Jenni Hermoso tells court Rubiales’s kiss ‘tarnished’ World Cup win | OneFootball

The Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso has told a court that “one of the happiest moments” of her life was ruined when the then president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, grabbed her and kissed her on the lips after Spain’s World Cup win in August 2023.

Rubiales, 47, is accused of sexual assault as well as coercion over allegations that he tried to pressure Hermoso into declaring that the kiss, which took place shortly after Spain’s women’s team triumphed in Sydney, was consensual. He has maintained that he sought her permission for the kiss.

If convicted, Rubiales – who resigned as the federation president a month after the incident – could face two and a half years in prison: one year for sexual assault over the forced kiss, and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso to downplay what happened.

Giving evidence on the first day of the trial before the national court in San Fernando de Henares, near Madrid, Hermoso said she had never consented to being kissed by Rubiales, adding that he had not sought her permission to do so.

“I didn’t hear or understand any of it at the time,” the 34-year-old player told the court. “The next thing was that he put his hands over my ears and kissed me on the mouth.”

Hermoso told people she kissed people on the lips only “when I decide to”, adding that she had been shocked by Rubiales’s actions.

“I felt it was totally out of place and I then realised my boss was kissing me, and this shouldn’t happen in any social or workplace setting,” she said. “I felt disrespected. One of the happiest days of my life was tarnished and I think it’s very important for me to say that I never sought, much less expected, that this would happen. I think personally that it was a lack of respect.”

Hermoso, who plays for Tigres in Mexico, said she had been called off the bus to the airport after the match and shown a statement that had been drafted on her behalf by the federation, and which was issued in her name later the same day.

“I skimmed it and I didn’t want to know exactly what it said,” she told the court. “I knew that I hadn’t written a word of the statement because nobody had asked me about it. It was a statement from me that I’d apparently written in my own words. It said that Luis Rubiales and I were good friends and that it had all happened in the excitement of the moment and that was all there was to it.”

The player said the statement made her feel “that I was participating in something I hadn’t done and in which I didn’t want to participate”. She added: “I’ll say it again: never, at any moment, did I look for any of this to happen.”

Hermoso said she had not wanted what had happened to overshadow her team’s victory, and that some of them had joked about the kiss until another player told them it was a serious matter.

She also said she had wanted to celebrate the triumph, despite what had happened, and had been drinking in the dressing room and on the bus.

“I was acting according to my heart at the time; I was enjoying it and I wanted to enjoy it,” she said. “I’d just become a world champion and it was a moment to enjoy it and to eat and drink and to get drunk like any footballer would when they’ve won the World Cup.”

The footballer was asked by a prosecutor whether anyone from the federation had come to check on her on the flight home or to apologise for what had happened.

“No one,” she replied. “No one came over to me to see how I was doing … No one asked how I was or what was going through my head. I felt totally unprotected by the federation because this should have been my safe place. I was a footballer from their country and their national team and no one asked what had happened or if I needed anything. No one came to say anything to me.”

Hermoso told the court her life had changed forever when she arrived back in Madrid and found herself and her family hounded by the media. She also received death threats.

“Obviously, even today, I say that my life changed at that moment,” she said. “I’d spent years fighting to win titles for my team, like the World Cup, but all that’s happened to me means that I just haven’t been able to enjoy any of it from the moment I set foot back in Madrid. I’m a world champion but it seems that, even to this day, my life has been on stand-by. I honestly haven’t been able to live freely.”

Rubiales, who denies the charges, has vowed to clear his name. “I believe in the truth and I will do everything in my power to make sure it prevails,” he said when he stepped down as head of the federation.

He said that although his family and those close to him had been made to suffer “the effects of an excessive persecution” and “many lies”, he felt the public knew the truth.

Also on trial for their suspected roles in putting pressure on Hermoso are the former head coach of the women’s national team Jorge Vilda, the former Spanish football federation sporting director Albert Luque and the federation’s former marketing chief Rubén Rivera. All three deny the charges against them.

The trial, which is scheduled to last three weeks, continues.

Header image: [Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images]