After Las Leonas’ World Cup win, Agustina Albertario hits back at social-media critics: ‘I’ve been speaking out for a long time’
Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Former Las Leonas player Agustina Albertario exchanged heated messages with a social-media user after Argentina’s women’s hockey team won the World Cup.
- Albertario defended her political position, criticized the government’s sports funding and questioned where government and sponsor money administered by the Argentine Hockey Confederation had gone.
- Current players have also described financial and logistical difficulties surrounding the team’s preparations for the tournament.
Agustina Albertario reignited a debate over sports funding after Argentina’s Las Leonas won the World Cup. The former national-team player responded on Instagram to a user who criticized her political stance and accused her of supporting the government’s libertarian politics.
What are you doing, all good? Here’s the rich girl... the government does not have to support it, this government or any other... both Las Leonas and Los Leones are top teams and have incredible sponsors. Look at the shirt, you can see them all there.
Albertario, who stepped away from Las Leonas in March last year amid a controversy, answered sharply. “What are you doing, all good? Here’s the rich girl... the government does not have to support it, this government or any other... both Las Leonas and Los Leones are top teams and have incredible sponsors. Look at the shirt, you can see them all there,” she wrote.
She then turned her criticism toward the Argentine government and the Argentine Hockey Confederation, led by Aníbal Fernández. “The country is in the second division and people help as best they can. That is where our Confederation comes in, which with the grant provided by the government and the sponsors’ money could help a lot... except nobody knows where that money is,” Albertario said.
The country is in the second division and people help as best they can. That is where our Confederation comes in, which with the grant provided by the government and the sponsors’ money could help a lot... except nobody knows where that money is.
She added that many other sports also need support, signing off with “a little kiss from a rich girl.” She ended by rejecting the accusation that she had stayed silent: “Fortunately, I’m not a coward. I’ve been speaking out for a long time... look up my interviews and then tell me. Go Las Leonas, always.”
Fortunately, I’m not a coward. I’ve been speaking out for a long time... look up my interviews and then tell me. Go Las Leonas, always.
The exchange came as current players discussed the difficulties the team faced before the World Cup in the Netherlands and Belgium. Victoria Sauze and Julieta Jankunas spoke about the strain on players, with Jankunas saying some teammates traveled through several buses and worried about transport strikes, household bills and making it to the end of the month while preparing to compete for a world title.
We had to work through an incredibly difficult situation. Maybe many people think we are millionaires or have money to spare. Not at all.
About this summary
Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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