“A pleasure to be here again,” said Aitana Bonmatí while holding the recently received The Best award in her hands. It is the second for her after the one she won in 2023. She repeats the award as her teammate in Barcelona and in the national team Alexia Putellas did before her. Both are the great references of a hegemony that does not want to stop. Aitana also appeared in the best eleven of the year, in this case accompanied by Ona Battle, Irene Paredes, Patri Guillaro and Salma Paralluelo. Five Spaniards among the best, almost half of the best team of the year.
“This is teamwork, I remember last season, we achieved everything with Barça and also the Nations League with Spain,” analyzed the Barça midfielder, who could not be in Qatar due to having an important Champions League match with her team this Wednesday. against Manchester City.
She was a fundamental part of all those successes, in the poker of Barça titles (Super Cup, League, Queen’s Cup and Champions), and also in the new trophy of the Spanish team, where she was named MVP of the tournament and the final. . He only failed in the Olympic Games, where the fourth place achieved meant very little. The San Pedro de Ribas player also received her second consecutive Ballon d’Or in October.
“Now, for more collective titles, which are what make you here, and which for me are the most important,” Aitana also said, who thanked her family, her staff and her colleagues (“without them “I wouldn’t be the soccer player I am today”), and who received the trophy from Jill Ellis, former soccer player and coach of the United States women’s soccer team between 2014 and 2019, with two World Cups under her belt.
Aitana, 26, equals Alexia as the most successful soccer player in these awards created in 2016, and until the appearance of the Spanish women there had been five different winners: Carli Lloyd, Lieke Martens, Marta Vieira, Megan Rapinoe and Lucy Bronze.
The Catalan won the votes over the Zambian Barbra Banda and the Norwegian Caroline Graham Hansen. Aitana was the player with the most votes by the four groups that elected: coaches, captains, media and fans. In the final classification Salma Paralluelo was in sixth position and Ona Battle in ninth. Mariona Caldentey, eleventh, also entered the top 16.
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