While the Men’s Ballon D’or was one of the most contested races in recent years, the Women’s award was a little more predictable. Spain’s Alexia Putellas has won her 3rd Ballon d’Or Feminin after a superb year for Barcelona.
Putellas, already considered one of the greatest women’s football players of all time, secured a quadruple for Barcelona last season making her a four-time Champions League winner and a ten-time Primera División champion. This was more than enough to make her a three-time winner as she cruised to victory past challengers like Ewa Pajor and Khadija Shaw.
However, a few years ago this Ballon d’Or success seemed like wishful thinking. In 2022, a serious ACL injury the day before the Women’s Euros threatened to permanently end her career in the middle of her prime. Over nine months on the sidelines were the least of her concerns as when she came back subsequent damage and a quiet 2023 World Cup for her individually left some asking if she could ever regain past form. Being so close to 30 at the time, an age when most players naturally start to lose quality, it felt like an injustice.
The 2024 Champions League served as a crossroads. With Barcelona locked in a 1-1 deadlock against Lyon, Putellas did what could only be described as a moment out of a movie, and got an injury-time winning goal. Nearly two years of pain and doubt evaporated in one moment and once again she felt like the most important player in the world. She admitted herself it was a turning point in her career, commenting, “I felt free. And from there, I’ve felt super good.”
It really was back in action from there. More brilliant displays for Barcelona made it a question of when she would get her third Ballon d’Or, and her 34 goal contributions this year made it enough. With threepeat winner Aitana Bonmati having taken an extensive break from playing due to her own injury it was a foregone conclusion who was winning this year. This marks the sixth year in a row the Ballon d’Or Feminin has gone to either Putellas or Bonmati, a statistic that truly shows how exceptional Spain’s current crop of talent is.
So what now for Putellas? Well, she has already shocked the system this season leaving Barcelona after 14 years to join London City Lionesses, a side only promoted to the Women’s Super League in 2025. Leaving the club that made her a modern legend and one who is still comfortably on top of the footballing hierarchy at age 32 could be called a gamble, but if her track record tells us anything, it’s that Putellas can never be written off.
MichaelEmilio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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