So here we are again. Another May. Another Champions League final. And Barcelona will be there again.
Pere Romeu’s side reached the semi-finals after beating Bayern Munich 4-2 (5-3 on aggregate) in the second leg on Sunday.
It has almost become a tradition. The Catalan side have gone from being an unknown quantity in this competition to a regular contender. They have now reached the final in six consecutive years — with seven appearances in total if you include 2018-19 — and have won three Champions League titles during that run.
On Sunday, Camp Nou witnessed another thrilling afternoon of football. Another sell-out crowd of 60,021 people watched their team. They saw Alexia Putellas score a brace and kneel with her arms outstretched towards the fans, devoting herself to them. They saw Salma Paralluelo play her best game for Barcelona, Ewa Pajor showing why she was one of the best signings the club has made in recent years, Mapi Leon put in a superb performance in defence and their Ballon d’Or winner, Aitana Bonmati, returned after five months out with injury.
However, three of the five players mentioned face an uncertain future. This casts a shadow over the club’s future plans.
But first things first. The final will be another classic, a modern-day rivalry: Barcelona versus Lyon.
Putellas scored a brace on Sunday (Manaure Quintero/AFP via Getty Images)
The French side are Barcelona’s great nemesis. Their first Champions League final was against them. It was a real thrashing that ended 4-1, but could have been much worse. Barcelona were never in the game. It was a turning point in the team’s development in Europe. It made them realise they were far from being able to compete for the title and take on the continent’s giants.
After that match, at the airport on their way home, the captains, led by Alexia Putellas, had several conversations with Lluis Cortes, the then-coach, and asked him: “What do we need to get there? We’ll do whatever it takes.” Cortes set the wheels in motion.
They stepped up training, doubled their preparation and got their act together physically. Within two years, they won their first Champions League against Chelsea (2021) and in 2022, they reached the final again, where they would once more face Lyon. The thought was, “Yes, this time, we will beat you.” They were convinced of it. However, they returned home with another life lesson: never take anything for granted.
In the final in Turin, they lost again, in a match that was closer than the one in 2019 but which once again showed that the project was still in its infancy. That defeat left a scar on the squad that they were unable to heal until they faced each other again in another final in 2024. In the 2023 final against Wolfsburg, they learned to be resilient and not to give up when things went wrong. They won 3-2 after coming back from a 2-0 deficit at halftime.
They took that lesson with them to Bilbao the following year, where the stadium was packed with Barcelona fans in the largest travelling fan contingent ever seen for a women’s football match: 40,000 Barcelona supporters turned the Basque city blue and red.
Barcelona got their win over Lyon, overcoming them 2-0. Goals came from the last two Ballon d’Or winners, Bonmati and Putellas. There was a changing of the guard on the European throne. Lyon — with eight Champions League titles in their trophy cabinet — made way for the new team to beat in Europe: Barcelona.
They had defeated their ultimate rivals and felt invincible. But in the 2025 final, another looming shadow appeared: that of England, who, following Euro 2022, had stepped up its game in its domestic league. Arsenal won the tactical battle against Barcelona, who were neutralised and lost 1-0. Another blow.
That left a bitter taste in the Barcelona dressing room, where there had long been growing impatience with the slow and almost non-existent growth of the Liga F.
The Spanish league was starting to feel too limiting for the players, and whenever Spanish players who had gone abroad returned and told them about other leagues, it left some of them pondering.
Barcelona took the task of professionalising the women’s team seriously and turned them into one of Europe’s top sides.
The proof lies in the six consecutive finals and the number of times Camp Nou has opened its doors for its women’s team. Most of these matches were sold out, with two world records for attendance at a women’s football match. But coexisting in the same league with this giant as a team striving for professionalisation is becoming increasingly difficult.
Barcelona’s players have long been on a different level. It feels as though they compete against each other in midweek matches and train at the weekends during league fixtures.
This is one of the biggest women’s football projects in Europe, and to argue otherwise is foolish. But the problems in the Liga F are spreading like a cancer within a club that can only watch on, powerless to stop it. It isn’t their fault, but there is little they can do about it other than continue to develop home-grown players and attract players from abroad who want to join the club to compete for everything.
Last summer, the club announced several high-profile departures: Jana Fernandez, Ingrid Engen, and Fridolina Rolfo. Some were expected, others less so — neither by the players nor by the coaching staff.
The reason? The wages of the women’s team players were affecting the financial fair play of the men’s team, which, caught up in the club’s financial crisis, was struggling to register its few signings.
This summer, however, the team will face their first real summer of changes since it began to make their mark in Europe.
Leon, Paralluelo, Putellas, Ona Batlle, Marta Torrejon and Caroline Graham Hansen.
Of these, the only one with a clear future is the Norwegian Hansen, who has already agreed a contract extension with the club. Batlle is in advanced talks with Arsenal, as previously reported by The Athletic.
On Sunday, it felt as though the uncertainty reached the pitch. When Romeu took off Putellas, she handed the captain’s armband to Patri Guijarro in tears as she made her way, visibly and deeply moved, to the bench.
This image could mean two things: the excitement of reaching another final, or the realisation that this might be her last match at Camp Nou.
“How could you not get emotional…it’s another full Camp Nou,” Putellas replied when asked about her tears by ESPN after the match.
Leon is one of several players with an expiring contract heading into the summer (Manaure Quintero/AFP via Getty Images)
The moment of truth is upon us, a time for big decisions, and we’ll have to see where the team stands after this. Barcelona are a team that does not rely on individual stars and knows how to cope with major absences, such as Putellas’ in 2022 when she tore her ACL, or Bonmati’s this season — a transverse fracture of the fibula at the level of her left ankle — but what might happen to the team if it suffers several major absences? How much could the project be thrown off course?
On the other hand, young talents are coming through from the inexhaustible source that is La Masia; Claudia Pina and Cata Coll, whose contracts were also due to expire this June, have renewed until 2029, and the team still has the best player in the world in its ranks. Bonmati is back in form for the most crucial part of the season.
Meanwhile, the season is not yet over, and the final chapter remains against an old acquaintance, Jonatan Giraldez’s Lyon. Giraldez was on the Barcelona bench the last time these two teams faced one another in the final.
Against all the uncertainties of the future, the image that springs to mind is that of Alexia Putellas as Liberty Leading The People, as depicted by Eugene Delacroix, with tear-filled eyes and a face full of rage, a clenched fist in one hand, the club crest in the other.
Putellas is ready for one more battle and to lead her people against French football royalty. This time, it will be in the land of the Vikings.
