Alexia Putellas bags 2021/22 UEFA Women's Player of the Year award again
Alexia Putellas had been named the 2021/2022 UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award, for a second successive season with Barcelona.
The 28-year-old Barcelona midfielder becomes the first player in the history of the women’s awards to win the title two years on the bounce.
Arsenal and England winger Beth Mead and Germany and Wolfsburg midfielder Lena Oberdof were also nominated for the accolade.
Elsewhere at the same time, La Liga and Champions League-winning duo Carlo Ancelotti and Karim Benzema were named Men's Coach of the Year and Player of the Year for Real Madrid's superb 2021/22 domestic and European season.
Ancelotti, who last won the award in 2007, became the first man to lift the Champions League as a coach five times after Real's 1-0 win over Liverpool in the final in Paris in May, having produced stunning dramatic wins in all of the champions league predictions knockout rounds to see off Chelsea, PSG and then Manchester City in the semi-finals.
Putellas, on the other hand, completed the most prolific season of her career during the 2021/22 campaign, scoring a whooping 34 goals as Barcelona enjoyed another year of domestic dominance.
She also bagged the Barcelona captain’s armband ahead of the 2021/22 season following the departure of Vicky Losada, and led her side to a domestic double. The Blaugranes have won 30 matches from 30 to lift the Primera Division title for a third season on the bounce, and also stormed to Copa de la Reina glory with a 6-1 victory over Sporting Huelva in the final, with Putellas scoring a brace.
Putellas also finished as the top goal scorer in the Champions League, scoring on 11 occasions, and although Barcelona reached the final, they were beaten 3-1 by Lyon, with Putellas scoring what would ultimately only be a consolation.
The midfielder missed out on a place at Euro 2022 after heartbreakingly rupturing her ACL on the eve of the tournament, and she will likely miss the majority of the 2022/23 season.
Not only is Putellas the first woman to be named UEFA Women's Player of the Year two years on the bounce, she is just the second player in the history of the women's awards - alongside Pernille Harder - to scoop the accolade for a second time.
