Alexia Putellas: ‘I would have loved for previous generations, the real pioneers, to have experienced what I’ve experienced’

Alexia Putellas, 32, is left-footed, though not entirely. Alexia has what is known as cross-dominance: she’s left-footed but right-handed. She plays with her dominant left foot but signs contracts and autographs with her right, like Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, and Lamine Yamal.

Alexia repeatedly strikes the ball with her left foot against a brick wall in an alley in east London. Perched on 10-centimeter patent stiletto heels in burgundy, wearing a wool hat and an oversized coat on a hot July morning amid a heat wave, she poses for the photographer. The first time she hits the ball, there is a collective sigh. Stilettos, cobblestones, coat, and ball? “She is such a star,” says the production manager in a thick English accent. No wonder they call her La Reina. The Queen.

She strikes the ball with just the right force and retrieves it as if it weighed the same as a balloon. When she began playing at Sabadell at seven years old, she could barely lift the ball off the ground. She was on a team with 12-year-old girls who “made spectacular passes and shots,” and she got frustrated because she couldn’t imitate them. But she kept at it, and there, on the left wing, through sheer persistence, the development of one of the best players in the world — and a two-time Ballon d’Or winner — began.

Back then, children under eight were not officially registered, so they lied about her age, a “small loophole” so she could play on the team. Her aunt took her to training at Sabadell from their village after school, after snacks. Her father picked her up after work and if they couldn’t, her grandfather did. “The poor man, we’d go into Barcelona and, well, we’d get lost,” Alexia says during a break in the photo shoot.

She has just moved to London, where she has signed for London City Lionesses, an all-female club owned by entrepreneur Michele Kang, who since 2022 has invested in women’s teams (in addition to London City, she owns the Washington Spirit in the U.S. league and OL Lyonnais in France, the most decorated team in Europe), as well as transfers, equipment, and research into women’s injuries.

Alexia’s introduction in New York as London City’s new signing generated huge interest: she was leaving Barça after 14 years and after winning four Champions Leagues, 10 league titles, 11 Copa de la Reina trophies (one of them with Espanyol, in 2010) and six Spanish Super Cups, to move to a club that is barely seven years old that has spent only two seasons in the WSL, the Women’s Super League, England’s top division.

Journalists assembled there saw the move as a potentially longer-lasting alliance between the Spaniard and Kang than the three years specified in her contract. Two women with a shared objective: a strategic and developmental partnership to boost women’s soccer globally. At that presentation, Alexia recalled what Kang had told her: “Women’s soccer is not charity.”

Kang, who made her fortune in a medical technology company, knows there is a market niche in this sport that is yet to blossom. Her multimillion signings are not yet common in women’s soccer. Besides Alexia — who specialist website Transfermarkt lists with a market value of €1.5 million ($1.8 million) — Kang this summer signed Mapi León, also from Barça, Mary Earps, Kadidiatou Diani, Nicole Anyomi, Janni Thomsen and Daniela Arques, demonstrating her ambition and commitment to winning titles with her London club. Season tickets have already sold out and the club is selling individual match tickets at volumes and speeds far exceeding last year. Still, in a sport that has so far remained free of some of the excesses money brings in the men’s game, these signings and the multi-club ownership model spark controversy.

“In women’s football there are other groups and in the men’s game multi-club ownership has existed for years. If you analyze it from the outside, I think it’s all about timing. You can build a plan for the medium and long term and invest gradually, or you can do it all at once because you want to shorten timelines. I’ve experienced both sides: the gradual route at Barça and now the other approach. I think it’s all part of the industry; what matters is adding lots of perspectives,” Alexia explains.

For the player, there is no better or worse way to invest in the women’s game — what matters is adding. Money is the fuel of this sport and the excuse used by those unwilling to back it: if it doesn’t yield men’s-level profits, it shouldn’t demand equal treatment. Thus, those who call Kang opportunistic implicitly acknowledge there is an economic opportunity. That is the constant paradox. Or, as New York Times journalist Megan Feringa put it, the “corrosive limbo” in which women’s football finds itself — caught between preserving the essence and values that have distinguished it and embracing the changes needed to grow, attract investment, and pay players what they deserve.

The Alexia who signed for Barcelona in 2012 from Levante, where she spent a year, is described as shy and reserved. She played on the left wing but gradually moved into midfield. She felt comfortable making decisions, and by the time she was 24, she was already team captain. “In life and in sport I love having a goal and plotting the plan to achieve it. I enjoy that process.” She began playing in front of 200 people on an amateur team. Women’s football had no visibility and Barça relied on the image of its stars, including Alexia’s, to drive growth. Now Alexia and Aitana Bonmatí’s shirt numbers rank among the best sellers alongside those of their male teammates Raphinha and Pedri.

