After Putellas’ legendary stint at Barça, Molly Farrell explores whether the champions can truly keep dominating without their star player.
Yesterday it was announced that lifelong Culer Alexia Putellas would be leaving Barcelona after 14 seasons.
The two-time Ballon d’Or winner captained the team to a Champions League title last week – their fourth since 2021.
“I wanted the final moment to come when I was at my best, giving everything and with 100% energy,” Putellas wrote on Instagram.
“That’s it, now it’s time. It has been a perfect story.”
Putellas has become the face of the Spanish side, taking on captaincy roles since 2017. Her departure will leave a gaping hole in the team.
And yet, for all the emotion of her farewell, the question Barcelona’s supporters must force themselves to ask is whether the club can keep winning without her.
The numbers alone are staggering. In 14 seasons, Putellas made 507 appearances for the Blaugrana, scoring 232 goals to become the club’s all-time leading scorer. She leaves as the most decorated player in Barcelona’s history, having contributed to 38 trophies.
It truly was, as she put it, ‘a perfect story’.
Putellas has not yet confirmed her next club, but the rumour mill is turning loudly. Whatever she decides, she leaves with momentum. She is the strong favourite for a third Ballon d’Or this autumn – a crowning achievement that will belong not to Barcelona, but to whoever is lucky enough to call her their own next season.
The panic around Barcelona’s future should begin to subside. Most clubs losing a generational talent of Putellas’ stature would face years of rebuilding. But Barcelona are not most clubs.
Aitana Bonmatí, triple Ballon d’Or winner, serial Champions League champion, and arguably the best player on the planet right now, has been the engine of this team for three years. She missed much of this season with a fractured fibula, returning only in time for the Champions League semi-finals, yet Barcelona still won the quadruple.
The foundations Putellas built are strong enough to hold.
Bonmatí is the natural successor to the captaincy. She is 26, at the peak of her powers, and has already demonstrated she can carry this team when others cannot. The transition at the top of the Barcelona hierarchy, in truth, has already happened.
Beyond Bonmatí, the depth of talent at Barcelona Femení is extraordinary. Claudia Pina, 24, topped the Liga F scoring charts this season. Ewa Pajor has been a relentless presence up front. Salma Paralluelo, still only 22, offers dynamism that few players in world football can match. Caroline Graham Hansen remains one of the most devastating wide players in the game.
In the midfield, where Putellas’ absence will be felt most, Barcelona have been developing their next generation. Vicky López, Clara Serrajordi and Carla Juliá – all teenagers – have featured in Champions League football this season.
They are not ready to replace Putellas today. But they might not need to be.
Reports suggest Barcelona are tracking USWNT star Catarina Macario, whose future at Chelsea looks uncertain. A player of her quality and profile would address the midfield void, and show the club’s ambitions have not dimmed in the slightest.
For all the squad quality, there remains one thing that cannot simply be recruited or promoted. Putellas was not just a player. She was Barcelona Femení’s identity: the face that drove the sport’s commercial growth in Spain, and the captain who led her teammates through the darkest period of the women’s game in Spain following the 2023 World Cup controversy.
As her teammate Claudia Pina once said simply: “Alexia is Barça, and Barça is Alexia.”
That kind of belonging takes decades to build. It can’t just be replaced overnight.
What Barcelona can control is results. And on that front, the evidence is clear: this is a club with the structure, the squad and the financial backing to remain the dominant force in women’s football for years to come.
The golden era does not end with Putellas’ departure. It simply enters its next chapter.
