Alexia Putellas: Prime, Recaptured
A year after her return to the mountaintop, Alexia Putellas
By any objective measure, Spain’s Euro 2025 campaign is progressing nicely.
This should come as no great shock. Shit, Aitana Bonmatí, winner of the last two Ballons d’Or, on the heels of an incredible recovery from viral meningitis, played 145 total minutes with minimal (certainly by her standard) impact across three group matches. It was no inconvenience.
The fun started less than 90 seconds after kickoff in their opener against Portugal, when PSG-bound Olga Carmona found her former Real Madrid teammate, and current Gotham FC striker Esther González, for a spectacular chested-up, no-look backheel:
Esther struck again a couple of minutes before halftime to run the tally to 4-0 in the eventual businesslike 5-0. (Not for nothing, I’m not entirely convinced that Clàudia Pina wasn’t actually shooting there.)
In between, while Spain held their Iberian neighbors to just 16 passes in the final third of the pitch and two shots, neither on target, ex-Barça/now-Arsenal star Mariona Caldentey linked up with a pair of her former teammates to triple the advantage.
The first came five minutes after the opener, as she put a pinpoint low cross into the box from the right, evading three Portuguese defenders (and Esther), to historically precocious star-in-waiting Vicky López, to poke home from right in front of goal.
Then, in the 41st, she launched an inch-perfect pass from the center circle toward the left. The ball fell as gently as a pass of 30-ish yards can onto the chest of Alexia Putellas, who, with her next touch, sent a defender sliding into oblivion, before coolly slotting an eight-yarder past Inês Pereira:
Despite Esther’s and Mariona’s efforts, that exquisite goal, combined with 88% accuracy on 64 pass attempts, six key passes, 100% success on five dribbles, and 8-for-10 on ground duels, was enough to earn Alexia Player of the Match honors.
Prime, Interrupted
What’s left to say about Alexia? Thankfully, quite a bit yet.
Last week marked the passage of three years since her ACL injury in the runup to the previous iteration of this tournament. It was a brutal capper to a sensational yet savage spring.
The first blow came at the Champions League final in Torino. Barça Femení, the reigning champions, led by the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, authoring storybook moments, took the Juventus Stadium pitch seeking a second straight treble1 and a measure of revenge. One more win and their spot at the apex of the sport would be undisputed. What they got was a harsh sequel to 2019 in Budapest. At the final whistle, Lyon remained the preeminent power in women’s club football, while Alexia and Barça were left not just defeated, but haunted.
A little over a month later, on July 5, 2022 — four days after Alexia became the first Spanish woman with 100 international caps — in one of Spain’s final training sessions before Euro 20212, came that disastrous injury. It stripped her of the game she loves lives and, as she started on the long road back, left her with the lingering taste of that crushing loss to Lyon, with no shot at revenge on the horizon. It left her seriously considering her footballing mortality, at age 28, just weeks removed from two of the most spectacular and affirming matches of her career.
In the excellent documentary filmed during this time, Labor Omnia Vincit, Alexia refers to the pre-injury version of herself as “that Alexia,” and posits that “that Alexia is gone” and that “However I come back, I’m going to be different.”
After almost 10 months of recovery and rehab — during which she won a second Ballon d’Or — she returned the following spring. There was little to take from these outings. The team was cruising to the league and on a Champions League run3, so there wasn’t a pressing need for her to contribute. She played a bit part, scoring a single goal across six appearances, and started regaining her timing, feel, and stamina in live action.
The start of the 2023-24 season came on the heels of a World Cup win, albeit one in which she again played a minimal role, with one assist in 215 minutes across seven matches. It also brought a positional tweak, further up, into a modified “point forward” role.
It also brought a test of ego. Any player, “platonic ideal of an era-defining superstar” or otherwise, stepping into one of these Barça sides is merging into a lineup of superstars, all at or near the tops of their respective games. They must adapt accordingly. It’s a challenge with which ultra-talented players grapple. Given her soul-deep understanding of the club and the teams of which she’s been a part, it’s unsurprising that she understood and worked dutifully to provide what was needed, rather than demanding the spotlight. Still, without actually seeing them, no one knows how these transitional periods will unfold.
