Alexia Putellas

Born on February 4, 1994 in Mollet del Vallès in Catalonia, Northeastern Spain, Alexia Putellas is generally acknowledged as one of the best female footballers in the world. Indeed, in 2021, Putellas had the distinction of becoming the first player to win all three major individual awards, namely UEFA Women’s Player of the Year, Ballon d’Or Féminin and Best FIFA Women’s Player, in the same year.

A left-sided attacking midfielder by trade, but equally at home in a playmaking ‘number 10’ role, Putellas made her senior debut for Espanyol, aged 16, in 2010. However, after just a single season with Los Periquitos and another with Levante, she joined her current club, FC Barcelona Femení, at Johan Cruyff Stadium in 2012. Putellas made her senior international debut for Spain the following year, scoring the winning goal in stoppage-time in a 3-2 victory over England in the UEFA Women’s European Championship in Linköping, Sweden, and has never really looked back.

With Barcelona, whom she captains, Putellas has won the Primera División six times, Copa de la Reina six times and UEFA Women’s Champion League once. In the 2020/21 season, in which she recorded 42 goals and 32 assists, for all teams in all competitions, she led FC Barcelona Femení to an unprecedented continental treble. Los Blaugranes won the Primera División with a perfect 26-26 record, beat Chelsea 4-0 to win the UEFA Women’s Champion League final, in which Putellas scored the second goal from the penalty spot, and defeated Levante 4–2 in the Copa de la Reina final, with Putellas once again on the scoresheet. Ineternationally, Putellas has made less of an impact, but has nonetheless featured for Spain in two World Cups, in 2015 and 2019, and one UEFA European Women’s Championship, in 2017.