Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati received on Monday her second successive girls’s Ballon d’Or, after main her membership to an historic continental quadruple of titles and claiming the Nations League together with her nation.
The 26-year-old playmaker joins team-mate Alexia Putellas as the one lady to win the Ballon d’Or twice, for the reason that award’s inauguration in 2018.
Born on Jan. 18, 1998, Bonmati started her soccer journey within the famed FC Barcelona youth academy, La Masia.
Blessed with nice technical capability, astute imaginative and prescient, and one eye on purpose, the midfielder has been instrumental in Barca’s near-dominance of European soccer in recent times.
“This cannot be achieved alone, I am very lucky to be surrounded by players who make me better every day,” Bonmati stated after receiving the award.
“Thanks to the staff, to the club workers, without you, we would not achieve so much success.”
Already thought of an all-time nice of the ladies’s sport, Bonmati was the stand-out performer as Barcelona romped to a trophy-laden 2023/24 season.
The Catalans received each trophy obtainable to them final time period – the Spanish league, the Copa de la Reina, the Supercopa de Espana and a second-successive Women’s Champions League.
Bonmati scored a purpose and put in a player-of-the-match efficiency as Barcelona beat Lyon 2-0 within the ultimate of the Champions League to assert their third title in 4 seasons.
‘Proudest I’ve felt’
“It’s the first time we’ve beaten Lyon. I’m proud of the team, and we know that with these fans we have, we can’t fail,” Bonmati stated after the crowning second of her season, which was performed in entrance of 51,000 spectators in Bilbao’s San Mames stadium.
A product of Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, the diminutive midfielder was additionally named participant of the season by UEFA for her six targets and 6 assists throughout her facet’s profitable European marketing campaign.
With eight targets and 11 assists in Spain’s Liga F, Bonmati was equally influential in guiding Barcelona to a fifth-straight league title.
The 2023 World Cup winner added the inaugural Women’s Nations League to her resume in February, when she scored Spain’s opener of their 2-0 win within the ultimate towards France.
She was once more chosen by UEFA as the general participant of the finals for her performances and targets within the semi-finals and ultimate.
Only a shock defeat within the Olympics semi-final towards Brazil prevented Bonmati from having the possibility to safe a outstanding six titles for membership and nation in a single season.
In April, Bonmati was named Sportswoman of the Year on the Laureus Awards, changing into the primary footballer to take action, and was rewarded alongside together with her Spain team-mates for profitable the Women’s World Cup in August 2023.
She additionally acquired reward for serving to to fight sexism within the Spanish soccer federation by protesting together with her team-mates after disgraced former president Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed participant Jenni Hermoso.
“She’s a role model of a player. How she trains, her attitude, the way she approaches things every day, she just sets a great example,” then-Barcelona coach Jonatan Giraldez stated of his star asset in May.
“We met when she was starting out her career. I’ve watched her grow up, go through the whole process. I’m pleased to have seen everything that’s happened (to her), and she deserves it all.”
The girls’s Ballon d’Or is chosen from a shortlist of 30 gamers by a voting panel of fifty worldwide soccer journalists.
Source: www.dailysabah.com