Putellas was Barcelona’s superstar for 14 years, helping them win an astonishing 38 major trophies, including 10 league titles and four Champions Leagues.<\/p>\n
She peaked in 2021 and 2022, earning back-to-back Ballon d’Or accolades, before an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on the eve of Euro 2022 shook her.<\/p>\n
The midfielder recovered in time to win the World Cup with Spain in 2023 and was part of the squad that finished runners-up to England at Euro 2025.<\/p>\n
In short, she had won it all and sources say she felt it was time for a change.<\/p>\n
With her contract expiring at Barcelona, Putellas made the decision to leave and it is believed she always liked the idea of a move to the WSL.<\/p>\n
That put London City Lionesses in the driving seat and they pursued her for some time despite competition from the majority of the world’s top clubs.<\/p>\n
She had offers from England, Mexico and the United States, with sources close to the player stating Boston Legacy provided the stiffest competition.<\/p>\n
However, it’s believed she admired US billionaire Kang’s ambitions for the women’s game, having been a long-standing rival to the owner’s successful French club Lyon.<\/p>\n
There was a connection between Putellas and Kang, with sources close to the owner suggesting a business partnership beyond the midfielder’s playing career is likely to establish and flourish.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard revealed on Wednesday the pair first met in Miami four years ago when they had dinner, and they discussed their vision for the game. <\/p>\n
Putellas’ hopes were to join a club she could impact off the pitch, as well as on it, and to leave a legacy which will help grow the future of the game.<\/p>\n
She has given up the chance of playing Champions League football this season – a huge decision for someone who captained Barcelona to victory in 2026.<\/p>\n
But it is in London City’s five-year plan to be competing for trophies and they hope to challenge for a European qualification spot in the WSL this season. <\/p>\n
With a World Cup looming next year, Putellas would have wanted to have been settled in 2027, with a three-year deal in Bromley securing her future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Putellas was Barcelona’s superstar for 14 years, helping them win an astonishing 38 major trophies, including 10 league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-539748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}