Female Footballer of the Year Candidate Bonmati

Years Old: 27 Position: Midfielder Clubs: Barcelona and Spain

It has been an exceptional year for Aitana Bonmati. She achieved becoming the pioneering athlete to claim three women's Ballons d'Or, secured a domestic treble and reached the Euro 2025 final.

Her track record is evident, with an impressive trophy haul across her career to boot. She has earned seven league titles, three European crowns, nine Copas de la Reina and five Spanish Super Cups.

While Barcelona were beaten by Arsenal in the Champions League final, and her remarkable return from a bout of viral meningitis just prior to the start of the Euros was not enough to guide Spain to the trophy, it was an impressive campaign.

The creative playmaker scored the goal that defeated Germany in the Euros semi-final as Spain made history by advancing to the final for the first time.

She was also named the Champions League's player of the season, recording nine goal contributions in her 11 appearances and netting in their 4-1 semi-final second-leg win at Chelsea.

A former club president: "I think that Aitana does not have a ceiling at the moment. She is a very competitive girl, and the truth is that she is very young with everything she has achieved. I believe that the ceiling will be set by her if she continues to be like this, so competitive, taking care of herself.

"There are times when you see her running at 11pm at night, so that not too many people can see her. She is running around here in the village. If she keeps going like that, I think there's no limit to it. I feel that she could evolve into like Lionel Messi with eight Ballons d'Or. She will be able to reach his level."

Bonmati regarding what it means to play for Barcelona: "It's both a source of pride and a responsibility. We're not only evaluated by our results but also by how we play. Most teams would be content just winning, but we're required - and we expect ourselves - to win and play well. That's a big responsibility."

A top club men's manager: "Aitana Bonmati is a football player who has me completely in love with her for the way she plays. I would say she is like the women's Iniesta."

The owner of a bar dedicated to Bonmati in her home town: "Mostly for being as humble as she is. Her style of play. And she knows how to work as a unit and as a team. Often some of these elite players are more self-focused and they always want to be them, them and them. No, she distributes the awards and has demonstrated that in all the galas she went to, recognising her team as the driving force to herself. And, it is because of her way of being, her game and her power and her quick reaction mindset."

Although Bonmati created the most chances in Liga F last season, 10 players provided more assists than her six, including her Barcelona teammates who provided a league-high 11 and 10 assists respectively.

But where Bonmati excelled more than any other player was in the moment before a goal was scored and an assist awarded by constantly providing the pass to the player who set up the goal, quietly initiating so many of Barcelona's successful attacks last season.

There isn't much that hasn't been said about Bonmati. She explains her biggest strengths as understanding the game and finding spaces with and without the ball, in order to find solutions in every match.

Tactically, this self-assessment holds up perfectly. It is remarkable how much distance Bonmati covers when compared to others. This effort level combined with her field intelligence, game IQ and technical quality ensure she constantly resolves problems in games.

In possession, she shifts to find space in a way that benefits the team, comparable to other players but from a more advanced starting position that often affords players less time and space.

For club and country, Bonmati intelligently ran into unconventional positions, sometimes even abandoning her position to move to the opposite side to generate an overload. This goes against what a positional side would normally do but her movement regularly created 3v2 or 2v1 situations.

With a numerical advantage, her passing and exceptional small space dribbling becomes almost impossible to stop.

Her leadership separates her from her peers too.

Her persistent running, particularly in her defensive pressure, secondarily raises the level of intensity in her teams and has the tactical benefit of forcing teams back, preventing them from getting settled attacking possession.

Bonmati shrewdly identifies the space she can utilize and with her running power arrives to create a 2v1 situation for Spain in the wide areas.