Alexia Putellas Segura is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Barcelona, which she captains, and the Spain national team, which she has captained.
95 Facts About Alexia Putellas
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Alexia Putellas previously played for Espanyol and Levante, and has represented Catalonia.
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Alexia Putellas then went on to win the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award, the Ballon d'Or Feminin, and The Best FIFA Women's Player in 2021, becoming the first player to win all three in the same year.
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Alexia Putellas made her debut for Spain's senior national team in 2013, and has since featured in three major international competitions with the team: Spain's FIFA Women's World Cup debut in 2015, the 2017 UEFA Women's Euro, and the 2019 World Cup.
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Alexia Putellas holds the record of most appearances for Spain with 100 caps, having surpassed Marta Torrejon's previous record of 90 caps in 2021.
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Alexia Putellas Segura was born on 4 February 1994, to Jaume Putellas Rota and Elisabet "Eli" Segura Sabate in Mollet del Valles, a municipality in the province of Barcelona.
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Alexia Putellas has been a supporter of FC Barcelona since her early childhood and would travel with the Penya of Mollet del Valles to watch matches at the Camp Nou with her father.
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Alexia Putellas would 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.
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Alexia Putellas 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.
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Alexia Putellas's mother allowed her to join a football team on the condition she stop playing at school, though she continued.
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Alexia 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.
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Alexia Putellas enjoyed football at school, where she was either the one choosing football teams or got picked first, but knows women who felt sidelined by peers for wanting to participate and has said she did not think she could have a football career due to being female.
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In 2013, Alexia 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.
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Alexia Putellas had decided to study for a degree due to a lack of professionalism in Spanish women's football.
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When she was seven, Alexia Putellas began playing for Sabadell, being enrolled through a family friend who played for the club.
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Alexia Putellas first played with Vicky Losada and Marta Corredera at Sabadell.
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Sabadell was the only nearby club that had a women's section and, though the women's team flourished during the period Alexia Putellas was with them, the girls' team was not a priority.
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Alexia Putellas gave an interview in 2004, aged 10, admitting that when she had been very young she did not always like football; by this age, she was playing it religiously.
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In 2005, Alexia Putellas spent a year in La Masia, Barcelona's youth academy.
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Many of the displaced players joined the other Barcelona team, Espanyol, which Alexia Putellas did when she was twelve.
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Alexia Putellas joined the Espanyol girls' team when she was twelve.
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Alexia Putellas made her senior team debut with Espanyol when she was sixteen years old.
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Already a star in the fledgling women's football world in Spain after her success with the youth national team, Alexia Putellas attracted attention when she moved to Valencian club Levante at the age of seventeen, only a month after the 2011 Copa de la Reina final.
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Alexia Putellas described her as a very classy and intelligent player already.
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Alexia Putellas accepted the offer, signing for Barcelona on 10 July 2012, and started and played most of Barcelona's matches that season.
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Alexia Putellas, playing as a forward, was chosen as MVP of the Copa de la Reina final for her performance.
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Alexia Putellas won her second consecutive league title with Barcelona after the team went unbeaten throughout 27 rounds.
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Alexia Putellas was an integral part of Barcelona's 2014 Copa de la Reina campaign, scoring in each round of the knockout stage.
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Alexia Putellas scoring an outside-the-box goal in extra time of the final meant a penalty shootout for Barcelona, where she scored the game-winning fifth penalty and earned her fifth major club trophy.
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Alexia Putellas was named MVP of the Copa de la Reina for the second season in a row.
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Alexia Putellas won her third league title with the club after Barcelona were crowned champions in April 2015.
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Alexia Putellas finished her season as Barcelona's second-highest goalscorer in the league with 18 goals.
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In February 2017, Alexia Putellas was named as a candidate for the FIFPro Women's World XI for the first time, where she was listed amongst the forwards.
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On 2 October 2017, Alexia Putellas wore the captain's band for the first time at Barcelona in a match against Santa Teresa, after all four of the club's captains were either benched or not selected in that matchday squad.
