CSL: Qingdao Huanghai’s Erica Hernandez, Chinese football’s only female physio, on coronavirus-delayed season
- Erica Hernandez, who has been with Qingdao Huanghai since 2015, says Chinese Super League bubble is an ‘enriching experience’
- French midfielder Romain Alessandrini dedicates goal to Spaniard as newcomers record first top-flight point after ‘difficult’ coronavirus delay
When Qingdao Huanghai’s Romain Alessandrini scored his second equaliser of the night against fellow Chinese Super League newcomers Shijiazhuang Ever Bright on Sunday he ran to the sidelines to celebrate.
The French midfielder made a beeline for the team’s Spanish physio, to whom he dedicated the strike, a potential goal of the season contender two games into the season and the goal that would secure Qingdao Huanghai’s first ever point in the Chinese top flight.
“Romain Alessandrini dedicated a goal to me,” team phsyio Erica Hernandez wrote on Twitter after the game. “I am happy that my work is valued by the players. We will continue working to achieve success. Thanks to Romain.”
Hernandez is the only female physio in Chinese football and her presence on the sidelines has been picked up by national media since the CSL kicked off its coronavirus-disrupted season last month.
That attention is nothing new in Qingdao, where Hernandez has been at the club since December, 2015. Local media refer to Hernandez and her husband (and colleague) Jordi Escura as the “divine medical lovers”.
“I was working at the university as a professor and my husband and I received an offer to go to Thailand to work with a football team. They had been struggling with some injuries and we went there to help,” Hernandez told the Post of moving to Asia with Suphanburi FC from her role teaching at San Jorge University in Zaragoza.
Before that she had been teaching at the University of Lleida near Barcelona, where she had previously studied, while also working with the town’s football team.
“Later on, the fitness coach signed in China and the coach he was with, Jordi Vinyals, offered us to come to Qingdao. From then, it’s been five seasons.”
“It’s a year of illusion for the club. We’ve been working four years to achieve it and finally we got it. This year is the first time that the club plays in Super League, so it will be a historical season. It’s true that after these eight months of training, the illusion diminishes a little bit, but when the first match came, it all came back as the first day of preseason.”
The bizarre situation has not taken anything away from reaching the top flight.
“The excitement is exactly the same. It will be different as we won’t be playing in our stadium for our fans, and we will not visit other teams’ stadiums, but this is a unique experience that we need to enjoy as much as possible.”
That is the case even with being confined to the team hotel outside matches and training, which followed an arduous journey back to China and then 14 days in quarantine.
“We are lucky as our base has a lot of free space,” Hernandez said of the hotel complex where there are several pitches and space to walk. “It would be much harder to stay in a hotel with no exterior.
“Even with this, having so many matches in that short time, I think we will not have time enough to think about it. It’s going to be a new experience for everyone, but Chinese players are more used to this situation than foreigners.
“On the other hand, being all teams together is a great opportunity to meet new people and get in touch with so many professionals. It is a very enriching experience.”
The years in China have already been an experience.
“There a lot of differences inside and outside the pitch. Everything related with invisible training they have a different mindset and inside the pitch they understand football differently,” Hernandez said of working in China, but while the players might be different it is not because she is a woman.
Guardiola’s mentor and Yaya Toure drive Qingdao Huanghai to CSL
“About being a woman, it’s not been an issue, players are delighted to have me here. They don’t even think about being treated by a woman.”
So why does she think there are so few women visible in men’s football?
“I think it’s because of three main aspects: no previous experience, insecurities and commodity. Teams never had this figure so they are insecure how it would be and then they prefer not to change things and keep doing it the same way as always.
“But, if you speak with teams, clubs or coaches that have experienced it, they will tell you that it was a success and that they will repeat the experience. I’m sure this situation will be changing in the near future and more women will be seen in professional male sports.”
Back to this season, it has been an unusual introduction to the Chinese Super League, with football delayed from its intended start in February because of the coronavirus pandemic and teams left in limbo.
“The worst part is training almost eight months without knowledge of when the league would start. It’s difficult to train under these circumstances. From now on, it’s going to be much easier, as we have matches and the players are much more focused.
“The feeling before was almost like a preseason game (no public, closed doors), but feeling this little worm in your stomach. After the match, as it was not the desired result, a little bit of frustration, but we will keep trying,” Hernandez said of the team’s first game loss to Wuhan Zall.
Allesandrini’s last-gasp equaliser showed they will keep trying, just as the celebration shows that Hernandez is a key part of the team.
