FC Barcelona has announced the exit of its pioneering female player Alexia Putellas.
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FC Barcelona has announced that its legendary Femeni player Alexia Putellas will leave the club after 14 highly successful seasons in blaugrana.
“The story of Alexia Putellas is one of talent, resilience and love for a player who has become much more than a footballer. A Barça Femeni icon who arrived at the age of 18 in 2012 from Levante, and who has grown with the team since then. Now, 14 years later, the midfielder from nearby Mollet del Vallès is set to leave Barça on a high after writing herself into the history books of her childhood club,” it wrote in a statement.
To honour arguably its greatest female player alongside fellow Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati, Barça will hold a special farewell event at 11AM local time in the Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday.
With 507 matches to her name, Alexia is second on Barça’s all-time female appearances leaders list to Melanie Serrano, who played 516.
She does lead the goalscoring rankings with 232 strikes, however, which have helped bring a trophy haul of four Champions Leagues, 10 La Ligas, 10 Copa de la Reinas, six Spanish Super Cups and eight Catalunya Cups.
In her own statement made via an emotional video, Alexia said that she has lived a “perfect story” which took in a “beautiful and unrepeatable transformation” of the women’s team.
She recalled going to the Spotify Camp Nou for the first time with her father, a hardcore Culer, as a six-year-old, and the joy of him seeing her don blaugrana before passing away when Alexia was 18.
“I will always say that, in my worst moment, Barça saved me,” Alexia added, in reference to her father’s death. “For all that, I will always be indebted to these colors.”
Though nothing has been confirmed or announced yet, Alexia Putellas is expected to join former Barça teammate Jana Fernandez at the London City Lionesses in the immediate future.