In a quiet environment, surrounded by leafy forests and with the song of wild birds in one of the natural places of Slovenia. A site that has been the place where María Segura He has opened on a channel where his last European League will be with the Lions. This time, there will be no third part. The captain of the first Spain that will go to a World Cup after 43 years and who wants to be in the Final Four of this competitionhas spoken in MARK.
We are going to give everything because we want to demonstrate the team that we can be
ASK. It could be your last European League week. There will be two games that are fundamental to be in that Final Four.
ANSWER. Yes, this European League has been a bit bittersweet. The group wants and works well, but we are also finding that perhaps we are not taking out our best game and we would lack a little more to get our potential. But we face these two games that are super important both for the Final Four and for the FIVB ranking, which is a thing that weighs us a lot. We are going to give everything because we want to demonstrate the team that we can be.
Q. Is it possible to get out of here with two victories?
R. I think so. We are having a little problems in several things and that is what you want, but we have not been able to demonstrate who we still are. So I hope we can do it here and we can get it, because we feel like it. We want to play against Greece and we want to face Slovenia, they will be two very interesting rivals for us.
María Segura in the match against Sweden played this June 2025 at Pedro Ferrándiz de Alicante before 4,688 spectators
Q. It would be a goodbye to the farewell quite cool. Play a European League, a Fur Four and then go to the World Cup.
A. Yes, the truth is that. I have already called my 'last dance'And if you can reach a Four Four, obviously better than better, but for me right now the goal is for the group to stabilize a little in the game and to start the preparation of the World Cup with another face.
Q. Are you savoring it?
R. Yes, it is difficult … in fact last year it already happened to me, because I thought I already retired and it was not so … I don't know how to tell you, the same thing happened to me and as I still have the second part. I don't see the end yet, so it's like for me it still doesn't end.
Lionesses is the team of my life. There has been a lot of struggle to get where we are and I carry it with great pride
Q. What do you feel every time you wear that Leonas T -shirt? Because you have been doing it for a long time, but you know that after this summer it will no longer happen.
R. For me, it's really a pride. I have always said it, the lions have been the team of my life and for me every time I return here it is like returning home, it is my family, it is something that we have been growing for many years. We have put a lot of value and there has been a lot of sacrifice. There has been a lot of struggle to get where we are and I carry it with great pride.
We had a critical era, we did not classify anything. That is why we can get to the World Cup is like … we have raised it, we have taken the selection of the well
Q. You arrived at the National Team when three periods were in a row without going to the Eurovolley. They were more complicated moments where the focus was put in the boys. There was always talk of that European of 2007, but you like you were not and has a lot of merit what you have achieved.
R. Yes, thanks. I arrived at the team in the European in 2013, in Germany, and I did not play, I was with the team there. Then comes that critical era where we could not classify, where there was a quite large downturn and to solve it was to throw him hours, sorry and throw a lot of volleyball. And in the end, get it. So, to be able to arrive last year to the World Cup is like … we have raised it, we have taken the selection of the well. We leave it up.
The captain of the Spanish volleyball team talks about the work behind the 2025 World Cup classification that will enjoy this August.
Q. I don't know if with other members who were here before, such as Helia González, these things are spoken.
R. Yes, they talk a lot. They speak and in fact now that Helia and Alba came to Alicante was talking a little. Then, there are always battallites with María Schlegel and Patricia Llabrés who have also lived, Ana Escamilla who also took a piece of that … obviously you can not just talk about that speech, but it is true that it is like your small project, it is your little team, then see how it has been developing and can see that the level of girls who are arriving and they have the level, it is like …
María Safe supported by one of the many trees that form the Slovenia forests, before measuring Greece
Q. It is what I was going to tell you, in the end, for example, Lucía Varela, Ariadna Priva, Carla Jiménez … They know this, not how difficult it has been to get where it is now.
R. Yes, I think they know it perfectly. They are aware, but it is not about saying, it is that I have suffered. Our previous generations also suffered war and not for that reason, that we have not suffered it, we have to say, Buah, how good we are now. Yes, that it is there, that we know, we are aware, but this generation that comes has a lot of potential and they have to take advantage of it. It's more a … eye! That if we confirm we can return there. Now that we have this and we have this level we will take advantage of it to not go back. They all play abroad, they know the level there is and the one to contribute here.
