Big bang in Spain: Two-time world footballer Alexia Putellas will leave triple winner FC Barcelona after 14 years. As the newly crowned Champions League winner announced on Tuesday, the captain will not extend her expiring contract and will say goodbye to the club on Wednesday at the last home game at Camp Nou against Real Sociedad.
“That’s it, now it’s time. It was a perfect story,” Putellas said in a video on Instagram. “I have always been and will always be a Barca fan, just like you. That’s why I don’t want this to be a sad moment. This is just a chapter that is coming to an end. We will meet again.”
In its statement, Barca paid tribute to “the legacy of a player who helped advance women’s football worldwide.” Putellas “undoubtedly became a club icon and a role model in world football” in Barcelona. It remains to be seen where the Spanish world champion will go. The 32-year-old has been linked by Spanish media with a move to the London City Lionesses in England.
Putellas enjoyed great success
Putellas came to Barcelona from Levante in 2012 at the age of 18. In 507 competitive games for the Blaugrana, she scored 232 goals and won 38 titles – including the Champions League four times and the Spanish championship and the national cup ten times each. “We have taken the women’s team further than we could have ever imagined,” said Putellas: “In the beginning, the profession of football was not even recognized as such. And now I feel it is just a privilege to have been part of this change.”
Putellas won the Ballon d’Or in 2021 and 2022, and she was also named World Player of the Year by FIFA in both years. With the Spanish national team she won the 2023 World Cup and the Nations League twice.
