When she saw the ball hit the back of the net, Alexia Putellas ran toward the corner flag with her arms outstretched in celebration.
She looked up at the sweeping stands, and more than 60,000 people returned her gaze. Then came her traditional bow to the fans, who responded as they always do: “Nomes hi ha una reina — Alexia Putellas.”
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There is only one queen — Alexia Putellas.
Less than eight minutes had been played of the second leg of Barcelona’s Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid and, already, the tie felt settled. The Catalans had won the first game 6-2, with their place in the last four all but secured. And yet, this was a special goal for Putellas and her team. It was Barca Femeni’s first at the new Camp Nou.
How different this all was to the first time Putellas had graced this arena.
A match was played in the stadium in 1970, but the club’s women’s section had yet to be formally established back then. It was only in January 2021 that the club opened the Camp Nou for the women’s side for the first time since their professionalisation — for a league game against city neighbours Espanyol.
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Putellas scored Barca’s first goal that day, a 45th-minute header. But there was no one to cheer them from the stands, with the game played behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Fast forward five years, and the scene could not have been more different. News filtered through around an hour before kick off that, with the top tiers yet to be opened in the revamped arena, the game was a 60,067 sell out.
The first time the Camp Nou opened to the public for a women’s match was on March 30, 2022, also for a Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid, and the attendance of 91,553 set a world record — one that was broken 22 days later in the semi-final against Wolfsburg, when 91,648 watched on from the stands.
Back then, with Barcelona so unaccustomed to the women’s team playing in events of this magnitude, the city ground to a halt. Many people did not leave home early enough and, with roads gridlocked and public transportation overwhelmed, many fans with tickets did not arrive until nearly half-time.
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This time, lessons had been learned. People arrived more gradually, but there were still entrances where supporters massed, waiting patiently to gain access to the ground as the queues built up. The ground was packed under the blazing sun by kick off. The PA system blared out the Barcelona anthem, then invited the crowd to sing it a cappella. The tifo declared: “El nostre cami”. Our path.
The scene was set. And Putellas knew this was her moment.
This was just not any other game for the Spain midfielder. The 32-year-old was playing her 500th match for Barcelona, and she was determined to make her mark. Her opener set the tone. She ended up adding two assists to that early goal as Barca ran riot, with Madrid — the excellent goalkeeper Misa Rodriguez and Linda Caicedo aside — utterly powerless to stop them.
The hosts’ 6-0 victory completed an emphatic 12-2 aggregate win. The tie was a complete mismatch from start to finish, with Caroline Graham Hansen and Ewa Pajor untouchable for Pere Romeu’s team. But this was Putellas’ moment.
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“I don’t have the words to describe how I feel right now,” Putellas told ESPN after the match. “It’s been magical. About 20 years ago, I was sitting in a corner of the stadium with my family, and now I can say I’ve played my 500th match with the club here.”
“It’ll take me hours to process all of this,” she added to reporters in the post-match mixed zone.
It had taken Putellas time to recover from the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear she suffered just before the 2022 European Championship in England. Her form picked up last season, with numbers close to those that marked out her game before the injury. But, this year, she has been back to her brilliant best.
Her latest goal against Madrid was her 15th against them, establishing her as the second-highest scorer for Barcelona in men’s and women’s Clasicos, surpassing Cesar Rodriguez (14). She trails only Lionel Messi (26) in those stakes. She has scored 230 goals for the club, leaving her only two behind Cesar, the second-highest scorer in Barca’s history. That list, too, is led by Messi with 672.
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Putellas went through some dark times during that year in rehabilitation. She returned just in time for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand which Spain won, but the two-time Ballon d’Or winner’s performances were clearly not the same. The injury changed her as a person and also her role within the team.
“She’s in a sweet spot in her soccer career, in a good place,” Barca head coach Romeu said at the post-match press conference. “Alexia has improved a lot as a player. She’s always been good; I didn’t teach her to play the way she does. But it’s true that she’s become a playmaker for the team, a finisher.
“Before, we always highlighted her final pass, her competitive spirit in the box — whenever she touched the ball, she’d score. Now she’s reached a point where she has the ability to organise our attacks and finish them off. There’s been a significant improvement in her game and in the team’s performance.
“I’m so happy for her; she’s a leader in the dressing room.”
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Romeu was spot on. Putellas is one of the players most beloved by Barcelona fans, but especially by her team-mates. “She is a legend of the game,” Graham Hansen told CBS after the match.
“Alexia is everything,” goalkeeper Cata Coll said in the mixed zone. “There are no words to describe her as a player, and especially as a person. She is incredible and deserves this and more.”
When Romeu substituted her in the 83rd minute, the entire stadium stood up to honour their captain. She savoured the moment, walking slowly from the field — but the best was yet to come.
At the end of the match, her team-mates donned ‘Alexia 500’ shirts to mark her career landmark and presented her with a framed Barcelona jersey bearing that number. The cheers from the crowd were deafening. Putellas was visibly moved.
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In the semi-finals, Bayern Munich await — a team Barca thrashed 7-1 this season in the group stage of the competition. But that tie is one for the future. For now, this team will bask in the rousing thrashing of Madrid, and the day their queen was crowned at the new Camp Nou.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Barcelona, Spain, La Liga, Women’s Soccer, Women’s Champions League
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