The early returns showed some promise. She scored five goals in nine appearances, including the second in a 3-0 home win over Real Sociedad and the difference-maker in a 1-0 away win over Atlético de Madrid. Those goals, her 181st and 182nd as a Barça first-teamer, propelled her past Jenni Hermoso to the top of the list of senior women’s goal scorers at FC Barcelona.
There was, however, a ways to go. Though she remained an excellent player, the precision and physical fearlessness that elevated her to the apex of the sport still weren’t quite there.
As Good As It Gets
Spain’s second Euro 2025 outing came on Monday, July 7, against Belgium. La Roja faced significantly greater resistance than they had against Portugal — for about an hour, at least. Statistically, Alexia’s output was starkly similar: 88% accuracy on 90 passes, six more key passes, and 7-for-10 on duels (aerial and ground). What it all yielded this time, however, was a damn masterpiece.
After some half-chances at both ends, just over 21 minutes gone, a nifty exchange between Patri Guijarro and Vicky López at the edge of the box ended at Alexia’s feet, to the right of the penalty spot. With a channel into which to shoot but no room to maneuver, she calmly, flat-footedly snapped off a technically flawless 12-yard toe-poke/trivela:
The lead was short-lived. Almost exactly two minutes later, midfielder Justine Vanhaevermaet pulled Belgium level with an outstanding header off a corner. About 15 minutes later, Irene Paredes, defensive anchor for both club and country, emphatically heralded her return from a year-old suspension with a skying header off a corner that’s best described as “thumping”:
Early in the second half, about 30 seconds after Aitana nearly doubled the lead from the top of the arc, 22-year-old forward Hannah Eurlings received the ball in the left channel. With a step on the Spanish back four, she powered forward on a 30-yard run into the box, masterfully sealed off Ona Batlle, and pinged a beauty off of Adriana Nanclares’s right post. 2-2.
Spain’s response this time was immediate. 80 seconds later, Alexia leading a blindingly quick break, found Esther in stride to the right. After a single touch, Esther gathered and blasted an 11-yarder through a shrinking window between Belgian goalkeeper Lisa Lichtfus and center back Amber Tysiak:
Nine minutes later — moments after a near-goal from Pina on a corner — Mariona ends a goalmouth scramble with a point-blank finish from within the teeth of the Belgium defense:
20 fairly quiet minutes after that, Alexia’s back in the mix, receiving an Aitana backheel on the left edge of the box, waiting a moment for a passing lane, and teeing up Pina for 22 yards of perfection:
As far as Clàudia’s concerned, there’s not a lot more I can say that I haven’t already. So I’ll just leave this gem right here.
By the time, five minutes later, Alexia deftly redirected Patri’s outside-of-the-boot touch into the Belgian net with one of her own to make it 6-2 and punch Spain’s ticket for the knockouts, the grandeur of a perfect performance was undeniable — even to its author.
Not that long ago, it was becoming fair to begin considering wondering when — or whether — we’d see a “Right?? I genuinely can’t believe how fucking good I am, either!” smile that joyous and free again.
Prime, Re-Interrupted
On November 14, 2023, just before halftime of Barça’s Champions League opener against Benfica, having scored the first two in a 3-0 first half, Alexia began limping. This wasn’t entirely unheard of post-ACL. The first real sign of trouble came when Patri replaced her as a halftime substitute.
In the moment, there was a potentially benign explanation. With a home Clásica and another Champions League match in Frankfurt looming over the next eight days, one could reasonably argue that Jonatan Giráldez was just being cautious and banking Alexia a bit of rest and recuperation. That hope fizzled with the announcement that she would not only miss the clash with Real Madrid, but also the contest in Germany three days later.
Then came an uneasy month, with Alexia absent and no updates until the December 26 announcement that she’d undergone “successful” arthroscopic surgery on her surgically repaired left knee. More weeks passed. Concrete updates remained scarce. As January gave way to February, the club announced that she was back in training and… not a whole lot else. Along the way came Alexia’s 30th birthday on February 4, and the widespread realization that her contract would expire at season’s end. In light of the persistence of her injury, age, and the club’s then-really dire financial state, it felt potentially foreboding.
