Alexia Putellas Ballon d’Or 2026: A Third Crown in London

Alexia Putellas Ballon d’Or 2026 success was confirmed on October 26, with the Spain midfielder winning the women’s prize for a third time. She finished ahead of Ewa Pajor and Khadija Shaw after a final Barcelona season that brought European success, before her summer move to London City Lionesses.

The result joins her earlier wins in 2021 and 2022. It also places two chapters of her career in the same news story: the Barcelona performances being recognised and the London club she now represents. The transfer is complete, while the achievement reaches back to the previous campaign.

The European campaign behind the result

UEFA confirms Putellas as the winner and records her earlier recognition as 2025/26 Women’s Champions League Player of the Season. Its award report also notes her role in Spain’s 2025 Nations League success, when she was named Player of the Finals.

UEFA’s separate May assessment gives the detail of that club campaign: seven goals and seven assists in 11 Champions League appearances. Barcelona finished by beating OL Lyonnes 4–0 in Oslo. The 14 combined goal contributions gave Putellas the competition’s highest total, according to the technical observers’ season review.

Individual recognition involves more than one position or type of contribution, a question explored in our feature on Wendie Renard’s record as a defender. Putellas’s case has particularly clear attacking numbers, but those figures sit within a team campaign and a wider assessment of performances.

Barcelona’s farewell season still carries weight

Liga F’s October 26 report places the award alongside Barcelona’s four trophies: the domestic league, Champions League, Copa de la Reina and Spanish Super Cup. The league describes Putellas’s farewell campaign as the final part of a 14-season spell that brought her 38 titles with the club.

That same report says Barcelona won 44 of their 48 competitive matches and scored 193 goals across the season. These are team totals, not Putellas’s personal statistics. They help establish the environment in which the midfielder’s performances were judged, without attributing the entire side’s output to one player.

In its May review, UEFA praised her ability to locate spaces, control a match and make runs that stretch opponents. The technical observers highlighted her display against Real Madrid in the quarter-final first leg. Their assessment connects the scoring figures to the movement and decision-making that produced opportunities.

Putellas had received the Champions League’s season award once before, in 2021/22. The technical-observer selection and the Ballon d’Or are different honours with different processes. Receiving both makes them part of the same successful year; it does not turn one into an automatic qualification for the other.

The English league now provides the setting for her next sporting tests. Our recent Lauren Hemp feature before the Manchester derby considers the mix of individual milestones and immediate fixtures from another WSL perspective. Annual recognition and the demands of the next match continue side by side.

A London City player with a Barcelona legacy

London City announced Putellas’s signing on July 8 and lists her in its current squad as a Spanish midfielder wearing number 11. The club’s announcement described an ambition to compete for major honours and develop its independent women’s football project. Those were the stated aims of the move, rather than trophies already secured there.

The club also posted its congratulations after the October 26 result. That provides a direct link between the new team and the award winner. It is a celebration of its current player, while the club and country performances behind the award remain part of the broader record.

A WSL profile published on October 24 recorded three league goals and one assist in Putellas’s early London City appearances. It also highlighted her creative passing and her adjustment to a new competition. Those figures are a dated snapshot from that profile, rather than a live statistical total for today.

The league’s preview also included Mapi León, another London City player who moved from Barcelona over the summer. Their presence illustrates the new club’s recruitment, but the award remains individual. A teammate sharing the same journey is relevant context, not evidence that their performances or rankings were identical.

A wider evening of recognition for women’s football

The men’s award went to Harry Kane, whose scoring campaign is examined in our report on his 2026 Ballon d’Or win. Putellas’s victory has its own distinct sporting case and history. Sharing a ceremony does not mean the two results should be assessed through the same statistical comparison.

Barcelona also received the women’s club award, while Pere Romeu won the women’s coach honour. Vicky López received the young-talent award and Cata Coll the goalkeeper prize. Charlyn Corral of Pachuca took the women’s striker award, making clear that the associated honours were not all confined to one club.

For Putellas, the confirmed result adds a third Ballon d’Or to an established career while she builds a new one in England. Her European numbers, Barcelona’s trophies and Spain’s international success supply the background. The next chapter will be written in London City matches, with the award already secured.

Featured archival photograph: MichaelEmilio / Wikimedia Commons, March 20, 2024. Putellas playing for Barcelona against Brann. CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Cropped and resized; not a photograph of the 2026 awards ceremony.