Alexia Putellas makes history (again)
The Spanish midfielder is now the highest goal scorer in Barcelona Femeni history.
We are running out of superlatives to describe Alexia Putellas, a generational talent who sent another record tumbling at the weekend.
The 29-year old’s strike against Atletico Madrid on Sunday sealed an important 1-0 victory for Barca and also saw her overtake Spanish teammate Jenni Hermoso as the club’s highest ever goal scorer with 182 goals in 404 games.
It is a privilege to watch the two time Ballon D’Or winner back to the peak of her powers after a year out with an ACL injury. It is also an ominous sign for the rest of Liga F.
Adding a fully fit Putellas back into a star-studded Barcelona side that cruised to a fourth successive league title by 10 points last campaign, means it is difficult to look past them picking up a fifth title on the bounce this season.
Indeed, they have started the league season in impeccable form, winning all five of their fixtures so far, conceding just one goal and scoring fourteen.
Putellas has three goals in those five games, despite her minutes still being carefully managed, as they were in the World Cup which Spain won for the first time, in the summer.
She has completed 90 minutes on just one occasion, the opening day victory against Madrid CFF, which was also her 400th appearance for the club.
The whole of Spain was distraught when Putellas suffered the knee injury on the eve of last summer’s European Championships, as we were robbed of seeing one of the game’s greatest players shine on the big stage.
After nine months out, she returned at the end of April this year for Barca, but featured mainly as a substitute, coming on in injury time of the Champions League final victory against Wolfsburg in their last game of the campaign.
Given the increased schedule and the rise in players in the women’s game suffering an ACL injury, Barcelona and Spain are taking all the precautions to make sure that Putellas avoids another long spell on the sidelines.
At the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the summer, Putellas, when she did play, was far from her best.
She lost her place in the starting line-up of the final to Barca teammate Salma Paralluelo, although she did come on as a substitute to help Spain see out the 1-0 victory against England.
This may work in Barcelona’s favour this year, as whilst Putellas will be buoyed by the historic victory with Spain, she will be out to improve individual displays to prove why she is still one of the best in the world.
After exceeding Hermoso’ tally you would expect that the next landmark Putellas will reach is 200 goals for Barcelona, especially given that she is now playing as false nine.
This position change was discussed with manager Jonathan Giraldez during pre-season due to Putellas’ obvious knack for finding the back of the net and the success the midfeild trio of Aitana Bonmatí, Patricia Guijarro and Keira Walsh have had in her absence.
The latest milestone in Putellas’ illustrious career is well deserved after a year of hard work and getting back up to speed. The scary thing is there is plenty more to come from the midfielder.