Bad faux pas in Spain: The soccer world champions were awarded the Royal Order of Merit after their victory in the World Cup final against England. The award was formally announced in the official gazette. But if you looked closely, you noticed a not insignificant error.
As the Spanish sports newspaper “Marca” reports, at the top of the list of world champions was a name that shouldn’t mean anything even to those who know women’s football well: Ivana Icardi Rivero. There is simply no player with that name in the Spanish team. It quickly became clear that Ivana Andrés was actually meant. This is not just any player, but the captain of the world champion team.
Ivana Icardi Rivero, on the other hand, is not active as a footballer, even if she has something to do with the sport in a broader sense: she is the sister of Mauro Icardi, who is under contract with Galatasaray Istanbul in Turkey. However, Icardi Rivero is better known as an influencer with almost a million followers on Instagram and a participant in a reality show on television. In any case, she would never have been able to compete for “La Roja” because the influencer comes from Argentina.
“I’m just thinking about how many people it can happen to be recognized for sporting merit by the Spanish government without having won a World Cup, without being Spanish and without ever having touched a football in their life,” wrote her on Instagram. She doesn’t seem to have much understanding for the breakdown: “How could it go wrong?” Ivana Andrés, the real world champion, has not yet commented on the mix-up.
There is even another error in the announcement: midfielder Aitana Bonmati Conca’s name was misspelled. There was an extra s at the end of her name that doesn’t belong there.
The national sports council explained that human error led to the wrong names. We want to correct this as soon as possible. Letters have been sent to those affected.
Sources: “Marca” / Ivana Icardi Rivero on Instagram
