Spain regretted stopping in the quarter-finals at the 2022 Women's Euro Championship, but if one of them had been in the squad, perhaps they would have beaten the current champions England and eventually lifted the cup. And what gives fans this confidence is none other than Alexia Putellas, captain of the Spanish women's football team.
- The obsession with football transcends gender barriers
Alexia Putlias was born into a family of Barcelona fans, and at a very young age, Putlias would watch the game with her family, and when she couldn't go to the stadium, the family would take her to the bar and put her on the pool table so that she could watch the broadcast. After experimenting with basketball, baseball and tennis, Putlias decided he liked football more and started soccer at the age of 6.
Putlias is obsessed with soccer, using her modest recess time to kick soccer, rushing into the classroom red-faced and sweaty after the bell, playing with a group of boys and kicking a ball on the street after school.
As a girl, Putrias's obsession with football is certainly not understandable to everyone, and when playing with boys, she will look a bit like an outlier, and there will be people who do not want the girl to be on their team. But for Putellas, football is transcendent, she doesn't care about the difference between men and women, in her eyes football is football, she just wants to play.
Fortunately, there are also many people who understand that when playing with boys, Fa Xiao always chooses her and his team, and no one has ever objected to girls playing football. Both her family and teachers have expressed their support for her football dream.
When you give everything to what you're obsessed with, you naturally get something. Putlias always trains with children older than herself, but hard work and talent have given her technical level and tactical understanding that is not inferior to her teammates, and she has shown early on a level of focus and leadership that her peers do not have, and has been captain since childhood.
——Fulfilling the dream of Barcelona and becoming an honorary harvester
Putlias's football journey has had minor setbacks. In her early years, she trained in the Barça youth academy, and as an "ancestral" Barça fan, she naturally hoped to become a member of the red and blue team. It was only due to the imperfect construction of Barca's women's football team that Putlias was forced to switch to Sabadell.
However, her growth trajectory since then can be said to be smooth, and she began her career at Espanyol Women's team early on and gradually became the main player of the team. At the age of 17, Putrias left his hometown to join Levante, where he became the brightest star in the team. In 2011-12, Putlias scored 15 goals in 34 Women's La Liga games, helping Levante to fifth place in the league.
Barça also noticed Putlias's performance and brought her back to her hometown, so that she could fulfill her dream of being a child. Since the 2012-13 season, Putellias has played for Barca, winning numerous honours such as La Liga and the Queen's Cup, and helped Barca win the first women's Champions League title in the team's history in the 2020-21 season.
Today, Putellias has played more than 300 games for Barca, becoming captain and the spiritual leader of the team. With his outstanding performance, Putellas won the Ballon d'Or, Miss FIFA Football and other awards, and won almost all the honors he could get, and became the first winner of the Women's Ballon d'Or award.
It was also during his time at Barça that Putelias began her career with the Spanish women's senior national team. As at the club, Putlias has also been outstanding, winning the tournament's Player of the Year award at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup.
- Become a symbol that inspires countless people
Today, Putellas is the all-time record holder for the Spanish women's team. During the Euro 2022 Women's Championship qualifiers, she changed her shirt number and replaced the number 11 with the number 14 of Bishnia Torresilla, who underwent brain tumor surgery and was away from the field.
In July 2022, Putellas reached the milestone of 100 games for his national team, becoming the first player in the history of the Spanish women's football team to achieve this achievement. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and missed the main draw of the Women's European Championship.
The injured Putrias was not cancelled by Spain, her shirt still hangs in the dressing room before every match, she has appeared on the sidelines of Spanish matches, and the spiritual leader of the Matador Legion has never really left the arena.
Today, Alexia Putellas is no longer just a name, but a symbol and motivation for countless Spanish girls. When Putellias returned to her alma mater, some girls cried with excitement at the sight of her. On the walls of the school, posters of Putlias can also be seen everywhere with her message: Don't change yourself, change the world.
In the past few decades, children who played football would always say "I want to be Pele", "I want to be Maradona", "I want to be Ronaldo" or "I want to be Messi", but now Spanish girls will respond differently: I want to be Alexia Putellas.
From a young fan as a child to a national team legend, she has never stopped working hard, and her legacy will continue to inspire more girls to take to the field and enjoy the charm of football.