parity | trent alexander-arnold²

extra.

the basis of friendship

As Liverpool was set to take on Genk sometime soon for the group stage of the Champions League, press conferences were also organised for the players and the managers to voice their professional opinions to the media—the participants chosen being Wynter and Virgil.

For most of their press conference, the majority of the questions were delivered in the secondary captain's direction so while Virgil amused the reporters by maturely answering their questions, the french player remained hushed in her position beside him, nodding every once and a while as she softly tugged on the sleeves of her Liverpool jumper, her shy nature soon beginning to show. Wynter wasn't against the notion of press conferences and their supposed purposes but she also wasn't for them either for her.

I mean, the main purpose of press conferences is to allow sports reporters and journalists to gather tactical and personalised responses from players and managers to later share such information to the broader side of the football media. It seemed very self-explanatory to many as well as the job of the sports journalist to assure all goes well during the press conferences so Wynter couldn't understand why the circumstances were altered when it came for her to answer their necessary questions.

Her teammates and Jürgen received the questions that were nothing out of the ordinary for an athlete to respond to – how do you think the squad is doing to prepare themselves to go up against said club? Though with Wynter, her questions varied a lot that sometimes they had no relevance to the actual topic of football – questions about her chosen attire in that moment or a certain Instagram post, her relations with other football players – essentially, such questions that accommodated no relevancy to her as a football player.

She along with many of her teammates didn't just hold much hatred to those kinds of questions because they had sexist undertones to them but also because they essentially disregarded Wynter's high position within the football industry, almost as if she couldn't level with her teammates in terms of football intelligence so she needed to be approached with questions that her IQ could handle which was wrong on all elements.

Of course, Wynter didn't view herself anything above her teammates though every now and then, it'd be nice if sports journalists approached her with questions as they did with her teammates. Since her time playing alongside men, she has won two major titles as well as earned herself more than enough awards so you'd think some respect could tag along with the questions she was presented with by journalists.

Unfortunately, Wynter's wish had to flourish another day because after Virgil had concluded his response for another question, the french player had to take on this, "So Wynter, seeing as you're the only women on the team, do you have any intimate relations with any of the boys?" one asked.

Once the question reached her ear range, Wynter sensed a dull mood dawn upon the room as a long huff passed her lips that were concealed by her palms. She noticed a few disapproving looks from other journalists while Virgil's face scrunched up at the journalist's word choice, letting out a soft, "Is this guy serious right now?"

The mood wasn't just restricted in the press conference, it had almost settled in the room the rest of the squad were situated in, many of the players bearing the same reactions Virgil had given off not too long ago and of course, most of the anger in the room concentrated on the scouse.

"You've got to be shitting me right now!" Trent scoffed, as he always did whenever Wynter found herself in such situations. "That was nowhere near related to Virgil's question!" Like everyone else in the room, the scouse never understood why all of these journalists segregated Wynter from the squad with their unfiltered questions. Even during the period when he and Wynter weren't on the same page nor dating, he could never find himself satisfied with the harsh treatment only the french player received from the media.