BARCELONA – Few people knew of Aitana Bonmati before, but she was named as Fifa’s best female player in 2023 on Jan 15 and completed a clean sweep of the main individual accolades in women’s football.
The Spain and Barcelona playmaker had a momentous year, lifting the Spanish league title, the Champions League and then inspiring her country to Women’s World Cup glory in Australia and New Zealand.
The 25-year-old also won the Golden Ball for player of the tournament, Uefa’s player of the year award in August and the Ballon d’Or in October.
Bonmati is in the form of her life, vital for both club and country, as she follows in the footsteps of compatriot and double Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas.
Injury left Putellas sidelined for the majority of last season and unable to find her best form at the World Cup, where Bonmati ran the show for Spain, who beat England in the final in Sydney.
Bonmati scored three times at the tournament and laid on two assists as La Roja won the competition for the first time.
It followed a near perfect season at club level where she stepped up in Putellas’ absence to become the creative pulse of a dominant Barcelona side which dazzled at home and on the continent.
Playing in a more advanced role, Bonmati scored five times in the Champions League and set up eight more goals to finish as the top assister by some distance.
Technically gifted, she is essential for Barcelona to play their brand of attractive possession football, but also has an eye for goal.
She arrives in the box with perfect timing and can turn on a dime to leave opposition defenders scrambling and find room to get away a typically lethal shot.
Current Barca men’s coach Xavi described Bonmati as “a real perfectionist”, while his mentor and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola compared her to another former Barcelona great Andres Iniesta.
Coming through Barcelona’s celebrated youth system after joining at 13 years old, she led the reserve team to a first ever second division title before earning her place in the first team squad in 2016.
Bonmati is an irreplacable cog in a side that has dominated domestically, winning Spain’s top flight four years in a row, while she has also won the Copa de la Reina on five occasions.
The midfielder was named player of the match in Barcelona’s first Champions League triumph in 2019 in Gothenburg, scoring as they routed Chelsea 4-0, and then player of the tournament after the Catalans conquered their second in 2023.
Bonmati has started the 2023-24 campaign in similar fashion, helping Barcelona sit top of the table and their Champions League group, and will hope to take Spain to the Paris Olympics.
“(2023 will) be a very difficult year to repeat, due to its uniqueness – it’s clearly going to go down as one of the best years of my life,” she told Fifa earlier in January.
“I know that these awards aren’t earned overnight, they’re the result of a huge amount of work, perseverance, sacrifice, determination and ambition, which sometimes gets me into trouble, because I’m always trying to do better and I’m never satisfied.” AFP
