Alexia Putellas in the World Cup: goals, assists, participations, awards, best team finish...

The Women’s World Cup 2023 is underway and one of its brightest stars is getting ready to shine. Barcelona star Alexia Putellas was included on Spain’s roster for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand having completed her comeback from an ACL tear suffered just over a year ago.

Rewind to 5 July 2022 and Putellas, who had been set to spearhead the Spaniards’ European Championship challenge, crumbled to the ground in training as the team prepared for the opening group game of the competition in England. The diagnosis was that a ruptured knee ligament would see her miss between 10 and 12 months of action, a timeframe which she was able to cut ever so slightly.

Despite her absence, she still won a number of individual awards - including the Ballon d’Or Féminin for the second year running - for her performances prior to her injury.

Putellas steps up her injury comeback

Putellas stepped up her recovery in 2023 and was back on the field for the first time since last July on 30 April, coming on as a substitute in Barça’s league match against Sporting Huelva. Her comeback goal came three weeks later in a shock defeat to Madrid CFF, while she also made a late appearance from the bench in the Catalans’ Champions League final victory over Wolfsburg on 3 June.

Spain’s national team ‘mutiny’

Although Putellas made just a handful of cameos for Barcelona towards the end of the season, she played for around an hour in World Cup warm-up games against Panama and Denmark before being rested for La Roja’s final preparation game against Vietnam last week.

Putellas’ recall to the squad came despite the 29-year-old publicly supporting 15 international teammates who refused to play for Spain due to “poor mental and physical health” caused by working under current head coach Jorge Vilda.

Three of those 15 players were ultimately called up to play in the tournament, namely Putellas’ Barcelona teammates Aitana Bonmatí and Mariona Caldentay, as well as Ona Battle of Manchester United. Pachuca’s Jenni Hermoso will also be involved.

What is Alexia Putellas’ record at the Women’s World Cup?

Despite her huge success, both individually and collectively, in recent years, Putellas may feel she has some unfinished business at the World Cup. The Barça playmaker made her debut in the 2015 tournament in Canada, starting all three group games as Spain finished bottom of a section containing Costa Rica, Brazil and South Korea.

Four years later in France, she started three of Spain’s four matches, the last of which saw Spain eliminated from the tournament in the round of 16 at the hands of the USWNT, who went on to lift the trophy.

Putellas has yet to score a goal in any of her seven World Cup appearances across two tournaments, or provide an assist. Should we expect that to change in Australia and New Zealand? Spain have been drawn in Group C alongside Costa Rica (21 July), Zambia (26 July and Japan (31 July).