It’s time for another photo; this time Alexia crosses a zebra crossing trying to look the correct way down the street, though she ends up entering a Tesco with part of the team (what could be more British?). On her back, under a cropped top, peeks a tattoo of a silhouette of a photo of her father and her as a baby, in which she is holding a small Barça ball. From the cradle, she seemed destined to be a culé — the nickname for a supporter of FC Barcelona.

As a child, she watched every Barça match on TV with her family and belonged to the supporters club in Mollet del Vallès, traveling by bus with them to Camp Nou on Sundays. Her family has been culé since birth. I ask if that created added responsibility toward them. “No, gratitude. A way to give back everything, right? But I think it’s a bit like what all children feel when we are deeply grateful to our parents; I feel that way.” In her family, it was always normal for a girl to play soccer. She did it at all hours — in the village square, the schoolyard, and in the hallway of her house.

— Did you break a lot of things with the ball?

— No. I didn’t break much because we had a short hallway. We lived in a humble house, you know? And there were no windows or anything in the hallway.

— What did your family say when you told them you were thinking of leaving Barça?

— I talked it over with my mom, my sister, and my group of friends — who are like sisters to me — and they understood. They haven’t told me, but I know they were also relieved because they suffered when things weren’t going well at Barça. It’s been a learning process for them, too. Just like it was for me — I started out with 200 people in the stands, and there was no press, no critics, nothing — but the scale it has now, whether big or small, affects them too. After I made the decision, there were a few days when I broke down; I wouldn’t even go out on the street because the Champions League final was so emotional...

It must be hard to contemplate leaving one of the best teams in the world to start a project almost from scratch, so she split the decision into two parts: did she want to leave Barça? And if so, where would she go? She had played more than 500 matches for Barcelona, becoming the club’s second-highest all-time scorer behind Messi. “I would have played at Barça my whole life; it was the ideal setting, but the last year we expended a huge amount of mental and physical energy, and there came a moment when I thought: I don’t know if I’ll be able to go again and win everything. I had always wanted the last image fans had of me to be at the top. And I thought: I don’t know what the perfect ending is, but something like playing a Champions League final and lifting the trophy.”

She began studying playing styles and where she would like to move to. It is a World Cup year, which was a risk because she needed a competitive team. She weighed two highly competitive leagues: the English and the American. In Spain, the gap between Barcelona, with 87 points last season, and the next-nearest team, Real Madrid, with 72, was a consolidated gulf. Perhaps boredom also influenced Alexia’s decision.

“At Barça, we set the bar high for ourselves in practice because we were competing against each other — against the best.” She opted for the English WSL despite the U.S. offer being financially much more attractive. “Within England, there were two types of offers: those most similar to Barcelona — where they’ve already won, where everything is already established, where they know the way forward, and where there’s a fan base, which is something I’d already experienced — or something completely different, like London City. It really struck me that, if successful, it would all be much more epic,” and, as she says, there is one thing she still hasn’t won: the English league.

Her father died before he could see her play with the senior team. Alexia dedicated her first Ballon d’Or, in 2021, to him — 41 years after the only other Spaniard to win it until that point, Luis Suárez. The former Barcelona player wrote Alexia a congratulatory message telling her: “You may not realize the importance of this recognition until later, but it means a lot for you and for Spanish football […] if you’ll allow me a piece of advice, this trophy should be the basis for your departure, not your goal.”

She won it again the following year (after which Aitana Bonmatí won it three times, as well as Rodri in 2024), but she heeds Suárez’s advice and does not regard it as a final objective, although she could win a third this year: “Being [nominated] is a pleasure, especially after a serious injury. It’s an award given for everything you’ve done over the course of a season as part of a team with other teammates and for your personal growth. If I win it, I’ll be very happy for my family because of everything they’ve been through. And if someone else wins it, I hope it’s one of my teammates, and I’ll be absolutely thrilled.”

The injury she refers to is the anterior cruciate ligament rupture she suffered during a training session before traveling to Euro 2022. The injury was a blow. It always is, and she even thought her career was over; in the early days afterward, she considered quitting. But just as she had insisted on training her right leg when she played for Levante, she recovered quickly.

Alexia Putellas’s tenacity and perfectionism are well documented. Former Barça coach Lluís Cortés says the player always wanted him to tell her what she did wrong so she could improve. “We started working on my mistakes — which are necessary for improvement — and one day he pulled me aside and said, ‘Now I’m going to tell you everything you’re doing right because I want you to keep building on that. Don’t focus so much on your mistakes — which is great and says a lot about your mindset because you want to be as well-rounded as possible — but don’t forget what you’re doing right.’”

That extreme focus, effort, and perseverance don’t apply only on the pitch. Unlike a large majority of male players, female players not only look after their team, their own game or their transfers, but also fight for the future of their sport; they know they must also battle in the boardrooms. The women’s football league in Spain only professionalized in 2021 after tough negotiations. The first collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2019 after a players’ strike, and it wasn’t until the 2025 agreement that some rights were established, such as a base salary of €23,500 ($27,300), travel conditions, 30 calendar days of vacation and maternity protections, including wage guarantees and childcare support.

