EXCLUSIVE: Martina Fernandez reflects on her international debut for Spain and a new regime at Everton Women
Last Saturday, Martina Fernandez made her international debut for Spain almost 2,000 miles away from Goodison Park but enjoyed the home comforts of having a couple of her Everton team-mates alongside her.
The 21-year-old was called up for the world champions’ double header of qualifiers for next year’s tournament in Brazil and although she remained on the bench for their 3-0 win over Iceland on Tuesday March 3, she came on as a second half substitute the following weekend for their 3-1 win over Ukraine (played at Mardan Sports Complex in Antalya, Turkey) where Blues colleagues Inma Gabarro and Ornella Vignola – who was also winning her first cap – joined her on the field.
Fernandez told the ECHO: “I found out that I’d been named in the squad though my phone. It was a Friday morning, we were off and I was in my house, so I just rang my mum and said to her: ‘Can you believe that?’
“I was surprised but it was my dream and my goal. In my head, I didn’t expect it to happen for another few years though, but obviously I was so happy to be in there.
“For my debut, Ornella, Imma and I were on the bench, and the coach just said to us to warm-up and it was quite funny because it was the three of us from Everton.
“It felt like the game went so quickly. I was very chilled and the girls made it so easy, they’re the best in the world and they help you so much.
“We had two games, one was in Spain and unfortunately I could not play (in Castello de la Plana, some 250 miles down the coast from her home town of Ordis) but my family went there and it was so nice to see them. The second one when I made my debut, it was in Turkey, so it was difficult for them to come.
“It was so nice for Ornella and myself to make our debuts in the same game, she has had a really good season so far and she deserves it so much. When we were warming up, we were saying how it was the Everton team together.”
Everton’s Martina Fernandez at the Spain training camp at the Ciudad del Futbol, Las Rozas, Madrid, on March 1, 2026
Everton’s Martina Fernandez at the Spain training camp at the Ciudad del Futbol, Las Rozas, Madrid, on March 1, 2026(Image: Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)
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Although she had been on loan with the Blues since January, Fernandez made her transfer from Barcelona a permanent one last July and became one of 10 new signings for the club’s historic first season at Goodison Park. The new-look team took time to gel though and despite Fernandez bagging a brace of headers in the 2-1 comeback win over Aston Villa on February 1, Dane Brian Sorensen was sacked as manager after what was the first victory of the campaign at their new home.
In his place, came Scott Phelan, who celebrates his 38th birthday today, as interim head coach, and after steering the side to back-to-back 1-0 successes over London City Lionesses and West Ham United, the lifelong Evertonian takes his team to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday to go up against fellow Scouser Martin Ho in the opposition dugout for what is the team’s first Women’s Super League fixture in a month.
Fernandez said: “At the end of the day, you are playing for Everton and the badge and the way you have to fight for it never changes, no matter what coach is here. I’m so happy with the squad though and our new coach really loves Everton and has done so all his career.
“I like the way he sees football, his tactics and the way he encourages us to be so competitive and win as many games as we can. I think he’s a really nice coach for us.
“He gives us so much freedom to think we’re good players and we can do things, whatever we want. He helped us a lot to work on how we could be better on the ball and more aggressive without the ball, encouraging us to give everything.
“It was not a happy moment for us when the other coach went but I don’t think that disappointed was the word for the girls. At the start of the season, we had so many new players and good things take time.
“To build a new team it takes time, so I’ve never been disappointed. I always trust the process, the plan, and now you can see that we look much more like a team than what we showed before.
“We’ve had three wins in a row now in the league. For myself, as a person, I just want to keep playing as much as I can and enjoying it.”
Having grown up in Catalonia, Fernandez loves being in based in another footballing hotbed such as Merseyside, but one thing she might be moving on from at a club sometimes dubbed ‘The School of Science’ is the career in biomedicine she studied for before taking up the game as a full-time professional. She said: “I love it. I think football without passion is nothing and I definitely see that here.
“You can be disappointed in yourself if you don’t give 100%. As a person, I need to give 100% in everything I do, even if we were sat here playing chess.
“I did biomedicine for a year, it was so nice. If I wasn’t a footballer, that’s probably what I was going to do, but it was impossible for me to train as a professional and go to the university and study.
“That might be something that I could go back to when I finish playing, but through the PFA I’m doing coaching and I’m at the UEFA B level. Right now, I think when I hang up my boots, I’d prefer to be a coach than in a laboratory!”