Laia Balleste was at her parents\u2019 house in L\u2019Ampolla, a town of fewer than 4,000 inhabitants in the Ebro Delta in the north-east of Spain. It was June 30 and a heatwave was sweeping across the region.<\/p>\n
It had been days since all the national teams had announced their final squads for the European Championship and her name was not on Switzerland\u2019s list. She was disappointed but had accepted it.<\/p>\n
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She returned to her parents\u2019 house. To escape the heat they were sitting on the terrace \u2014 recently converted into a chill-out area \u2014 watching Wimbledon tennis matches on television.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, the phone rang. She jumped out of her chair, turned down the volume of the television and looked at her mother, who understood immediately. Her two dogs started barking while Balleste was on the phone. Her mother took them to the kitchen so they would not make any noise. As she watched Balleste talk on the phone through the kitchen window, she jumped up and down with pride while her daughter gestured to her to keep quiet.<\/p>\n
When Balleste hung up, both started jumping, shouting and crying. Her father was already in bed and they woke him up shouting while he was still trying to figure out what was going on, a little disoriented from sleep. They bought her plane tickets and her father took her to the airport at 3am.<\/p>\n
She had made it. Balleste was going to the Euros with Switzerland.<\/p>\n
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While most of Balleste\u2019s contemporaries dream of being selected for Spain, the world champions, she had long had something else in mind: Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old plays for Espanyol as a centre-back. What few people knew was that she has dual nationality, Spanish and Swiss. She was born and raised in Catalonia, daughter of a Catalan father and a Swiss mother. Her second surname is proof of this: Sciora.<\/p>\n
In fact, she was selected on several occasions when she was younger to play for the Catalan team. This was an unofficial team where she played alongside other players, including Aitana Bonmati.<\/p>\n
The Swiss Federation was unaware of her availability until her agent contacted them to inform them. Pia Sundhage, the manager of the Euros hosts, found out and did not hesitate to call her up in for Nations League group stage matches in April.<\/p>\n
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But Sundhage did not include her in the squad for the Euros.<\/p>\n
However, Luana Buhler\u2019s withdrawal from the squad due to knee problems opened a window for Balleste, who will now be in the squad for Friday\u2019s quarter-final between the two countries she is eligible to play for.<\/p>\n
Her maternal grandparents had to move from Neuchatel to southern Catalonia when Corinne, Balleste\u2019s mother, was 12 years old. Her grandfather had fallen ill and doctors recommended a change of scenery and a move to a warmer climate to improve his health. However, this did not work. His health never recovered and after his death, her grandmother decided to stay with her six children and move forward in their new home, L\u2019Ampolla.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery summer we went to Cullera, a coastal town south of Valencia, on holiday,\u201d Corinne Sciora, Laia\u2019s mother, tells The Athletic. \u201cMy father loved fishing. In Switzerland, he fished in rivers and in the summer he went to Cullera to fish for sea bass. My parents wanted to find a place to live near a river so he could continue his hobby of fishing in the river and the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There, Corinne started a family and, together with her husband, had two children: Alex and Laia. During the summers, they would all visit Switzerland, stopping off in France to visit family.<\/p>\n
Balleste began to show an interest in football when she was four years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had two options,\u201d Sciora explains. \u201cShe was a very good swimmer and we could have driven 15 minutes to go swimming and compete, or we could have stayed in the village so she could play football. For her, it was all about football. The saying goes that some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but in her case she was born with a ball. It was her obsession.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the times we visited Laia\u2019s aunt in Switzerland, we walked near a very large football field in the town of Sonceboz. There were children playing football and she stayed there watching. The coach came up to her and asked if she wanted to join them. She started playing and the coach came over to tell us to move there because he wanted to sign her up.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen she played for L\u2019Ampolla and won a match, which was rare, she always said she wanted to go and play in the Bundesliga (in Germany) and that the national team would call her. I didn\u2019t want to discourage her, but I let her know it was very difficult. But she always insisted, and look, sometimes dreams do come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balleste has played for several clubs: Valencia B, Deportivo Alaves, DUX Logrono, Rayo Vallecano, Sporting Huelva and Espanyol. When she began to show promise as an international player, her priority was always Switzerland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to tell you that I support the Swiss national team,\u201d the player said in an interview with Estadio Deportivo in July 2023. \u201cSometimes people ask me what I would do if I had to choose between playing for one or the other, and I always say that I would choose Switzerland\u2026 for my mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, she\u2019s the one who always took me to the football pitches and made the most sacrifices in that sense. It\u2019s that feeling that I owe it to her and my maternal grandmother, who is like my second mother. They would be so proud. That would be one of my goals, to play there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When she was a child, at her school in a small village, there were few extracurricular activities to choose from. It was either dance or football, and she did not even want to hear about dance. Her mother supported her from the very beginning and made every effort to give her the support she needed to do what she loved most.<\/p>\n
Years later, now playing in Spain\u2019s top flight, Balleste feels indebted to her, to her grandmother, and to Switzerland.<\/p>\n
She has yet to feature at these Euros but there is a chance her tournament debut could come against Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t expect to face Spain or make it to the quarter-finals,\u201d her mother says. \u201cFor them, it\u2019s already a huge achievement. For her, the Euros is a party. She always tells me that she never would have believed that fans in Switzerland could be so supportive of the players. She\u2019s very excited. It\u2019s an experience she\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Top photo: Aitor Alcalde \u2014 UEFA\/Aitor Alcalde)<\/p>\n