Putellas, Alexia

Club career

Having passed through the club systems of “Sabadell” and “ Barcelona ” at a youth level, Alexia Putellas formed as a soccer player in “Hispaniola”, and made its debut in adult football. In the first season, in the top division of the Spanish championship, Alexia managed to gain a foothold in the main team of “Espanyola” and take an active part in the club’s struggle for the championship and the Queen’s Cup, which ended in defeats from “ Rayo Vallecano ” and “Barcelona”, respectively, only in the final matches of both tournaments. After spending a quality season, especially for a debutant, Putellas attracted the attention of other Spanish clubs. After a successful performance for the Barcelona club, Putellas accepted an invitation from Levante. Continuing to improve individual equipment in conditions of high competition in the new team, Putellas, however, won nothing in the 2011/12 season and, moreover, was forced to find herself in a club, which, for all its ambitions, and a contender for trophies in the current time period is not. At the end of the season, Alexia left Valencia and in July 2012 signed a long-term contract with the club she was a pupil of with Barcelona.

At the new and old place, Alexia Putellas quickly adapted and almost immediately became the key player of the eminent team. The titles also went: starting with the preseason Cup of Catalonia, a year later, as one of the main heroines of the season, Putellas celebrated the confident, with great advantage over rivals, conquest of both the championship and the Queen's Cup. The final of the national cup, which took place on June 16, 2013 at the Las Rosas in Madrid , became a solo performance by Alexia. Having made a decisive contribution to the victory over Zaragoza (4: 0), she also stood out with her perfect technique, which allowed her, in particular, to hit the gates of the opposing team in a beautiful style, first by deceiving two football players from the defense line, who came to the interception from two sides, and then beating the goalkeeper, sending the ball into the empty net ^[1] .

Things were not so successful for Barcelona in the Champions League : on September 29, 2012, in the debut for Putellas in the framework of this tournament, the 1/32 finals of the Catalanians lost significantly to Arsenal from Borhamwood (0: 3), in the second leg, only having worsened their impressions of themselves, they conceded one more goal and, thus, left the tournament. A season later, Barcelona extended their stay in the draw of the main club trophy in Europe to the quarter finals, but there was also a hopeless bat, this time with a total 0: 5 from Wolfsburg . At the same time, the team defended the league title in the national league, again, as in two seasons earlier, defeating Athletic Bilbao in the decisive match.

Team Career

On October 24, 2009, Alexia Putellas made her debut in the U- 17 team by taking part in the qualifying match of the European Championship against Serbia (2: 2). On September 6, 2010, for the first time in official tournaments, she distinguished herself for the national team, scoring a winning goal in the group stage game of the World Cup under 17 against the Japanese team (4: 1). At this tournament, held within Trinidad and Tobago , the Spanish team finished in third place, losing in the semi-finals of South Korea (1: 2), but won bronze in the match with Koreans from the DPRK (1: 0).

At the 2010 European Championships triumphant for the Spanish women, Putellas in the match-off time by the first half in the match against the Danes (5: 1) scored a goal, which became the third for her team. On July 28, 2011 , in the semifinals of the next European championship in the same age category, Alexia sent two goals to the goal of the Icelandic national team (4: 0). Passing quite easily through the tournament bracket until the final, on July 31, the Spaniards with great difficulty defeated the French (1: 0), and Putellas with teammates for the second year and the tournament became the European champion in a row. In the final match of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship against Sweden , which ended in her last overtime victory, Alexia took her team out as captain.

Putellas debut in the first team fell on the second half of the friendly match against Denmark (2: 2), held in Vejle on June 29, 2013 ^[2] . The next day, the head coach of the national team, Ignacio Kereda, named Alexy among the 23 players who got into the final application of the team for the European Championship starting in Sweden on July 10 ^[3] , in the group stage of which the Spanish were expected by France, Russia and England . The very first match with the English was the decoration of the whole tournament: when the teams exchanged goals at the beginning of the meeting, on the 5th, when Veronika Bokete opened the scoring, and 8 minutes, and then at the end, on the 86th, when “La Roja ”by the efforts of Hennifer Hermoso again burst forward, and the 89th, left to play in a matter of seconds of compensated time, the outcome of the dramatic match was decided by the debutant of adult tournaments, who replaced at the 73rd minute Alexy Putellas, who hit Katherine Bardsley after the canopy, performed by Adriana Martin ^[4] . The goal in the 94th minute brought the Spanish national team a historic, first victory after a 16-year downtime in the European Championships.

Even in my dreams, I could not imagine that I would be able to do this. For Spain, this is the first European Championship in 16 years of a pause, and for me - the debut in Euro. I go out of the bench 20 minutes before the end and score the third goal! I have no words to describe my own emotions.

- Alexia Putellas ^[5]

In the next matches, the Spanish national team lost to the French (0: 1) and tied with the Russians (1: 1), thereby reaching the playoffs, but in the first round, lost to the Norwegians in the quarter finals (1: 3) . If in all three games of the group stage Putellas invariably entered the field as a substitution player, appearing between 68th and 78th minutes and each time replacing Sonia Bermudez, who played the attack, then she entered the quarterfinal match at the start and played until the final whistle.

Team

  Espanyol

• Queen Cup Finalist: 2010/11

  Barcelona

• Champion of Spain : (3) 2012/13 , 2013/14 , 2014/15
• Queen Cup Winner: (3) 2012/13 , 2013/14 , 2016/17
• Catalan Cup Winner: (3) 2012 , 2014 , 2015
• Catalan Cup Finalist: 2013

  Spain national team

• European Champion U-17 : (2) 2010 , 2011
• Algarve Cup Winner: 2017
• Silver medalist of the European Championship U-19 : 2012
• Bronze medalist of the World Cup U-17 : 2010

Personal

• Best Queen Cup soccer player: 2012/13

• Favorite player of Alexia Putellas - Andres Iniesta .
• The best football player with whom Alexia had to play in the same team, she calls a colleague for Espanyol and the Spanish national team Veronica Boquete .
• Putellas considers Louise Nesib , who played in the line of midfield in Lyon and the French team, to be her toughest opponent football player.

• Profile on the official website of FC Barcelona
• Profile at UEFA.com