BarcelonaAlexia Putellas is the best soccer player in the world. Their triumphs and those of the women’s Barça have marked a before and an after in the history of football. But who is Captain Culer and where does she come from? What do we know about the girl who was with a buff from Club Super3 at Camp Nou with his father? How has it become a world reference? Amazon Prime premieres a documentary this Wednesday (Alexia: Work conquers all) of three chapters where the footballer shows us her different facets. ARA has had access to it.
Alexia, the girl
“The first memory I have with football is being with the ball all the time”, admits Alexia. In the school yard, having lunch with the family, in physical education… She was always the queen of the ball and never played for the sake of playing: “I wanted to play, and things must be done well”, she explains between laughs. Football has always been where Alexia has been happy, even in complicated moments, and it became her refuge, in “order”. The death of his father was a turning point. He was her reference, with whom she discovered her love for football, and his absence made her focus all her efforts and time on the ball. Every day he went to train with a single purpose: to improve and (dis)connect. Time went by and she grew up to become the best soccer player in the world. The day he received the trophy that recognized him as such, he wanted to close the circle by dedicating it to his father.
Alexia, the athlete 10
Robert Lewandowski, Xavi Hernández, Gerard Piqué, Jonatan Giráldez… A dozen witnesses surrender to Alexia’s talent. Her numbers are unique, no one in the world is as effective as her on grass, and that’s no accident. “There is only one week a year in which I don’t think about my performance”, says the captain. Each of the decisions he makes in his life, on and off the pitch, are marked by football. “If I think that the best thing I can do to be good for the next game is to disconnect, then I do other things that have nothing to do with football. I would be practicing football 24/7”, he explains in the documentary.
Alexia, the captain
“He’s a football geek,” says Mapi León, a teammate in the Barça dressing room. “She is the companion I want to have”, he adds. “When there are triple sessions I also suffer, but if you think about how you can feel good when you see that you have done everything possible to win the weekend… It gives me peace”, defends the captain. “If we won 2-0, we achieved the main objective, but if you could have been 4-0 it’s because you missed two! I may sound a little crazy when I say that,” she laughs.
I realized that no one is aware of what it is to reach a Champions League final. It costs a lot and there is a lot of wear and tear”
Alexia Putellas
Alexia, the referent
“All of us who play football dream of being like Alexia”, says Núria Guim, Sants player. The struggle goes hand in hand with women’s football, and Putellas is one of the faces of this revolution. “We owe it to each other, men and women. We owe it to each other because there are things that have been very unfair for years”, defends the footballer. Two Ballon d’Or awards, two The Best awards and countless recognitions accredit it as the reference par excellence, and this responsibility is not taken lightly. And this commitment has been reflected in the conflict with the national team. “For me, respect for my profession is very high. We have to fight to have better conditions and that everything is professional and we do it for all those who will come,” he says in a chapter of the documentary. “The other selections are betting. There are things that either improve them or take their toll. We are missing a point of being professionals”, he emphasizes speaking of the selection.
Alexia the person
Many times we forget that behind all these facets and responsibilities there is a person of flesh and blood. “An important moment arrives and everyone is asking you. I’m always looking forward to the game starting and now I just want it to end. That the Champions League ends once and for all, that they forget that I exist and that they leave me alone “says Alexia Putellas to the camera fifteen days before the final in Turin. It was supposed to be the end of a perfect cycle, winning against the team that made Barça react and, instead of a dream, it ended up being a nightmare. “I felt we had failed a lot of people and I couldn’t look at the stands,” he recalls. Fatigue, exhaustion – mental and physical –, disappointment, sorrow… Putellas had to rebuild to lift the Copa de la Reina and prepare for the European Championship. But football, sometimes too unfairly, punished her: she tore her cruciate ligament hours before the start of the match. “I’m broke and I have to quit football”: this is the message he sent to his mother. Everything went black. Since then, many months of anxiety, fear and uncertainty have passed, and through the documentary we can see how Alexia is not only a footballer, but a fighter who will be stepping on the grass again in a few months.
