Aitana Bonmatí (Sant Pere de Ribes, Barcelona; 26 years old) this Monday rounded off her formidable last season with Barça and the Spanish soccer team with another individual recognition. The winner of a treble with the Blaugrana (League, Champions and Super Cup) and world and UEFA Nations League champion with La Roja has won the Laureus award for best female athlete of the year – she is the first Spanish woman to achieve it. at the gala held at the Palacio de Cibeles, headquarters of the Madrid City Council, in the 25th edition of these awards. No Spanish footballer, man or woman, had achieved it before.
The midfielder had already won The Best award – awarded by FIFA – for the best footballer in the world in January of this year and the Ballon d’Or last October. In fact, her list of individual recognitions has only gotten bigger in recent months: she also won the UEFA player of the year award and was chosen MVP of the World Cup won in the summer of 2023 by La Roja, as well as the Super Cup. of Spain and the Champions League that he won with Barça – for which he has played since he was 13 – last season.
Former Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt and former American skier Lindsey Vonn were in charge of presenting the award to Bonmatí, who remembered her teammates in her gratitude. “Last year was incredible for me and my teammates. We have won everything with the club and the national team. And it is thanks to this collective effort that I am here today, and that is why I want to thank my teammates, the staff of the club, the national team, who have helped me a lot,” the midfielder said in English.
Bonmatí, who last year led the Blaugrana and the national team after the injury that kept the then Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas off the playing field for 10 months, has become a benchmark in world sport. With fantastic ball handling, with the ability to keep the pace of the game, give the last pass or break lines thanks to his aggressive and precise driving, he has also raised his voice repeatedly against social injustices or in defense of the situation that his partner Jenni Hermoso experienced at the World Cup celebration, when he received a kiss from the then president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales.
For the midfielder, the fight for equality runs in the family: her parents, teachers of Catalan Philology, were pioneers in the fight to eliminate the prevalence of her paternal surname. And they got it. Aitana, born on January 18, 1998, first bears her maternal surname (Bonmatí) and then her father’s surname (Conca).
Last season, Aitana Bonmatí scored 21 goals and gave 23 assists in 45 games. Although no Spanish woman had won the Laureus award – awarded by the Laureus World Sports Academy – it had been won by athletes such as tennis players Rafael Nadal (best male athlete in 2021, best international comeback of the year in 2014, best international athlete in 2011 and best world promise in 2006) and Carlos Alcaraz (revelation of the year in 2023), the golfer Sergio García (revelation in 2018) and the driver Marc Márquez (revelation in 2014).
Bellingham, Laureus award for world revelation of the year
Real Madrid’s English midfielder Jude Bellingham has received the World Revolution of the Year award. Bellingham, 20, had already won the award for best under-21 player at the Ballon d’Or gala. The Englishman arrived at the white team this summer from Borussia Dortmund in exchange for 103 million euros. His impact on Madrid was instantaneous. This season he has 21 goals and 10 assists in 36 games.
(Breaking news. There will be an extension soon.)
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