2023-10-30 22:50:00
The world champion with Spain and midfielder FC Barcelona Aitana Bonmatí“the (Andrés) Iniesta of women’s football”, as Pep Guardiola defined her, became this Monday, October 30, the new holder of the Golden Ballone more recognition with which he culminates his excellent 2022-2023 season, where won all the titles important and in all of them with a lot of prominence, proof of the enormous step forward taken by a player who has been shining since her youth.
Born 25 years ago in the Catalan town of Vilanova i la GeltrúAitana was trained like the midfielder from La Mancha in the categories Barça’s inferiorsand like him wears number 6 with the Red and stands out for his technique, his creative football and his vision of the gamein addition to a good shot with both legs. The midfielder was already among the best, but her emergence in the last year showed that all the predictions about her were confirmed and that she is now ready to receive the individual recognitions that had previously been denied to her.
Already in the last 21-22 campaign, it ended fifth in the Ballon d’Or and in The Best of FIFA. Once he has won the award granted by the prestigious magazine ‘France Football’that of the highest world body also seems to be on the right track due to the weight given by the last World Cup, which would unite that of ‘Best Player in Europe’ given by UEFA. A triplet that would equal what was achieved by her teammate Alexia Putellas.
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The Barça midfielder, whose soccer reference in her childhood was above all Xavi Hernández, script for ‘La Roja’ towards his first star, being the metronome of Jorge Vilda’s team, and resembling the role of that of Terrassa, but he was also key in his club, assuming much more prominence in the absence due to injury of Alexia Putellas.
Bonmatí, like all the girls of her generation, started playing with childrenfirst in the Ribes CD and then in the CF Cubelles, where she was the only girl. But her talent did not go unnoticed by him. FC Barcelonathat signed in 2012 and since then it has grown hand in hand with a club that is firmly and powerfully committed to women’s football.
From there, he was soon in the orbit of the national team, being part of a great generation where he also stands out. Patri Guijarro and began to amass his record in the lower categories with the continental titles with the U-17 (2015) and the U-19 (2017) and the U-20 world runner-up in 2018, in a final against Japan that was lost due to his expulsion in the semi-finals. Furthermore, he was World and European U-17 runner-up in 2014.
At FC Barcelona he soon became indisputable, forming a dream midfield with Pebble and Putellaskey to winning the first Champions League in the history of the club and national women’s football in 2021. In the 4-0 win over English Chelseamarked and went chosen ‘MVP’ of the party.
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Increasingly more mature and improving her records on the field, Aitana Bonmatí took a step further this season, where her team was orphaned from its great reference, due to its serious knee injury at the gates of EURO 2021. The Catalan it didn’t wrinkle and demonstrated all his potential in a campaign in which won the F League and the Spanish Super Cupbut also the second Champions for raise its titles to 14 with the Blaugrana team (4 Leagues, 5 Queen’s Cups, 3 Super Cups and 2 Champions Leagues).
In the domestic tournament she scored 9 goals and distributed 10 assists, but in the top continental competition she was decisive, although she did not score in the final against the German Wolfsburg. The Spanish player was the player who participated in the most goals (12), the highest assister in the competition (7), with an assist in the final, the one who generated the most chances (32), the second who completed the most passes, with a 86 percent pass effectiveness, made the most recoveries (80), completed the most dribbles (20) and the second best scorer with five goals.
A performance that earned her the ‘MVP’ of the season in the Champions League from UEFA and that transferred months later to the Australia and New Zealand World Cupan appointment that could have been lost after having been part of the group of 15 internationals who asked not to be called until changes were made.
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Jorge Vilda was finally able to count on her and the Catalan was the beacon of Spain, setting her pace in the tournament, also with exquisite precision, thanks to a passing efficiency of 87 percent, proof of being a dominant player in that area since he covers a lot of playing field and is brilliant in the defensive and offensive sections.
In fact, according to ‘Driblab’ headed the list at the event midfielders with the most completed dribbles (15), finishes (19) y balls recovered in the final third (12), in addition to being the second who participated in the most goals, a total of 5 (3 goals and 2 assists). Likewise, she completed 328 passes precisely, 156 of them in the last third of the field, and also generated 11 scoring chances, while in defensive terms, she recovered 51 balls for Spain, winning 31 of the 59 duels played.
Furthermore, their match in the final against England was superb, especially in the second half. The ‘6’ did and undid as he pleased, with overwhelming superiority over her rivals in every action carried out, despite appearing not to be a physically superior footballer. Her tournament was crowned individually with her designation as Ballon d’Or and ‘MVP’ of the matches against Costa Rica and Switzerland. Now, after accumulating collective titlesthe great individual reward finally arrives.
Europa Press
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