The return of injuries is good news. This was stated after the match against Real Sociedad last Sunday by Barcelona player Irene Paredes. Match in which Alexia Putellas returned: he played 24 minutes and scored. Appointed date to end the long wait for the Barça captain, 30 years old, who went out in the rain in Zubieta to achieve a new record: she is the club’s fifth top scorer with 185 goals. Already above José Samitier’s 184, already nine goals behind Ladislao Kubala and 12 behind Luis Suárez. But the return of the Barcelona and football symbol is a new piece in Jonatan Giráldez’s complex puzzle. A blessed problem for the coach, who will have to find space for Alexia while he accumulates minutes and recovers his sensations. Although Putellas’ puzzle goes beyond the field: his renewal – his contract ends on June 30 – is still on the table of Marc Vivés, sports director of the women’s section.
It was Patri Guijarro who assumed Alexia’s absence due to an injury in midfield. “The first thing I did was get it into my head that I was not going to be the same as Alexia. We are different players,” Guijarro confessed in an interview with Sport. It was, along with Keira Walsh — “I would love to be Keira because of her way of understanding the game,” she admitted in the same interview — with whom she settled into her new responsibility, accompanied in the center by Aitana Bonmatí, the latest Ballon d’Or winner. “For me, Patri is the best player in the world, and no one talks about her,” Walsh praised his teammate in an interview with The Guardian before the World Cup. Between the three of them, they have formed and consolidated the team’s midfield.
Against Real Sociedad, Putellas recovered his interior position, but it was not always like that. With the start of the club’s season and Alexia already recovered from her torn cruciate ligaments, Giráldez had to find a new place to start for Mollet del Vallès, and she did so up front as a false nine. A decision considered during the world champion’s recovery. “We already have a very high level in the game with Aitana, Patri or Keira, and players who give us depth. Alexia was the top scorer after returning from her injury, and we tried to create a context for her to be close to the area,” the Vigo coach thus justified his decision during the first stretch of the season. “I will do everything possible to contribute to the team, whatever the position,” Putellas added before his departure.
In terms of goals, it worked. In the ten games that he has played with the club this season, he has scored six goals, showing that his scoring instinct—despite being a midfielder—is still intact. But during her absence on the pitch, an offensively effective forward line has been established: Salma Paralluelo has scored 25 goals this season, Caroline Graham Hansen 23 and Mariona Caldentey 13. Which represents, between them, 45% of the club’s 137 goals this season in all competitions.
And beyond the field and Jonatan’s board, the puzzle continues in Barcelona’s offices. The Barça captain’s contract ends on June 30, and its renewal is still pending: the negotiations were frozen until the player’s return to the pitch. He signed his last contract in 2021, before his two Ballon d’Ors, and his salary was not revised. In his last offer last fall, the club reduced him from three to two years, and although he has received offers from other leagues such as the United States, his priority is Barça. “We want him to renew,” Barça president Joan Laporta said in an interview with Rac1. But he pointed out: “We want it to stay within the parameters of the club. It is the only section in which we have increased the budget.”
Meanwhile, the economic situation continues to suffocate the Barça entity, and Barça continues to see its salary limit reduced. The last cut after the winter market, where its wage bill decreased by 66 million euros, and the club is still waiting for the payment of 40 million from the Libero investment fund. A situation that led Barcelona to pull the scissors with the sections this past summer. Although women’s football has remained an oasis: this season revenues of 18 million euros and profits of around two are expected.
A growth that goes hand in hand with victories, joy on the pitch and increasingly important players, and that will have consequences in the offices. Among the renovations still pending are those of Mariona Caldentey, Lucy Bronze and Gemma Font, in addition to that of Alexia. Although next season, in 2025, it will be Aitana’s turn to negotiate her contract. And so does Walsh. Laporta’s mandate began with the farewell of Leo Messi, and he is celebrating three years of presidency with the puzzle of the continuity of another culé emblem: Alexia Putellas.
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