Delfina Merino: “I’m looking forward to returning to Las Leonas”

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Las Leonas won the silver medal with Delfina Merino as captain. Three years later (the Games were held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic), the field hockey team will go to Paris 2024 once again with the dream of winning gold, the only title the women’s team is missing. However, the striker and referent, who is not currently part of the national team, goes through the Olympic process with more doubts than certainties about her presence, despite her desire to wear the blue and white jersey again. I’m excited to come back, to have the doors open, to have an opportunity. So far it hasn’t happened, but the coach knows that I’m willing,” said the Rosario 2010 world champion, in a chat with Filo.news.Delfina Merino won the silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, as captain of Las Leonas. Photo: Instagram @delfinamerino.Several things have changed in the national team since that podium in the Japanese capital, which marked the end of Carlos Retegui’s cycle as coach. Fernando Ferrara took over at the helm of the team and in a short time was part of an uncomfortable, conflictive event that had repercussions both inside and outside the squad: he disaffected Merino before the 2022 World Cup in Spain and the Netherlands for sporting reasons, according to the coach’s own words. At that time, the player trained at the Banco Provincia club did not hide her pain and sadness at no longer being part of the national team. “It hurts me and I don’t understand that being one of the captains, and having constant dialogue with the coaching staff, none of them have warned me that they were not satisfied with my sporting performance,” she wrote in a statement. But he never gave up. And today, he continues to work in search of an opportunity so that his return to Las Leonas stops being an illusion and becomes a fact.“I’m excited to return to Las Leonas,” said Delfina Merino, who participated in solidarity actions as part of Saint-Gobain’s Footprint Program.“From the minute Ferrara disaffected me, I was always training and doing everything to be back. It remains to be seen whether that opportunity is going to present itself or not. He knows I want to come back and I’m willing to wear the Argentinian shirt, but I can’t call myself,” said the ambassador of Saint-Gobain’s Footprint Program.Last season, Merino went to SCHC Y Kampong in the Netherlands, the best league in the world, and in May he returned to Argentina to join his club. where he also plans to play this year. “I’m doing everything I can to show that I want to be at Las Leonas,” said the striker.

Original source in Spanish