Alexia Putellas hits Glamour: “I feel like I’ve been in a cave...”

The double Ballon d’Or champion, Alexia Putellas, continues to be a player in the world’s spotlight despite the fact that she is still recovering from the torn ligaments she suffered last summer. The Barcelona midfielder stars on the cover of Glamour magazine this April, and in the interview the Catalan is honest about her profession, her beginnings in it, the injury and the passion with which she lives her chosen sport.

Putellas on being Barcelona and Spain star

“Sometimes I do have the feeling of having spent a lot of time like in a cave, because your priorities are different from those of most of your generation, friends…,” she told the magazine. “It is a 24/7 profession but also one that does not last your whole life, only the time you are in with the elite.

“Maybe it is similar to what musicians experience. I have been lucky enough to play in a stadium with 90,000 people, seeing their faces and... it’s as if you were playing for them. You represent so many people and there are so many hoping that you will win. That’s very strange.”

“I remember my father coming home from work exhausted and having to wait for him to come out of training and then the shower, which often meant it was as late as eleven o’clock at night... The other day I was watching the youger girls at Barça, who are really good and, of course, you see all the direction they are given... Neither my generation nor the previous ones had that. Now they properly train.”

Alexia also admitted to having a hard time due to the severe injury that occurred just before playing with Spain in the European Championship in England.

“I started to be sad when I saw my teammates in the Spain-England game... They are games that I love to play in and suddenly I was aware that I was not going to play them. And the same thing happened to me this week: the team (Barcelona) playing the quarterfinals against Roma, and this weekend we’re playing against Real Madrid. They’re games that drive me and then you realise that you can’t, that you are incapacitated... But I couldn’t say if it was worse then or now. I try to contribute what I can from my situation, but then I come home and I’m sad. It’s like that.”

And her key to success over the years? Enjoyment in the game.

“If you don’t really like football, you won’t have long-lasting success. You will end up hating it because you have to go through extreme emotions. That eleven players think the same thing at the same time to achieve the same thing, for me it is art.”