Laia Balleste was at her parents’ house in L’Ampolla, a town of fewer than 4,000 inhabitants in the Ebro Delta in the north-east of Spain. It was June 30 and a heatwave was sweeping across the region.
It had been days since all the national teams had announced their final squads for the European Championship and her name was not on Switzerland’s list. She was disappointed but had accepted it.
Suddenly, the phone rang. She had made it. Balleste was going to the Euros with Switzerland.
The 26-year-old plays for Espanyol as a centre-back. What few people knew was that she has dual nationality, Spanish and Swiss. She was born and raised in Catalonia, daughter of a Catalan father and a Swiss mother. Her second surname is proof of this: Sciora.
GO FURTHER
Laia Balleste, the Spain-born player who earned a last-minute call-up… for Switzerland