LONDON, Oct 27 : 4 years in the past, Alexia Putellas appeared untouchable, the dazzling Barcelona captain who grew to become the primary girl to win back-to-back Ballon d’Or Feminin awards.
Then got here a devastating knee damage, months of rehabilitation and an uncomfortable query: had the world’s finest participant already loved her peak?
On Monday night time, the reply was emphatic.
The Spanish midfielder reclaimed girls’s soccer’s highest particular person honour, successful a record-equalling third Ballon d’Or Feminin and becoming a member of compatriot Aitana Bonmatà as the one gamers to carry the trophy 3 times.
“All of the girls and boys world wide, when you love soccer and if you wish to play soccer, play soccer,” she stated in her acceptance speech. “It would not matter when you’re a boy or when you’re a woman. Would not matter the place you come from. Do not hear if somebody tells you, you possibly can’t do it. Consider in your self.”
For a lot of gamers, the award would signify a crowning achievement. For 32-year-old Putellas, it felt extra like a full-circle second.
By the summer time of 2022, she had established herself because the excellent participant in girls’s soccer, successful consecutive Ballon d’Or awards and main Barcelona to the highest of the European recreation, having received their first Champions League title in 2021.
Then every thing got here to a halt.
Days earlier than Spain started their European Championship marketing campaign, Putellas suffered a ruptured ACL, an damage that not solely price her the match but additionally threatened to change the trajectory of her profession.
Rehabilitation saved her out for nearly a 12 months and returning didn’t instantly imply returning to her finest. She arrived on the 2023 Ladies’s World Cup nonetheless trying to find full health and later underwent additional knee surgical procedure after one other setback.
REBUILD
For maybe the primary time in her profession, Putellas was compelled to chase the requirements she had as soon as set herself. As Barcelona continued to gather silverware and new names emerged, the highlight shifted elsewhere.
Relatively than accepting a supporting position, she rebuilt. Step by step the sharpness returned, then the boldness and, finally, the affect that had made her the sport’s dominant participant.
Final season was the clearest proof but. Putellas received her tenth Liga F title with Barcelona, along with her tenth Copa de la Reina, and fourth Champions League crown, scoring 20 targets in all competitions.
She moved to Ladies’s Tremendous League facet London Metropolis Lionesses in July after 14 years at Barca, embracing the problem of main proprietor Michele Kang’s rebel outfit to disrupt the established order in England’s prime flight.
Putellas has additionally used her profile to assist deliver the ladies’s recreation to new audiences, most notably by the launch of her YouTube channel, ElevenTV. The platform acquired rights to indicate WSL matches in Spain.
Monday’s award was about greater than one other excellent season. It was recognition of a journey again from essentially the most severe problem of her profession and affirmation that one of many defining gamers of the fashionable period had reclaimed her place on the prime.