Putellas’ 199th Goal: The Number That Shocked Barcelona

The Balón de Oro gala is trending this week, and Barcelona and Spain walked away with armfuls of awards. But one name kept coming up again and again — Alexia Putellas. And if you only know her as “the woman who won the Ballon d’Or twice,” you’re missing the real story.

Because in November 2024, Putellas did something that no one in Spanish football — man or woman — had done at her club in decades. She became Barcelona’s fourth all-time top scorer. Not in the women’s team. Not in the women’s league. At the entire club. Men included.

That’s the number that stops people cold.

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The Goal That Rewrote the Record Books

Lord’s has its famous honours boards. Cricket has its record books. Football has its own version of immortality — and in November 2024, Alexia Putellas walked into that conversation with her 199th goal for FC Barcelona Femení, scored away to Real Madrid.

Think about what that means. Barcelona is one of the most storied clubs on the planet. Lionel Messi played there for nearly two decades. Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Romário — legends who defined eras. And a woman born on 4 February 1994 in Mollet del Vallès, a small town in Catalonia, is now fourth on that all-time scoring list.

Not fourth among women. Fourth among every player, across every era, who has ever pulled on that shirt.

She scored that record goal at the Bernabéu — Real Madrid’s ground, in a Madrid derby. If you were writing a script, you’d be told that was too on the nose.

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What 14 Seasons Actually Looks Like

Putellas returned to Barcelona in 2012. She was eighteen years old. What followed was fourteen seasons of relentless accumulation — not just goals, but trophies, titles, and records stacked so high they stopped looking real.

By the time the dust settled, she had won more than 35 major trophies with the club. Eight league titles. Eight Copas de la Reina. Three UEFA Women’s Champions League titles. And, eventually, ten Liga F titles in total.

For context: three UEFA Women’s Champions League titles is a number that most clubs — men’s or women’s — will never reach. Ever. Barcelona’s women did it. And Putellas was at the centre of every single one.

The numbers have a rhythm to them when you read them in sequence. Eight. Eight. Three. Ten. Thirty-five. Each one sounds like a misprint until you check it again and realise it isn’t.

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The Part That Makes the Trophy Cabinet Mean Something

Here’s where the story gets harder to tell — because trophies are easy to list, but what Putellas went through to collect them isn’t.

In 2021 and 2022, she won the Ballon d’Or back-to-back. In the same two years, she was named The Best FIFA Women’s Player. She was, by any measure, the best footballer on earth.

Then came the injury. A serious knee injury that forced her to learn — in her own words — to walk again. Not metaphorically. Literally. She described the rehabilitation as learning to walk all over again from scratch.

Most careers don’t survive that. The ones that do are remembered differently afterwards — not just as collections of statistics, but as proof of something harder to quantify. She came back. She kept scoring. She reached 199 goals. She became fourth all-time at Barcelona.

The trophies tell you she was great before the injury. The comeback tells you something else entirely.

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Final Thought

The Balón de Oro conversation this week is really about one question: how do you measure greatness in sport? Putellas gives you a concrete answer. Two Ballon d’Or wins. Two FIFA Best awards. More than 35 major trophies across 14 seasons. And a 199th goal — scored at Real Madrid’s ground — that placed her fourth on Barcelona’s all-time scoring list, above players who defined the men’s game for generations.

That’s not a footnote in women’s football history. That’s a line in Barcelona’s history, full stop. The next time someone asks what the ceiling looks like for women’s football, the answer is already on the record books — in Alexia Putellas’s name.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many goals has Alexia Putellas scored for Barcelona?
Alexia Putellas scored her 199th goal for FC Barcelona Femení in November 2024, making her the fourth all-time top scorer in the club’s history, across both the men’s and women’s teams.

Where did Alexia Putellas score her record-breaking 199th goal?
Putellas scored her historic 199th goal away at the Bernabéu against Real Madrid, in a Madrid derby, making the achievement even more remarkable given the iconic setting.

How long has Alexia Putellas played for Barcelona?
Putellas returned to Barcelona in 2012 at age eighteen and has spent fourteen seasons with the club, winning more than 35 major trophies including eight league titles and eight Copas de la Reina.

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Sources

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LAAnCvUWUQ
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexia_Putellas
• https://www.espn.in/football/story/_/id/48881131/barcelona-legend-alexia-putellas-announces-departure-14-years
• https://www.uefa.com/womenschampionsleague/news/0277-158568ae3dcc-6f41b1f221c1-1000–how-brilliant-is-spain-midfielder-alexia-putellas/
• https://www.britannica.com/question/What-awards-did-Alexia-Putellas-win-in-2021-and-2022