His dad Milo and his brother Thomas. What will happen now? Teresa Abelleira. If he’s at the center of football’s universe, people will recall those endless summer afternoons. Covelo, Sanxenxo, or A Lanzada beaches become the setting for two or three months of ball touches and beach soccer battles as a family turns those days into a ritual of footwork and joy.
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Today the world champion stood tall without lifting a finger off the ground, the ball appearing larger than life. Yet fatigue never touched him. He kept returning it, again and again. Others were spent, but he endured, refusing to quit.
With this blend of contact, control, and composure, this agile and perceptive footballer rose to become one of the planet’s best. The 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand may be finished, but the triumph remains; he is crowned and supreme.
Nearly two decades later, Teresa Abelleira (Pontevedra, 2000) is crowned once more after growing up with a football‑loving family that sparked interest in Pontevedra, expanded to A Coruña and Galicia, and then captivated Spain and the world. Her style is straightforward—play with ease, be clean, let light travel across the field. A product of a family steeped in sport, football was always the shared heartbeat. Her brother continues to play; her father travels the world and has built a career on the sidelines. In Pontevedra’s old quarter, the family’s journey left a legacy that echoes through the city.
Teresa grew up with Tae-kwon-do and athletics, but she soon chose futsal and football as her path. Beyond the beach, her youth was shaped on the slopes around Poio with her brother and family. She always had a ball at her feet, whether they were practicing on a makeshift court or waiting for the next drill. She played with children from Lerez and earned recognition as a Spanish student champion in track and field. The choices in her long road were abundant in quality and opportunity.
At sixteen she left Pontevedra for A Coruña, drawn by a dream that kept her family close but demanded independence. Making the leap was hard, but she never hid the sacrifices that came with it. Mentors like Manu Sánchez and Pablo Pereiro, who helped found Dépor Abanca in 2016, recognized the potential in Teresa, and in that moment the Galician women’s football project began to take shape. Lía and Nuria would soon join, moving to Wolfsburg after spells in Barcelona, while Teresa signed the first professional contract in the history of Galician football. The captain’s armband soon followed as the project grew. The family’s influence—especially her father Milo—helped justify the long train rides and the steep climbs ahead.
In A Coruña there were moments of nostalgia and tears, but also the field that forced maturation. An earthquake of emotion hit near the inseparable guide Lie. Years rolled by, and the emotion remained. She wept in both triumph and defeat, a flood of events that captured the Abegondo crowd and held sport in high regard with a simple snap of the fingers. Football, pipes, and the shift from street to grass—though not without the occasional misstep against Modern Oviedo—marked a rise to Primera Iberdrola. She stood alongside Athenea, María Méndez, Iris Arnaiz, Gaby, Peke and a generation that led, even as a pandemic interrupted, and still earned the championship.
She moved between Madrid and A Coruña, always remembered as a key figure in the history of Spanish women’s football, much like the pioneers who shaped the game a century earlier. Irene González Basanta’s rise pales next to the foundation laid by Deportivo Abanca in 2016, a base that brought players like Teresa Abelleira into the limelight.
Three years have passed since she played at the Riazor, yet the bond with the club remains. She is often found in the stands where family and friends cheer. The city, the fans, and former teammates celebrated her victories with pride, and the message from a loved one still echoes, “Tere, wherever I am, it’s still the same.” Now a world champion, she stands as a testament to the tireless girl who grew up by the shore.
It’s good we overcome obstacles and people talk about us
“It’s nice to see obstacles being overcome and to hear the talk about us,” admitted Teresa Abelleira after becoming world champion. She added that Spain’s triumph felt overwhelming and jubilant, and that the victory was shared by the team as a whole. The defender emphasized the contributions of those who began the journey and the girls who now dream of following in those footsteps. She reflected on how football has given her the best days of her life and noted the sacrifices and support from family that made it possible. The sentiment points to a collective achievement, one that inspires a new generation of young players to chase the dream of becoming world champions.” (citation attribution: Galicia sports archives)