{"id":815773,"date":"2026-10-27T19:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T19:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815773\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T19:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T19:52:10","slug":"alexia-putellas-a-worthy-ballon-dor-winner-but-the-limited-shortlist-illustrates-flaws-womens-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815773\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexia Putellas a worthy Ballon d\u2019Or winner but the limited shortlist illustrates flaws | Women’s football"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a four-year wait, Alexia Putellas is the queen of women\u2019s football once again. Receiving the Ballon d\u2019Or for a record\u2011equalling third time<\/a> to continue Spain\u2019s domination of the award, the 32-year-old reinforces her status as one of the greatest players of all time.<\/p>\n

It was the sixth consecutive year in which the honour went to either Putellas or her international teammate Aitana Bonmat\u00ed, and it was symbolic of Putellas\u2019s resurgence after her comeback from the anterior cruciate ligament injury she sustained<\/a> in 2022, her refusal to surrender her career to that setback, and her majestic rise back to the top.<\/p>\n

The midfielder\u2019s competition\u2011leading 14 goal contributions \u2013 eight goals and six assists \u2013 in 11 Women\u2019s Champions League appearances last season, helping Barcelona to lift<\/a> the trophy, went a long way to her securing the most votes, as well as her starring role in Spain\u2019s victory in the Nations League finals<\/a> last December. Her new club, London City Lionesses, will rejoice in the prestige of having the Ballon d\u2019Or winner<\/a> in their squad but Putellas, who spent 14 years at Barcelona, made it clear whom she wanted to thank. As she said in her acceptance speech: \u201cThis prize is for Barcelona.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barcelona collected a clean sweep of the night\u2019s bigger awards, with Cata Coll taking the goalkeeper prize, Pere Romeu the coach award and Vicky L\u00f3pez the young player award, as well as Ewa Pajor finishing second behind Putellas for the main honour and Clara Serrajordi finishing second in the young player vote. It was almost a perfect night for the European champions, until their president, Joan Laporta, spoke bizarrely about his belief that their men\u2019s team could win the Champions League this season, appearing to have eyes only for the men\u2019s game despite specifically accepting the award for the women\u2019s club of the year.<\/p>\n

That slip aside, the glamorous ceremony at the London Palladium on Monday night passed without the sexist controversy that tarnished the early years<\/a> after France Football belatedly added the women\u2019s award for the first time in 2018. Progress has been made \u2013 the women\u2019s game does now at least receive a prize for the same categories as the men, but the event still does not quite offer full equality. Specifically, there is still not quite parity in the lengths of shortlists. Why, for example, were 10 players nominated for the men\u2019s young talent award, but only five for the women\u2019s? It was the same for the goalkeeper awards.<\/p>\n

The live show also demonstrated a disappointing lack of women\u2019s players presenting prizes, aside from Lucy Bronze who was on stage to hand L\u00f3pez her prize. Putellas receiving the Ballon d\u2019Or F\u00e9minin from Michael Owen \u2013 rather than, perhaps Mia Hamm, Birgit Prinz or Sun Wen \u2013 perhaps served as a reminder that there are very few former winners of the women\u2019s prize for the organisers to choose from \u2013 only Ada Hegerberg, Megan Rapinoe, Putellas and Bonmat\u00ed \u2013 because it was introduced so late.<\/p>\n

Vicky L\u00f3pez speaks after winning the young player award. Photograph: Kin Cheung\/AP<\/p>\n

Many fans will also have felt it was a shame that the dates covered by the relevant voting period \u2013 3 August 2025 to 19 July 2026, effectively for last season \u2013 were based clearly on the conclusion of the men\u2019s World Cup this summer, and therefore did not include this year\u2019s rearranged Wafcon,<\/a> which was held from 26 July to 16 August. Performances at that tournament will instead be taken into account for next year\u2019s prizes. It meant, for example, that Cameroon\u2019s Wafcon\u2011winning head coach, Valentine Nguele, was not nominated for the coach of the year award, and there was an overall dearth of African players recognised, aside from Temwa Chawinga becoming the first African player to finish in the women\u2019s top 10. Arguably she deserved to be even higher.<\/p>\n

Putellas was a very worthy winner of the main prize, although some will feel it is a missed opportunity for a player from one of the countries less likely to succeed in major international competitions to be recognised, given that the Women\u2019s World Cup next year will inevitably ensure that the annual awards nights focus on whatever happens in Brazil. Poland\u2019s Pajor, for example, finished second after a tremendous campaign with Barcelona but she feels unlikely to go one better next year, simply because of her nationality.<\/p>\n

The same goes for Jamaica\u2019s Khadija Shaw, who came third after firing Manchester City to their first domestic title in a decade \u2013 although the fact that she made the top three in spite of not playing Champions League football said a lot about how revered she is. Haiti\u2019s Melchie Dumornay \u2013 the best player Moving the Goalposts had the pleasure of seeing play live in the 2025-26 season \u2013 finished fourth. Aged 23, her time may well come in the future, but it is most likely to be in an even-numbered year.<\/p>\n

If Putellas continues her form, it would take a brave person to bet against her retaining her crown next year, as Spain target a successful defence of the world title. A humble role model for the sport, it is a privilege watching her grace the pitch with her deft touches, leadership and creativity and being a three-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner is no less than her storied career deserves.<\/p>\n

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double quotation mark\u201cWe were asking for intensity, fight and playing for the fans \u2013 we have that on the pitch from the starters. I think they were amazing. Caitlin Foord was a fighter and a warrior on the pitch today.\u201d \u2013 Ren\u00e9e Slegers praised her team after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a four-year wait, Alexia Putellas is the queen of women\u2019s football once again. Receiving the Ballon d\u2019Or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-815773","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\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}