After four months on the shelf, she returned in March, looking better than she consistently had since her original injury. She scored twice and assisted another in her first two matches back, and was excellent in her first 90-minute outing, a 5-1 win over Villarreal. She was practically perfect in a one-goal, three-assist performance against Madrid CFF. Finally, four days after signing a new contract to keep her at Barça until 2026, Barça finally toppled Lyon in the Champions League. Alexia was there, with a big ol’ bag of raw, uncut catharsis:
The numbers were solid — six goals and five assists in 19 post-injury matches — and that goal will go down as an era-defining moments. There were, however, considerations.
She played 90 minutes in a match just three times, and only topped 70 minutes six times — the same number of times she played fewer than 30 minutes. In three Champions League matches after her return, she played a total of 30 minutes — 28 of them in the semifinal first leg loss to Chelsea. And that epic moment in the final came in her lone minute (more or less) on the pitch.
The highs were still high, though not quite as high, and less frequent. While still a very good player, it suddenly seemed reasonable to consider whether she’d be HER again for meaningful stretches, or a segue into something of a “superstar emeritus” role and “allow her game to age gracefully.”
Alexia’s experience at the Olympics last summer didn’t really refute this. In 359 minutes across six matches in Paris, she turned in stellar performances in Spain’s second and third matches, scoring in a 1-0 win over Nigeria and the — in the 107th minute — a 2-0 win over Brazil. Unfortunately, her play, like the team’s, tailed off, and Spain wound up falling 1-0 to Germany in the Bronze Medal match.
The arc, it seemed, was arc.
She’s BACK Back
It’s widely acknowledged that an ACL tear is a two-year injury. Sure, top-level athletes these days often return to action at a reasonably high level within a year or so, but a full return to peak power, assuming it comes at all, doesn’t usually come until two years have passed. Follow sports long enough and you’ll commit these sentences to memory. Of course, when the player in question is your team’s star, perspective and patience get elusive.
“I mean, they look the same in the shirt and they are out there, after all…”
When the 2024-25 season kicked off in September, I (and, I suspect, others, though no one said it out loud) figured Alexia had entered her “post-peak, pretty good” era. There’d be milestones and vintage performances, but different straws (now and going forward) now stirred the drink. It’s fun being wrong sometimes.
The initial evidence was promising, if not overwhelming. She had an assist in the opener and played an excellent overall game (and scored a 63rd-minute penalty) in a 3-1 home win against Real Sociedad. But she only played a combined 109 minutes.
Then came a pair of pseudo-competitive obliterations. The first, a home win over Granada in which Barça didn’t score their second until the 35th minute, was a true, maestra performance, in which Alexia played all 90, scored twice, and assisted another. The next time out, away to Madrid CFF, Barça actually trailed at halftime before scoring eight times after the break. Alexia’s contribution after coming on as a 62nd-minute sub was a scrappy goal line finish to make it 6-1 — not particularly impressive in a vacuum, but pretty damn significant big-picture, as it leveled her with László Kubala at fourth on Barça’s all-time list.
After a midweek Champions League defeat in Manchester, Barça returned home to deliver another uneven blowout. Crosstown rivals Espanyol came to the Johan, scored in the 20th minute, and held Barça scoreless until about the hour mark. This is not typically how 7-1 victories begin, but then most teams don’t get to drop in Alexia, Ewa Pajor, and Caroline Graham Hansen as halftime substitutes. After Pajor evened the score in the 59th, Alexia scored in the 62nd and 65th to effectively decide the game. She added an assist in the 85th to cap off, essentially, a perfect 45 minutes — and would have won Player of the Match had Ewa Pajor not paired her assist with a hat trick.
On November 2, she scored and assisted in a 4-0 away win in Eibar. This time, she did win Player of the Match, and her sixth-minute penalty was her 198th senior goal for Barça, tying Luis Suárez for third on the club’s all-time list. Two weeks later, away to Real Madrid, having assisted on the opener, she capped off a stellar performance in another 4-0 win with #199. Five days later in Austria, she scored the fourth in a 4-1 win over St. Pölten, becoming the third-ever Barça player to score 200 senior goals. Unfortunately, a calf injury ensured that that was her last action for a month.
This time, she didn’t miss a beat on her return, scoring in a 3-0 Champions League win over Man City. Three days later, in Barça’s final pre-winter break outing, she netted another with an assist against Costa Adeje Tenerife in the Copa de la Reina. She kept it up on the other side of the break, with assists in each of her first two, and a 90th-minute opener in a 2-0 win in Bilbao.