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Alexia Putellas was Barcelona's sole scorer in both legs of the 2018 Copa de la Reina quarterfinal, scoring both match-winners against Levante to bring Barcelona to the semifinals.
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Alexia Putellas ended the season as Barcelona's top scorer in the league with 16 goals and overall with 18 goals.
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In 2019, Alexia Putellas was given second captaincy for the first time at Barcelona after being named as fourth captain in the previous year.
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Alexia Putellas ended up contributing 10 goals and 8 assists in 20 league matches.
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On 6 January 2021, Alexia Putellas captained Barcelona against Espanyol, the first time women's teams ever played a competitive match at the Camp Nou.
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Just before halftime, Alexia Putellas scored a header goal off a corner kick from Caroline Graham Hansen, becoming the first female player to score a competitive goal at the stadium.
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On 16 May 2021, despite her injury, Alexia Putellas started the second Champions League final of her career, this time against Chelsea.
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Alexia Putellas won MVP of the Copa de la Reina Final for the third time in her career, and scored the most goals in the tournament with five.
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Alexia Putellas ended her season as the highest-scoring midfielder in Europe with 26 goals in all competitions.
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Alexia Putellas was given the award later in the month, becoming the first Spanish woman to win it.
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In September 2021, Alexia Putellas renewed her Barcelona contract for three more years until 2024.
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On 29 November 2021, Alexia Putellas was awarded the 2021 Ballon d'Or Feminin.
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Alexia Putellas dedicated the award to her father and thanked her teammates.
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In January of the following year, Alexia Putellas was named as the winner of FIFA's The Best Womens Player Award, the second FC Barcelona Femeni player to win the award after Lieke Martens in 2017.
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Later that month, Alexia Putellas competed in Barcelona's UWCL quarterfinal matches against domestic rivals Real Madrid.
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On 21 May 2022, Alexia Putellas started Barcelona's second-consecutive UEFA Women's Champions League Final against Olympique Lyon.
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Alexia Putellas had the most direct goal involvements of any player in the competition with a combined 13 goals and assists.
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Alexia Putellas finished her league season with 18 goals and a league-best 15 assists as Barcelona had a perfect, wins-only season.
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On 5 July 2022, Alexia Putellas suffered an ACL injury while training with the Spain national team before the 2022 UEFA Women's Euro.
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At the start of February 2023, Alexia Putellas had begun more intensive training with Barcelona again, and at the end of March 2023 she was back in group training with the team.
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Alexia Putellas returned to the matchday squad on 27 April 2023, for the second leg of the UEFA Women's Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, and made her first appearance on 30 April 2023, when she came on as a substitute in the 73rd minute in the league-winning victory against Sporting de Huelva.
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Alexia Putellas was involved in the autonomous Catalan youth teams from the age of ten.
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Alexia Putellas was champion of Spain with the Catalan under-14, under-15, and under-16 national teams.
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Alexia Putellas began playing for Spanish youth national teams at fifteen.
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Alexia Putellas took part in the UEFA U-17 Women's Championship with Spain in 2010, her first major international championship with a Spanish national team.
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Alexia Putellas competed in the 2012 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, playing as an attacker and captaining the Spanish team.
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Alexia Putellas said that she did not find captaining to weigh on her, but the opposite, that it gave her a boost in tough moments.
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Spain advanced to the final, where Alexia Putellas started and captained the match but was taken off in the 83rd minute as Spain were defeated by Sweden in the second period of overtime.
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Alexia Putellas captained Spain in the group, scoring twice in three matches, but they finished third in the qualification table with one win and two losses, failing to progress.
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In Spain's first match of the 2013 Euro, Alexia Putellas made her competitive match debut when she was subbed on against England.
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Alexia Putellas was a substitute again in the team's next match against France.
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Alexia Putellas then started in the group match against Russia, and as Spain were eliminated by Norway in the quarter-final.
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In May 2015, Alexia Putellas was called up as part of Spain's squad at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada, their first ever participation in a World Cup.
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Alexia Putellas started every game in the tournament, where Spain put up an uninspiring display of two losses and a draw.
