Putellas: “A dream” to win back-to-back Ballon d’Or awards

Barcelona star Alexia Putellas has made history yet again. Last night, Putellas won the Ballon d’Or, becoming the first woman to win the award in back-to-back years. Last year, she became just the second Spaniard to win the award after Barcelona won the treble. She is also the first midfielder to win the award.

“I’m very happy to be back here,” Putellas said. “Winning last year pushed me to want to be even better. Without my teammates, this wouldn’t have been possible. I want to thank the coaches and technical staff who help me to improve every day.”

Putellas led Barcelona to another title last season, scoring 18 goals and winning all 30 of their league games. In total, she scored 34 goals and had 21 assists in all 43 games for Barcelona. Barcelona also won the Spanish Cup and Super Cup. Putellas was the top scorer in the Women’s Champions League with 11 goals, though they ended up losing the final to Lyon. Putellas unfortunately had to sit out the Euros after sustaining an ACL injury. With all she has achieved, Putellas says, it’s only the beginning of the dream.

“Now that you have mentioned Luis Suárez, I remember that when I won the first Ballon d’Or, he was the first one who wrote to me, and one of the things he told me, I recorded it deep inside,” said Putellas. “It was, ‘this Ballon d’Or is not your goal, but your start’. And in the end, I took it as a phrase of inspiration for, what I said before, to try to continue to better myself, to put in a better performance for my team. And in the end, to be here again, it’s a dream.”