Tuesday, December 16, 2025, 18:39
There is no rival for Aitana Bonmatí in the fight for the most prestigious individual awards in women’s football. For the third consecutive year, the Barça midfielder won The Best Award, with which FIFA recognizes the best player in the world, a milestone that once again links the Ballon d’Or after surpassing her teammate in Barça and the national team Alexia Putellas, double winner of the award, and the also Spanish Mariona Caldentey, champion of the Champions League with Arsenal.
This new individual award preserves a hegemony that has already lasted for five years, since to the trio of Ballon d’Or and The Best for Aitana are added the two previous doubles of Alexia, whom she succeeded as the unquestionable queen of football. The award also recognizes a player who is going through a delicate moment, after suffering a fibula fracture that will keep her inactive for around five months.
The best footballer in the world in the last three years was awarded at a gala held at the luxurious Katara Hall event space in Doha, Qatar, and presented by former Italian footballer Alessandro del Piero and Swiss actress and model Melanie Winiger. However, the great protagonist received the trophy at the Camp Nou, from where she briefly thanked the recognition, still forced to use crutches after undergoing surgery just a few weeks ago.
«Thank you to everyone who has voted, coaches, players and fans. It is an honor to receive this award again,” said the midfielder from Sant Pere de Ribes (Barcelona), who scored 16 goals and 12 assists last season with the Barça shirt and won the national treble with the F League, the Queen’s Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. In the Champions League, her team lost in the final in Lisbon against Arsenal, but she was named best player of the tournament.
Likewise, with the national team he was very important in the Euro Cup last summer despite suffering from viral meningitis just before the start of the competition, whose title escaped in an unfortunate penalty shootout that resolved the final against England. Already this year, the bad taste of that bitter outcome with the Nations League title, the second consecutive for La Roja, was removed.
That Spanish performance, and specifically Barça’s, was reflected in an ideal eleven that of course includes the best player in the world, but also Ona Batlle, Irene Paredes, Patri Guijarro, Alexia Putellas, Mariona Caldentey and Claudia Pina.
This season, Aitana’s Barça, which had six goals and three assists until his injury, is walking steadily in the F League, leader with a seven-point advantage over Real Madrid after thirteen wins and only one defeat, and also in the Champions League, where it leads the league table along with Olympique Lyon, with four wins and one draw.
Her records and especially her technically exquisite football continue to fuel an unparalleled dominance, which has already turned that girl who competed against boys until she reached Barça’s grassroots structure into a legend. Today she is the reference that deserves the growth of women’s football, not only for her skills on the field of play, but also for her ability to demand equality beyond the pitch.
Dembélé also repeats
In the men’s category, Ousmane Dembélé also reissued the recognition of the Ballon d’Or, thanks to a dream 2024-25 season for Paris Saint-Germain, with a hat-trick of titles in France and especially the long-awaited Champions League that the pharaonic Qatari project in the Parc des Princes had been pursuing for more than a decade.
The French attacker, who beat Lamine Yamal and his compatriot Kylian Mbappé, was the spearhead of the team led by Luis Enrique from the bench, which was finally crowned in the Old Continent, a milestone that logically takes all the awards in a year without a major national team tournament. The Asturian coach was also recognized with the award for best coach of the year and rounded off a Spanish presence enhanced by the inclusion of Pedri and Lamine Yamal in the best eleven of the year.
