Alexia Putellas says goodbye to Barcelona after 14 years, having written her name in history and redefined and elevated women’s football worldwide. The footballer and symbol who turned Barça into the great European power is leaving, the captain who accompanied the professionalization of the section in 2015 and the figure around whom its definitive rise was articulated. Having become an icon and legend of Barça, the club’s success cannot be explained without mentioning her. Her figure transcends the playing field to become a cultural and sporting reference. And she says goodbye in style, leaving the team at the very top.
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At 32 years old, Alexia leaves as an undisputed starter in midfield, as a leader in the locker room, and after achieving the quadruple of titles for the second time in a sweet season for her: 42 matches played, 21 goals, 13 assists, and the Champions League season MVP. With her two Ballon d’Or awards (2021 and 2022), more than 500 matches, 232 goals — she is the second highest scorer in the Barça club tied with César Rodríguez — and 38 titles won wearing the Barça shirt, Alexia leaves Barça as the footballer who changed the club’s history.
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The captain made it official this Tuesday in an emotional five-minute video on her social media where she reviews her story since arriving at the club. And with a title: A perfect story. “This shirt cannot be defended halfway. And I admit that I gave my all,” she assures. “I have given everything for these colors, with a daily demand and obsession to seek constant improvement for 14 years,” she adds. “I don’t want this to be a sad moment. It’s just a stage that ends. Luckily, I was born and will die a culé. We will see each other again,” closes The Queen, moved.
The announcement ends weeks of speculation about a future that had long been hanging in the air but pointed to her not continuing after this summer, when her contract ended. And it comes just a few days after winning Barça’s fourth Champions League against OL Lyonnes in Oslo.
“Stay, stay,” the Barça fans repeatedly sang to the captain during the celebration in Barcelona, dodging any questions about her decision in interviews and press conferences. Always more a friend of silence than noise, avoiding excessive protagonism, she postponed the announcement until after the final of the top continental competition. With several important offers, especially from England, such as London City Lionesses — a team owned by South Korean magnate Michel Kang, who also owns OL — Alexia will also have to announce her next destination. A decision in which she seeks a new challenge, a new sports project, to make room for the young players coming up, and although it is not the primary reason, it will also mean greater financial compensation.
The debate about her continuity has been going on for a long time. Last September she had a much higher offer from PSG. After talking with the club, Alexia agreed to stay, although both parties agreed to reassess the next step at the end of the season, reaching the agreement that if the captain wanted to leave on a free transfer in the summer, she could do so.
In her last renewal, signed in May 2024, an optional extra year was agreed upon. The negotiation was not always easy. At the end of 2023, the club reduced the proposal from three seasons to two while number 11 was still dragging discomfort in her left knee after her serious cruciate ligament injury suffered in 2022 and for which she underwent surgery again. The club then claimed to have offered her the best possible offer and had doubts about her performance due to the injury.
Alexia never responded publicly. She did so on the pitch with a great level. “I was clear that I was going to reach what I am doing now. But I do understand that those doubts could exist. When there are these injuries it is very typical, and I take the opportunity to say that it does not help the person who suffers it when people say: ‘Let’s see how she comes back’ or ‘she will not be the same again,’” Alexia told EL PAÍS in April last year. “You feel, maybe, that you are the only one who believes in yourself,” she added.
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She continued working in silence. Jonatan Giráldez did not count on her for the final stretch of the season and spoke honestly with the captain about her secondary role having Keira Walsh, Aitana Bonmatí, and Patri Guijarro in midfield. Finally, she renewed in May with that 2+1. Shortly after, in the Champions League final in Bilbao, she came on in added time. And she scored. It was a goal of liberation.
Since then, two seasons of growth. So much so that she finished fourth in the last Ballon d’Or and now appears again among the main favorites to win the award.
She will no longer do it wearing the Barça shirt. Her life has always been linked to it. Alexia returned to Barcelona in 2012 at barely 18 years old. Before, she had gone through the club’s youth categories, but a restructuring of the youth system forced her to leave. She played at Espanyol, and then at Levante before definitively returning to Barça, shortly after the death of her father, a great Barça supporter and Alexia’s biggest support.
14 years later she leaves an unrepeatable mark: 10 Leagues, 10 Queen’s Cups, eight Catalonia Cups, six Super Cups, and four Champions League titles. She has played 504 matches with Barça and scored 232 goals. But her legacy goes beyond the titles.
Barça loses a decisive footballer, a competitive leader, and a reference within the locker room, especially for a rejuvenated squad that found a guide in her. The fans and the club also lose one of their great symbols and images: leadership, identity, and emotional memory.
Alexia will say goodbye to the fans this Wednesday at the Johan Cruyff Stadium. With her departure, an era closes, and a period ends. But she leaves an eternal reign.
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