Spain's first female footballer, Nita Carmona, now has a street in Malaga
Ana Carmona Ruiz dressed as a man and bandaged her chest to be able to play football without being discovered
Better known as 'Nita' or 'Veleta', Ana Carmona Ruiz finally has a street named after her. In February 2023, Malaga town hall's street commission approved the renaming of a street as a tribute to this influencial sportswoman. She achieved a milestone in Spanish history: the first woman to play football professionally in the country.
Nita was born in 1908 on the street which now carries her name: located next to the San Miguel cemetery in the Fuente Olletas area near Capuchinos. Her father was a dockworker in the city's port and Nita Carmona grew up watching English sailors playing football on the esplanades.
In the 1920s she played as a midfielder for Sporting Club de Málaga and Vélez Club de Fútbol, but it wasn't easy. In fact, she had to dress as a man and bandage her chest so as not to be discovered. Her grandmother Ana and the Salesian priest Francisco Míguez, founder of Sporting de Málaga, were her great allies, along with some of her teammates who supported her. Ana washed the team's clothes and managed to get her granddaughter in as assistant to the masseur, Juanito Marteache, and as 'utillera' (kit manager).
Her passion for football turned her against the rest of her family, who sent her to Vélez-Málaga, in an attempt to keep her off the pitch. However, rather than discouraging her, she was encouraged to move forward by joining Vélez C. F., where she was nicknamed 'Veleta' because "she changed from woman to man and vice versa, like a weather vane".
Nita Carmona died of typhus in 1940, at the age of 32. She was buried in the cemetery of San Rafael wearing the shirt of Sporting de Málaga.
The street named after her is not the only recognition that the town hall has given to this sportswoman. Her figure has been studied in one of the workshops organised by the city hall's youth department called "Formarte", where other topics related to local culture and women's rights were also addressed. This audio theatre workshop was held at the end of 2020. Additionally a biopic of her life is in the works - funded by Laliga Studios and Andalusian company Blend Studios.
