Real Madrid Femenino: Club Makes History, Forms Women’s Team

Sofia Jakobsson (in white) was one of the biggest signings made by Deportivo Tacon last season and will feature prominently for Real Madrid Femenino in the women’s Primera Division next season. (Picture: Real Madrid Femenino/Twitter)

Real Madrid have completed the paperwork to absorb Deportivo Tacon into their club, which means that Spanish side will field their first-ever side (Real Madrid Femenino) in the women's Primera Division for the 2020-2021 season.

Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Valencia, already have women's teams which compete in the Spanish top tier. Barcelona’s Club Femeni Barcelona was established as early as 1988, when Spain introduced women's competitions.

At a meeting of shareholders in September last year, the buyout of Tacon for €300,000 ($337,000) was made official and ever since Real have set their sights on expanding the club and signing some of the best talent in the world.

The change has been done gradually over several months. Since the start of the current season, Tacon, coached by David Aznar, have trained and played their home games at Valdebebas, a few metres from the men’s team.

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Taco had already signed two internationals-- Kosovare Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson last year immediately after the World Cup. Jakobsson was nominated for the 2019 Women’s Ballon d’Or and was instrumental in Sweden finishing third in the Women’s World Cup.

More additions are expected after a squad clearout in May this year. The club has already announced the departures of Ana Valles, Esther, Marina Martin Massanet, Patri Carballo, Ainoa Campo and Osinachi Ohale.

The goal will be to turn Madrid into top contenders in Spain as well as Europe, where they hope to go head to head with Barcelona’s women’s team, finalists in the 2018-2019 Women’s Champions League and who also thrashed Tacon this season -- 6-0 and 9-1.

"Real Madrid wishes to announce that it has sent the corresponding documentation to the Spanish Football Federation in order to make effective the merger by absorption of Club Deportivo Tacon, a women's football club, as approved by the Extraordinary General Assembly of Committed Members held on 15 September 2019," the club said in a statement released on Wednesday.

“The Royal Spanish Football Federation has informed us that said documentation is correct, so the merger will be effective when the current 2019-20 football season is definitively concluded. Real Madrid will play the women's football competitions from the 2020-21 season, with Real Madrid City as the venue for the team's matches and training sessions.”

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"Our women's football section will be made up of the senior and Under-16s to Under-19s teams. A youth structure that will allow us to remain faithful to our philosophy of identifying, training and developing young talent. Our teams will also play their respective competitions from the 2020-21 season.”

“It’s a huge positive,” Ada Hegerberg, the first winner of the Women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, told AFP. “I’m hoping they will stabilise the investment over a long period and that they have a long-term perspective because it can’t happen overnight.

“You have to invest for a long time to succeed. It’s a huge positive that you have the biggest men’s club in the world now investing in the women’s side. That’s how modern women’s football should be driven.

“It’s the present and the future. And it sends out a message to other clubs, it keeps everyone on their toes when a club like Real Madrid creates a team. I hope they go all in.”