Alexia Putellas

Lore & Background

Putellas started her youth career at CE Sabadell, passing through Barcelona before she moved to Espanyol, where she played most of her youth football. After a year at Levante she returned to Barcelona in 2012, where she won eight league titles, eight Copas de la Reina and three UEFA Women's Champions League trophies. In Barcelona's 2020–21 season, she played an essential role as her team won the Champions League as well as the resulting continental treble, both for the first time in their history. Putellas then went on to win the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award, the Ballon d'Or Féminin, and The Best FIFA Women's Player in 2021, becoming the first player to win all three in the same year.

In 2022, despite missing the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 due to an ACL injury, she won all three awards again, becoming the first woman to win any of them in consecutive years. Barcelona won the league and Champions League again in 2022–23, though Putellas was largely absent with the injury, before taking the continental quadruple in 2023–24. In her final season with the club in 2025–26, Putellas again captained Barcelona to a continental quadruple. On the international stage, Putellas had success with Spain's youth national teams, winning two UEFA Women's U-17 Euros (in 2010 and 2011) as well as finishing third in the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and second in the 2012 UEFA Women's U-19 Euro.

She made her debut for Spain's senior national team for the 2013 UEFA Women's Euro, and has since featured in four other major international competitions with the team: Spain's FIFA Women's World Cup debut in 2015, the 2017 Euro, the 2019 World Cup and the 2023 World Cup that Spain won. She captained Spain during the 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League, which they also won. Putellas left Barcelona having made 508 appearances, the second-most all-time appearances for the women's team behind former left-back Melanie Serrano, and as their all-time top goalscorer with 232 goals. As of 2026, she is the record holder for most Spain appearances, having surpassed Marta Torrejón's previous record of 90 caps in 2021, and became the first player to make over 100 appearances for the Spain women's team, which she achieved in 2022.

Reader's Guide

Early life and education: Alèxia Putellas i Segura was born on 4 February 1994, to Jaume Putellas Rota and Elisabet 'Eli' Segura Sabaté in Mollet del Vallès, a municipality in the province of Barcelona. She has a younger sister, Alba. Putellas has been a supporter of FC Barcelona since her early childhood and would travel with the penya of Mollet del Vallès to watch matches at the Camp Nou with her father. She would also watch Barcelona matches at a local bar, La Bolera, with her family; she has said that her family have always been fanatic supporters of the club, with the exception of a cousin who supports Real Madrid.

As of 2021, Putellas was still a member of the Mollet penya. In her youth, Putellas idolised male footballers Andrés Iniesta, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho, who all played for Barcelona, as well as female footballer Louisa Nécib, who played for Olympique Lyonnais. Iniesta has returned the idolatry, calling Putellas a role model and saying she encapsulates the values of FC Barcelona. Born into a basketball-playing family, Putellas took part in basketball as well as roller hockey, tennis, and , as a child.

She began playing football at school, and attended football camps run by Xavi for two summers, before joining a club in 2001 at seven years old. Her mother allowed her to join a football team on the condition she stop playing at school, though she continued. Putellas interpreted her mother's request as a reflection of machismo, specifically prejudice towards girls playing football, in society, saying that her family themselves always accepted her ambitions. A mature and reserved but not shy child, Putellas showed leadership qualities from a young age.

She enjoyed football at school, where she was embraced, but still did not think she could have a football career due to being female. Putellas' first club was the local CF Mollet UE boys' team; she only had three training sessions there, leaving as she did not like the atmosphere and soon after joining the Sabadell girls' team. In 2013, Putellas began studying Business Administration and Management at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, later taking a break from her studies to focus on football. She had decided to study for a degree due to a lack of professionalism in Spanish women's football; Barcelona Femení became professional in 2015.