Alexia Putellas has her sights set on a third Ballon d’Or crown after spearheading Barcelona’s quadruple-winning campaign, but does her 2025–26 season make her the rightful frontrunner?
It is football’s most prestigious individual honour, and one of its most hotly disputed.
The Ballon d’Or has long divided opinion, with winners ultimately decided by an international panel of journalists across FIFA’s top 100 ranked countries. Every year, the shortlist sparks fresh debate over who has done enough to claim the sport’s most coveted individual prize and, just as importantly, who has been overlooked.
The 2026 women’s shortlist is no exception.
Questions have already been raised over the representation of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), with only a handful of its players making the final 30. In a league that continues to produce some of the world’s most influential talent, the lack of recognition has reignited a familiar criticism: is the Ballon d’Or still too Eurocentric?
There is a compelling case that the NWSL’s calendar complicates the picture. Running from February to November, its season does not align neatly with the European football calendar, potentially leaving its players at a disadvantage when performances are assessed across a season spanning 3 August 2025 to 19 July 2026.
And the omissions are difficult to ignore.
Washington Spirit’s Trinity Rodman ranked first among NWSL players for goal involvements (21) and second for goals (14) during the assessment period yet failed to make the cut. Cloé Lacasse, Croix Bethune and Pietra Tordin, who each registered nine assists, were also left off the 30-player shortlist. Their absence has fuelled debate over whether the Ballon d’Or voting process gives sufficient weight to performances beyond Europe, though it is a continent with plenty of valid contenders.
Manchester City lifted their first WSL trophy in over a decade last season, spearheaded by the prolific Alexia Putellas.
The current London City Lionesses midfielder has already etched her name into football history, claiming back-to-back Ballon d’Or Féminin titles in 2021 and 2022. A third Ballon d’Or would further cement her legacy, but past glory can only carry a player so far.
So does Putellas deserve the crown for her performances across her final campaign with Barcelona?
La Blaugrana completed a quadruple in 2025–26, lifting the Liga F, UEFA Women’s Champions League, Copa de la Reina and Supercopa de España titles, all while three-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí spent five months sidelined. At the heart of their success was Putellas, whose influence extended far beyond the scoresheet.
Putellas – nicknamed La Reina – finished the campaign with 21 goals and 13 assists across all competitions, ranking third and second respectively among all players. She created 89 chances, 19 of which were big chances, and completed 965 passes ending in the final third – the highest tally among players across those four competitions. Her expected assists figure of 13.1 was also the highest.
In Liga F, she finished joint-sixth for assists (7) and fourth for open-play chances created (40).
Putellas was equally influential in Barcelona’s build-up in open-play across 2025-26. Across Europe’s top five leagues, only Pina (199), Vicky López (183) and Georgia Stanway (168) recorded more sequence involvements ending in an open-play shot than Putellas (151).
Her distribution was just as impressive.
Only teammate Clara Serrajordi, with 1,317 attempted and 1,188 completed passes, and Bayern Munich’s Stanway, with 1,283 attempted and 1,088 completed, surpassed Putellas’ respective totals of 1,140 and 931 passes in the opposition half across Europe’s top five leagues. Putellas ranked first for passes ending in the final third (780) and third for successful passes into that zone (599). These figures underlined her ability not only to orchestrate Barcelona’s possession but to turn it into sustained attacking pressure.
Her campaign, however, did not begin at quite the same pace.
Putellas failed to register a goal involvement in her opening four matches across all competitions before opening her account with a goal and assist against Espanyol in Liga F towards the end of September 2025. It was on the European stage, though, where she truly hit her stride, helping Barcelona secure their third UWCL crown.
Putellas was involved in the most open-play attacking sequences in the competition (97), scoring eight goals – a tally only surpassed by two players – and supplying six assists, second only to Bühl. Only Mapi León (507) completed more passes in the opposition half than Putellas, whose 462 successful passes demonstrated her importance in progressing Barcelona’s attacks.
No player surpassed Putellas’ chance creation numbers in the 2025-26 UWCL either, with only Bayern Munich’s Bühl (36) able to match her tally. That was the most by a player in a single Women’s Champions League campaign since Caroline Graham Hansen registered 38 for Barça in 2021-22.
These are not merely impressive numbers padded by a dominant Barcelona side. They illustrate a player who dictated the tempo, unlocked defences and consistently created opportunities on Europe’s biggest stage.
So, Putellas has made a persuasive case on most fronts, most evidently in Europe and her numbers reflect an extraordinary all-round contribution, while Barcelona’s quadruple supplies the collective success that so often shapes the awards narrative. If her European performances are anything to go by, she has done far more than just trade on past glories.
Will it be enough for Putellas to secure a record-equalling third women’s Ballon d’Or crown, drawing level with former teammate Bonmatí? We’ll find out in London on Monday evening.
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