approached again by Rub\u00e9n Rivera and Albert Luque, though she questioned why Luque had even traveled there.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nSpanish soccer player Jenni Hermoso (L) leaves after she testified in the first session of trial of Luis Rubiales (unseen), former president of the Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF), at Audiencia Nacional Court, in the town of San Fernando de Henares, Madrid, Spain, 03 February 2025. EFE\/Fernando Villar<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
“They were quite insistent,” she recalled, but added that what she did not receive from the RFEF was any concern for her well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I felt completely unprotected by the RFEF\u2014it should have been my safe place,” she said, adding she couldn\u2019t enjoy what it meant to be a world champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, women\u2019s football director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Ana \u00c1lvarez, testified that Hermoso appeared “shaken and worried” on the flight from Sydney to Spain after refusing to record a video proposed byto “downplay” his kiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her witness testimony in Rubiales\u2019 trial, \u00c1lvarez told prosecutors that Rubiales had asked her to enter the locker room and call Hermoso out, though he did not specify why. \u00c1lvarez was not present for their conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She did not speak to Hermoso again until the return flight, when the player approached her at the back of the plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I saw her agitated and concerned,” \u00c1lvarez recalled. “The president had asked her to make a video to downplay the issue, and she told me she didn\u2019t want to.” EFE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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