Q. You have already said once you retire, but put the numbers and the selection goes to the VNL, would you not really think about it?
R. No no. The last, definitive. The last. Now I do say official, this is the last. The only option that I keep playing is that next year there were some Olympic Games and played them. It would be the only thing that would make me say: I don't retire.
Q. Speaking a little of the VNL, one looks at the game against Sweden in Alicante and thinks that with the VNL that could be every weekend. And everyone who sees the VNL at the same time that the European League thinks of seeing Spain someday there.
R. Spain could be there. For each game, we would grow triple, because there is a lot of level and the Spanish player is already from you abroad. Before it is true that the Spanish players looked at us a little above their shoulder, but now they look at us and tell us: this Spanish is good. When you go to foreign teams it is like, beware of it. When for example I went out to play outside it was not so. In our teams we have many companions who are playing the VNL and Spain should be able to play it.
Q. Do you speak this between you?
R. We know we would like, obviously. There are teams there that only for being who they are and having the level they have right now, we are better I think and they are there. But of course, it also depends a little on the level of the economy, whether you classify or not and all those things …
That phrase that Volley cannot be lived from the volley
Q. Playing against these types of players may end up 'make an Isabelle Haak in Las Leonas.
R. In Spain there are many licenses, there are many girls and boys playing and you have to look why you do not have the same amount in the youth, junior and senior. Because there is a problem and it has been talked about so much that Volley cannot live, that it is a lie. From the volleyball you can live, I live from the volleyball. And I am not telling you that I will retire and do not work back, vice versa. I have to work all my life. But it is what I say, I have been able to save while I paid my career, while the club paid me for rent, the club paid me the tickets and I have been able to study as well as play the high -level volleyball. Save and that my family, if I needed it, did not lack anything or that my family has not had to take care of me.
That phrase that Volley cannot be lived from the volleyball, has done much damage to Spain, because many players think that you cannot live from the volleyball and when they arrive at the university or when they are already arriving at an important moment where you have to choose whether to dedicate yourself a little more professional to it or not, they decide to keep the studies and that's it. I encourage all those players who really like volleyball, who want and want to play, to continue leveling, which really can make a career, you can work, you can save and you can live perfectly.
Q. Volleyball is a sport with a feminine majority right now, the number of male licenses is also growing, but, for example, when talking about growing women's football, with volleyball it would be much easier because you already have that base.
R. Of course, in women's football there has been an injection of money, but also everything that has been news, media, the matches broadcast on television and there is a very large hype. That part where you can't watch Vóley on open television, does a lot of damage. It is true that our League has perhaps suffered and has been going down and rising, going down, but that would also encourage the sponsors to invest more money for being on TV, more money would be given to the club, the club would have more money for the players … you have to start somewhere and a change is necessary for that, to have an Isabelle Haak.
María Segura defending an attack by Isabelle Haak against Sweden with Ana Escamilla's blockade
Q. For focusing on what touches, today you play against Greece, can you win?
R. Look, all the games we have played would tell you that they depended on us. The result depends on how the team comes out, we lack a little more security in ourselves both at the individual and collective level, in order to really take out that … we know how to play and play well, but we need to get that point, so if we leave with certainty you can take the game, you can get both of you and you can play very, very good. That is why I tell you that it depends on us.
Q. To put ourselves in an even better hypothetical case, you win that game, planted against Slovenia, in Slovenia. There the Final Four is going to play.
A. Yes, but it also depends on whether Hungary wins … also depends on what Ukraine does against Slovakia. It depends on many things, but I think we have to focus on ours and win the two games, which will also have an impact on the ranking. Slovenia I like it a lot as a team, they have a '4' that has played in Dresden that I like it very much, a good opposite, the central is good, they have a quite complete team, I think that against us they will play with a new '4' that have now nationalized it now, so it will be interesting, but that is, above all, go from here knowing that we have taken our best game and prepare the World Cup.
Q. Prepared?
R. Yes, I really want to, I want it to go well and the whole team is just as … they have to go out well, they have to leave.