After a 5-0 drubbing of Real Madrid in the Supercopa de España final came a rough patch. First, a 2-1 home defeat to Levante — Barça Femení’s first league loss in 622 days and first ever defeat at the Estadi Johan Cruyff, dating back to September 2019. That same week, the club announced that Alexia had hurt her ankle in training and would spend a third straight birthday on the sidelines.
Again, she came back strong, scoring and assisting in her return against Valencia and netting the opener in a 2-0 win in Tenerife a week later, earning Player of the Match honors each time. She kept firing down the stretch, with three assists over the 8-2 two-leg demolition of Chelsea in the Champions League semis, goals in the following two league outings, and a near-perfect two-goal, one-assist showing against Real Betis — a performance that, again, would have earned Player of the Match had Clàudia Pina not turned in a 10/10.
In the end, the bid for another treble came up empty in the Champions League final against Arsenal. Barça underwhelmed but had ample opportunity to find a breakthrough. Ultimately, however, they fell short, Stina Blackstenius broke the seal in the 74th, and the Gunners came away 1-0 winners.
Gutting as the defeat invariably was, it didn’t seem to leave the team bereft like the 2022 loss to Lyon had. Two wins in the intervening years surely didn’t hurt. That this defeat wasn’t at the hands of a recurring, Lyon-esque nemesis also probably helped.
As for Alexia, she tallied 22 goals and 17 assists in 39 matches in all competitions, accounting for more than a goal per game (16 goals, 11 assists) in 24 in the league, and another seven (3 goals, 4 assists) in 10 in the Champions League. She now sits on 212 goals for her Blaugrana career, 20 shy of César Rodríguez, who netted 232 times between 1942 and 1955, for second on the club’s all-time list.
After that? Lionel Messi’s… 672.
Top of the World, Take 2
Already through to the quarters, Spain came into last Friday’s group stage finale in Bern needing only a draw to clinch the group. Italy, meanwhile, came in with four points and an overwhelming likelihood of advancing. Only a loss plus Portugal defeating Belgium by at least five goals would send them home.
The Italians came out strong and put the Spanish at an actual disadvantage, hitting the crossbar early and jumping ahead in the 10th, when Lazio’s Elisabetta Oliviero blasted a seven-yarder past Nanclares:
A moment of genuine artistry from Alexia and Athenea ensured the lead was short-lived. Four minutes later, the Real Madrid winger, slaloming in from the right, found Alexia just inside the box. In a trademark moment of nonchalant spectacularity, she left a smooth, inch-perfect backheel for Athenea to smash past Laura Giuliani from 18 yards out. A truly special collaborative effort that (possibly) supplanted Pina’s rocket against Belgium as the goal of the tournament thus far.
Both teams remained on the front foot, trading chances, but remained deadlocked through halftime. In the 49th, another Athenea dribble paid off, this time in the form of a first-touch, 20-yard, “eh, what the hell else am I gonna do this” effort from Patri that sidewound inside the right post to put Spain ahead.
Despite plenty of close calls, Italy kept it within a goal for over 40 minutes, until Vicky laid a pass back to Alexia on the right, for a pass that hit Esther and, Guiliani spilling it into her own net aside, practically shot itself.
For Alexia, it was a second assist of the night, giving her four, along with three goals and three Player of the Match awards in three group games.
At the final whistle, join Norway (both since joined by Sweden and France) in advancing with an unblemished record.
This Alexia, That Alexia…
To paraphrase myself: at her peak, Alexia’s instinctual on-pitch excellence lends itself quite easily to hyperbole. It’s also tough to overstate. Unfortunately, for about three years, threading this needle has relied overwhelmingly on memories and rose-colored glasses. No more.
In three matches, she’s taken by storm a competition in which she is the most famous and accomplished participant — and not because we’re grading on a curve. This is “that Alexia” — three years older, sure, but unencumbered and at full strength. The best thing going in the game right now.
Oh, and these days, she’s eyeing playing into the next decade.
The Copa de la Reina semi and final remained, but still.
Pushed back to 2022 due to COVID.
They’d been disqualified from the Copa de la Reina.