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Alexia Putellas started in each of Spain's group stage games at the UEFA Women's Euro 2017, where they advanced to the knockouts on a head-to-head tiebreaker with a record of one win and two losses.
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In May 2019, Alexia Putellas was named part of Spain's squad at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, both her and Spain's second Women's World Cup tournament.
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Alexia Putellas played in each of Spain's three group stage games where they advanced to the Round of 16, making it Spain's most successful run in a World Cup.
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Alexia Putellas scored st Japan and scored a late match-winner with a header against England.
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In 2020, after Spain teammate and close friend Virginia Torrecilla was diagnosed with cancer, Alexia Putellas began wearing Torrecillas's number 14 with the Spain national team.
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Alexia Putellas said she would not retire the number until Torrecilla returns to the national team.
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In 2021, Alexia Putellas was named of the three captains of the Spanish national team, with Irene Paredes and Jennifer Hermoso.
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On 26 October 2021, Alexia Putellas surpassed Marta Torrejon's record for Spain national team appearances, picking up her 91st cap in a 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying match against Ukraine.
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In September 2022, Alexia Putellas gave her public support to 15 of her Spain teammates who refused to play for the national team until the RFEF addressed their concerns about their poor mental and physical health while playing under head coach Jorge Vilda.
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Alexia Putellas has been described as the perfect "Barcelona midfielder", with the vision, passing ability, and passing accuracy that resembles her male counterparts of Barcelona's successful Guardiola era; her technique has been compared to that of male Barcelona footballers Xavi, Sergio Busquets, and particularly Andres Iniesta, all of whom she has said inspire her game, as well as Real Madrid's Luka Modric.
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Normally situated in the central midfield of the set-up, Alexia Putellas is one of the main contributors to Barcelona's attack, with the ability to play as an attacking midfielder and a second striker.
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The website noted her exceptional passing ability; though typically playing shorter passes, and more unsuccessful than not at playing through balls, Alexia Putellas otherwise has good statistics for pass accuracy and pass importance, and is often successful at passing into the penalty area.
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When making forward runs instead of creating the attack, Alexia Putellas will come from behind her team's forward line and so is harder for the opposition defence to detect, allowing her to identify precise routes through and time her runs to receive a ball.
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Alexia Putellas makes a significant number of loose ball recoveries in the opposition half and has a good work rate when counter-pressing.
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Alexia Putellas has additional sponsorships with Cupra, Allianz and Visa, and is a member of Team VISA.
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Alexia Putellas is an ambassador of fashion brand Mango, with the partnership focusing on promoting equality.
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In 2022, Alexia Putellas was given an overall rating of 92 in the football simulation video game FIFA 23, the highest rating in the game for any player, including men.
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Alexia Putellas has been dubbed "La Reina" by fans, the media, and by Nike, who included the nickname in a congratulatory post for her 2021 Ballon d'Or win.
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Alexia Putellas is one of three footballers to be awarded the Creu de Sant Jordi, one of the highest civilian orders in Catalonia, with Lionel Messi and Johan Cruyff.
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The mural of Alexia Putellas has received many visits but, despite the popularity of Alexia Putellas and the mural in Barcelona, has been vandalised.
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Alexia Putellas has been featured in various series documenting female footballers, including the 2021 Rakuten TV miniseries Campeonas and the 2022 Barca TV+ miniseries Queens of the Pitch.
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Alexia Putellas is one of the prominent Catalan women, along with teammate Aitana Bonmati, showcased in the SX3 series Superheroines.
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In 2012, two weeks before the start of the 2012 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, Alexia Putellas' father passed away.
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Alexia Putellas has a pet dog, a Pomeranian called Nala, who has an Instagram account.
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Alexia Putellas speaks Catalan and learnt Spanish in school as a child.
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Alexia Putellas was previously in a relationship with teammate Jennifer Hermoso, with whom she attended Madrid Pride.
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Alexia Putellas has a large number of tattoos, including various Latin phrases, prominently Labor omnia vincit; a Hand of Fatima; an Eye of Horus; a Barcelona panot tile with "Made in" written above; a football; the number 112 ; and a silhouette of her father holding her as an infant and handing her a football.