Alexia Putellas wins third Ballon d'Or Feminin, keeping award in Spanish hands
Alexia Putellas has won the Ballon d'Or Feminin for a record-equalling third time, the award announced on 26 October 2026 and keeping the prize in Spanish hands for a sixth consecutive year.
The 32-year-old midfielder captained Barcelona to Champions League success as part of a 2025-26 quadruple and collected four trophies with the club last season before leaving for Women's Super League side London City Lionesses in July. Putellas joins Spain team-mate Aitana Bonmati as a three-time winner; the two Spaniards have claimed the past six Ballons d'Or, with Norway's Ada Hegerberg (2018) and Megan Rapinoe (2019) the only non-Spaniards among recent recipients.
Putellas received the most votes from an international panel of journalists drawn from Fifa's top-50 ranked countries, finishing ahead of Barcelona striker Ewa Pajor, who finished second, and Manchester City forward Khadija Shaw, who placed third.
Across all competitions last season Putellas scored 21 goals and supplied 13 assists, figures that ranked her third and second respectively among players in Europe's top five leagues. She scored seven times in the Women's Champions League as Barcelona won a fourth continental title in six seasons; only Pernille Harder (eight), Alessia Russo (nine) and Ewa Pajor (11) recorded more Champions League goals, all of them forwards.
In domestic competition Putellas finished joint-sixth for assists (seven) and fourth for open-play chances created (40) in Liga F. Across Europe's top five leagues she registered 151 sequence involvements ending in an open-play shot, behind only Claudia Pina (199), Vicky Lopez (183) and Georgia Stanway (168).
When all club competitions are combined, Putellas created 89 chances, 19 of which were classified as big chances, and completed 965 passes ending in the final third — totals the article says were higher than any other player in Liga F, the Champions League, the Copa de la Reina and the Supercopa de Espana. Bayern Munich's Klara Buhl matched Putellas with 36 chances created in the Champions League, the most by a player in a single edition since Caroline Graham Hansen's 38 in 2021-22.
Putellas was born and raised in Mollet del Valles, about 12 miles north-east of Barcelona, and became a Barcelona supporter as a child. She attended a summer camp run by Xavi, played for CE Sabadell, spent a year at La Masia and had spells at Espanyol and Levante before returning to Barcelona in 2012, beginning a 14-year spell at the club during which she won 38 trophies including 10 league titles and four European cups.
Her career has included a serious setback and a recovery: an anterior cruciate ligament injury on the eve of Euro 2022 ruled her out of that tournament, and although she retained the Ballon d'Or later in 2022 she played only a bit-part role in Spain's 2023 World Cup campaign. She scored in the 2024 Champions League final, and in 2025-26 carried much of Barcelona's creative responsibility while Aitana Bonmati missed five months through injury as the side completed a quadruple.
Putellas left Barcelona when her contract expired and, despite offers from England, Mexico and the United States, joined the London City Lionesses in July as part of the project led by Michelle Kang. "I'm just always looking forward to better things and that's why I'm here too, because I always need to be moving as a person and a player," she told BBC's Women's Football Weekly podcast in August; she has three goals and one assist in seven WSL games for her new club and scored twice in a 4-0 win over England in June that secured Spain's place at the 2027 World Cup.
