Alexia Putellas Completes Ultimate Comeback, Wins 2026 Ballon d’Or Feminin

The former Barcelona captain is back at the very top, four years since her last triumph.

Alexia Putellas won her third Ballon d’Or Féminin award. | FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Alexia Putellas ensured the Ballon d’Or Féminin stays monopolized by Spain, claiming the 2026 prize on stage Monday night at the London Palladium in the city she now calls home.

The last player not named Alexia Putellas or Aitana Bonmatí to be presented with the Ballon d’Or Féminin remains USWNT icon Megan Rapinoe all the way back in 2019.

Bonmatí was out of the running to claim a fourth successive Ballon d’Or—which only Lionel Messi (2009–2012) has ever achieved in the history of either men’s or women’s soccer—because of a long-term injury that sidelined her for nearly six months last season.

But this feels like the ultimate comeback arc for Putellas, four years on from her own back-to-back Ballon d’Or triumphs in 2021 and 2022 as well as the ACL tear that threatened to keep her from ever returning to the very top of the mountain.

The injury happened on the eve of the European Championship in England in 2022, and Spain suffered without her in a case of what might have been. La Roja was on the cusp of the semifinals until succumbing to a late England comeback. Putellas missed most of the next season for Barcelona and was only a peripheral figure for Spain at a triumphant 2023 World Cup.

While the spotlight in recent years has been fixed on Bonmatí, Putellas has been rebuilding. Last season, she captained Barcelona to a quadruple, something that had somehow eluded the club until that moment. The final act with the team she had represented for 14 years was lifting the Champions League trophy in Oslo, Norway after humbling great rivals OL Lyonnes 4–0.

Putellas wrapped her Barcelona career in the ultimate fashion last season. | Daniela Porcelli/Sports Press Photo/Getty Images

During this past summer, Putellas reflected that her “mentality changed” because of the injury.

“Since then, I’ve been living, enjoying everything as it was the last,” she told The Athletic. “My first goal after the injury was to compete again at the highest level, then to be able to be key in the squad again and then to win everything. Only three seasons after my ACL injury, all of that happened.”

If you can’t beat them, recruit them, thought OL owner Michele Kang. Putellas, aged 32 and at the end of her Barcelona contract, signed with Kang’s other team, London City Lionesses. It marks a bold new challenge for the final chapter of an era-defining career.

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Every Player With Three of More Ballon d’Or Trophies—Men, Women

Player	Years
Lionel Messi	2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023
Cristiano Ronaldo	2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017
Johan Cruyff	1971, 1973, 1974
Michel Platini	1983, 1984, 1985
Marco van Basten	1988, 1989, 1992
Aitana Bonmatí	2023, 2024, 2025
Alexia Putellas	2021, 2022, 2026

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Every Ballon d’Or Feminin Winner

Year	Player	Club/Country
2018	Ada Hegerberg	Lyon/Norway
2019	Megan Rapinoe	Reign FC/USWNT
2020	N/A	N/A
2021	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona/Spain
2022	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona/Spain
2023	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona/Spain
2024	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona/Spain
2025	Aitana Bonmatí	Barcelona/Spain
2026	Alexia Putellas	Barcelona/Spain

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