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Alexia Putellas Crowned FIFA’s The Best Women’s Player for Second Year in a Row

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Alexia Putellas is celebrating a second consecutive honor…

The 29-year-old Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Barcelona has been crowned FIFA‘s The Best Women’s Player for the second year in a row, seeing off competition from Beth Mead and Alex Morgan for the award.

Alexia PutellasPutellas claimed the prize at a ceremony in Paris on Monday, with Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi taking the men’s award.

The Barca midfielder becomes the first woman to win the accolade twice since it launched in 2016, with Carli Lloyd, Lieke Martens, Marta, Megan Rapinoe and Lucy Bronze all one-time winners.

She also became the first woman to win the Ballon d’Or Feminin twice in October 2022, finishing ahead of Mead and Sam Kerr.

The Best Women’s Coach award went to Sarina Wiegman, who led England to the title at the Women’s European Championship, and Mary Earps, who played in net for the Lionesses at the tournament, picked up Best Goalkeeper honors.

Putellas has not played since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee while on Spain duty in July. FIFA’s award only takes into account last season.

“The accolade recognizes the most outstanding performers in the women’s game from the period of Aug. 7 2021 to July 31 2022,” the organization said.

During that time, Putellas captained Barca to a third successive Primera Division title. The Catalan side made history by winning all 30 of their league games throughout the 2021-22 campaign.

She also led the Blaugrana to success in the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa de la Reina to complete a domestic treble, although they came up short in the Champions League. Putellas’ goal in the final — her 11th in the competition last season — was not enough to stop French side Lyon from beating Barcelona 3-1 in Turin.

There was hope that success with Spain would follow at the European Championship in England, but she was ruled out of the tournament after injuring her ACL in training just days before La Roja‘s first game.

She has not played since, but Barca recently published a video of her doing some work with a ball on the training pitch, hinting that she could return to action before the end of the season.

Arsenal forward Mead, who starred as England won the Euros and is also sidelined with an ACL injury. She joined San Diego Wave‘s Morgan on the final shortlist and finished behind Putellas.

Mead won the Golden Boot and player of the tournament at Euro 2022 last summer, while Morgan was the National Women’s Soccer League‘s leading scorer with 15 goals in just 17 appearances.

Morgan also scored the winner as the United States beat Canada in the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship final — a competition in which she finished as joint-top scorer and player of the tournament — as she became the 13th USWNT player to pass 200 caps.

Alexia Putellas Wins UEFA Women’s Player of the Year Award

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Alexia Putellas is this year’s soccer star…

The 28-year-old Spanish professional footballer and Barcelona midfielder has won the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award, beating England’s Beth Mead and Germany’s Lena Oberdorf to the top prize, while England head coach Sarina Wiegman was crowned coach of the year.

Alexia PutellasPutellas, who won award last year along with the Ballon d’Or Feminin, netted 34 goals for Barca last season as the club won all the domestic trophies and reached the Champions League final.

However, Putellas did not play at the Women’s Euro 2022 after tearing her knee ligaments in training and faced stiff competition in Mead, who won player of the tournament as well as finishing top scorer with six goals.

Meanwhile, Mead’s international boss Wiegman picked up another award on Thursday as she won coach of the year for her role in guiding England to their first major title in 56 years.

“It’s really nice to receive this great award, I’m very honored and humbled,” she said.

“This award is really for everyone involved with the England team, the FA, the staff and of course, most of all, the players. Thank you very much.”

The Football Association is planning to hold contract talks with Wiegman, who has been in the role since September 2021, over a contract extension as England hope to extend their success at next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.