🗣️ Alexia Putellas exclusive: At Barça we used to wash our own kit | OneFootball

Alexia Putellas has come a long way since her Barcelona debut 12 years ago.

At 30-years-of-age, and one of the most recognisable faces not just in women’s football but Spanish football in general, the goalscoring midfielder has risen to the very pinnacle of her profession.

With 21 senior trophies for club and country – including two Champions Leagues, a pair of Ballons d’Or and a World Cup – Putellas is in a rarefied air that very few reach.

But 12 years ago, winning a European trophy seemed like a distant dream for a player that still had to wash her own kit.

“It has changed a lot here,” Putellas exclusively told OneFootball.

“I remember in my first year we had to bring our own water bottles to training from home and wash our own kit. It is so, so different to what it is now. Now it is the opposite.”

While the Camp Nou club were winning LaLiga and reaching the Champions League semi-final on the men’s side of things, Barcelona Femení were essentially still an amateur club, and doing everything as players that amateur football entails.

The subsequent decade though, was a wild one for the Catalan club – going professional in 2015, winning seven Primera Divisíon titles and then rising to the top table of women’s football on the continent.

Putellas was there for every step, scoring 177 goals along the way. Her favourite however, was arguably one the most important in Barça’s history.

“It’s impossible to pick one of my goals, really,” she said.

“But I think maybe the penalty in the Champions League final. It wasn’t the most difficult goal I ever scored but it was the one that was probably the most important.”

That 2021 night in Gothenburg was when Barça showed the world that they were the benchmark for everyone to try and aspire to.

In 20 stunning first half minutes, Putellas and co completely overran Chelsea by scoring three goals and eventually winning 4-0.

It was the culmination of almost a decade’s worth of hard work for Putellas, but unfortunately a career isn’t always one uninterrupted linear line of greatness

As with any footballer, peaks are often followed by debilitating troughs, and this past year has been the hardest of her career to date.

In August 2022 Putellas became one of a plethora of high-profile female stars to suffer an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which meant invasive surgery and over a year in exhausting rehabilitation.

“Last season was incredibly difficult for me,” she admitted.

“But I learned a lot about the injury, about my body, about my mentality – everything.

“Of course if I had to choose I wouldn’t have wanted to tear my ACL but these kind of things happen in our sport but I know that I’m coming back now a lot stronger. I learned how to become more patient – which I wasn’t before the injury!

“I knew that this was going to take some time, so learning how to make peace with that was key.”

With Putellas out of the side, Barcelona had to turn to others for inspiration.

Plenty of Blaugrana stars rose to the occasion with England internationals Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze both signing from Manchester City and impressing from day one.

The Catalan club have enjoyed the fruits of their labour over the past few months and Putellas was quick to praise the Lionesses duo for their adaptation to life at Barcelona.

“I really admire them,” she revealed.

“I think Lucy has brought a lot of experience to Barcelona – she’s won four Champions Leagues in her career and has won many other trophies. So she has brought that winning experience which has been so helpful.

“And I think Keira has the perfect style for Barcelona. She’s made our team better and our style has made her better, so it’s perfect. She’s improved every day.

“In her position it’s so hard to play for Barcelona because of what’s expected but she has done so, so well.

“The only downside is Keira’s Manchester accent because it’s so hard to understand her! But I have to say she is improving a lot.”

One thing that has’t been hard to understand though is Putellas’s impact on the women’s game.

Having captained Barcelona and Spain at their absolute peak, her name is now synonymous with excellence in her city and her country.

That is why she will be wearing Nike’s new Phantom Barna GX 2 Elite. Designed with precision in mind, these state-of-the-art new boots feature Cyclone 360 traction pattern to help you when a game’s intensity turns up.

With asymmetric lacing for a larger surface area and Flyknit material for snugness and comfort, the Phantom GX 2s are for players who thrive when chaos is swirling around them.

It’s been a year of chaos for Putellas, but with the Spain international now coming back to fitness, her goals – as she explained – are simple ones.

“My first aim at the start of the season was to get fit again, which I am now.

“I feel good. I just want to play, compete and win again. These are now the best months of the season, so my aim is to be involved as much as I can and try and win every trophy possible.”

Trophies are of course the aim for every player – especially at a club as big as Barcelona – but despite Putellas winning dozens of them, she doesn’t see that as her ultimate achievement.

After going from washing her own kit to being a two-time Ballons d’Or winner, the 111-cap international insists that her legacy is helping to grow the women’s game into what it is today.

“I think the proudest moment for me of my career has been to be a part of growing women’s football,” she concluded.

“To be a part of the change in my city and in my club, this is what makes me feel really proud.”