Unmasking London City's Spanish superstar

Alexia Putellas, the 32‑year‑old Spanish superstar, has amassed 38 trophies with Barcelona, including 10 league titles and four European cups. She captured back‑to‑back Ballon d’Or awards in 2021 and 2022 and remains the favourite to claim the honour again this season. On the international stage, Putellas played a pivotal role in Spain’s 2023 World Cup triumph and helped the side finish as runners‑up at Euro 2025. When questioned about whether she can still improve, she laughed and replied, "Yeah, of course. Always. Day aft day, I privation to larn things." She added, "That's the mode I spot this job. Just support going, ne'er halt and beryllium arsenic bully arsenic I can." Putellas described her move to London City Lionesses as a journey that could help her "find wherever my limits are" as a footballer. Although she is enjoying pre‑season, her focus never fully switches off. "It's each astir Manchester United," she says as she looks up to London City's play opener connected 4 September (19:00 BST). Having stepped away from Champions League football to join London City, an independent women‑only club in its infancy, she was asked whether she would need to adjust her mindset. "Both tin unrecorded together, my mentality and the infinitesimal of the project. I'm going to bring to the task immoderate it needs from me," she added. She further declared, "I'm 100% committed. I'm bare to win, I'm bare to beryllium amended time aft time and to combat with my team-mates for the victory." Her competitive drive remains evident in every conversation. BBC Sport handed her a puzzle based on the London underground, prompting the remark, "Oh yes, I volition play with Freya Godfrey, past I tin win. I volition archer her that," she jokes. The winning mentality that has defined her career persisted even after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury ruled her out of Euro 2022 on the eve of the tournament. Reflecting on the setback, she said, "Since the ACL injury, I bask everything. It's not enjoying conscionable having fun, it's astir learning something, and past I bask learning that thing," she added. She concluded, "I'm conscionable a idiosyncratic who loves what she does. I emotion competition, I emotion football, I emotion training, I emotion to improve." And, "I'm conscionable ever looking guardant to amended things and that's wherefore I'm present too, due to the fact that I ever request to beryllium moving arsenic a idiosyncratic and a player."