The issue of pregnancy and work-life balance in elite sport is complex. “I’m going to tell you about this because it’s official now. When you start training camps with the national team, there’s always a feedback session with the federation about how the group is doing. We, the group of captains, had a concern because it’s very important for a player to compete in World Cups, but that means that those of us who want to become mothers — I didn’t feel that way at first, but the desire developed in me a while ago — find it hard to balance that. And after the incredible work the federation has done, they’ve reached an agreement with a clinic to allow us to freeze our eggs while we’re still active, for as long as we want. For me, this is a huge step forward because the federation understands that you’re serving your country at the expense of your biological clock — that you can’t stop playing and you can’t become a mother because you need your body to perform at its best.” At 32 she has no idea when her career will end, but she believes it won’t last more than another five or six years.

— What have you learned on the field that helps you in everyday life?

— I have a really big issue with wasting time. And before, when I felt like I was wasting time, it would really get to me. I’d get frustrated and go into a kind of mental block, telling myself, “I have to get out of here” or “We have to change this now, now, now, now.” Now I’m much calmer. The injury, for example, has made me much more empathetic. It’s changed the way I relate to people — not just strangers, but even my own mother. Before, I was much more introverted when it came to my emotions and feelings, and now I’m not exactly the most extroverted person in the world [laughs], but I am evolving.

— And what do you do in your free time?

— I don’t have much free time, but I really enjoy spending time with my friends because it gives me a sense of what’s really going on with people my age. There are seven of us. I’ve known the only guy in the group since I was three — we went to school together — and then there’s another girl I’ve known since I was five, and the rest since I was 12.

Her lifelong friends don’t play football, but in London she already has a large circle of teammates. Misa Rodríguez, the former Real Madrid goalkeeper who has just arrived in London to play for Arsenal, appears in the shoot. Between takes, the Canary Islander turns up the reggaeton that Alexia dances to shyly, in small movements, while her clothes are adjusted. Throughout the multiple outfit and location changes, she never tires and participates in good spirits. She changes in a café bathroom to be photographed with a full English breakfast, though she’s not convinced by the baked beans.

Footballers have long used fashion to build their personas. David Beckham is perhaps the best known, but Pep Guardiola modeled for Antonio Miró, Lionel Messi is known for the extravagant Dolce & Gabbana suits he wears at galas, Erling Haaland’s passion for Hermès Birkin bags made headlines during the 2026 World Cup and Jude Bellingham is a Louis Vuitton ambassador. “In the end, it’s a way to convey how you feel. I’ve become interested because I’m someone who learns one thing and wants to go deeper. It’s something I feel comfortable with. I like it and I have fun,” the footballer says.

Building an image is one thing; becoming an icon is another, though they are closely related. During this summer’s World Cup, Alexia’s presence on the sidelines supporting the men’s national team put her on a pedestal few reach. The photo with Penélope Cruz and Rosalía is another step in that construction, though it happened naturally. “I didn’t know Penélope and she impressed me a lot.”

Rosalía, however, she has known for years. “I started following her when she released the album Los Ángeles; I really liked what she did because it was disruptive and it began to inspire me. I use music a lot — to motivate me, to switch off — and she has been present during many points of my career. And then I was lucky enough to meet her and spend time with her, and she’s an incredible person who does extraordinary things with her art and her talent. I admire her so much because she’s able to reinvent genres and break with convention — and only geniuses can do that — taking you to places you never even imagined existed.”

— Are you tired of being a pioneer?

— I would have loved for previous generations to have experienced what I’ve experienced because, in the end, I think it’s only fair to have a little bit of that history too — it’s not like our generation was the first to start playing, you know? I mean, the players from the 1970s, the 1980s… We’ve had contact with them — the real pioneers — through the national team or Barça, and they’ve told us stories that make you go, “When did that happen?” — things that were unthinkable not just in soccer, but in society as a whole. That’s why I don’t really feel like a pioneer.

I show her a map for visiting London through the history of its women. Her gaze is well trained. The first thing she spots is a photo of Emma Clarke, considered the first Black female footballer. Then she looks at Virginia Woolf: “I read A Room of One’s Own, I liked it a lot.” I point out where Mary Shelley lived, author of Frankenstein, and glance at the street where Mary Wollstonecraft’s house is, Shelley’s mother and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but I don’t press because I have heard Alexia say many times that true equality will arrive when we no longer talk about women’s and men’s football.

We’re talking about London, a city that has welcomed her with good weather and little traffic — or at least not enough to bother her yet. “I like how I feel. Laia Codina, who’s been here for four years now and has lived in other countries, told me, ‘Get ready, because in every city you develop a side of yourself that you have to embrace.’ You know? I’m looking forward to seeing which one emerges. I can’t wait.”

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