The Grandma loves football and she is a great supporter of FCB. Aitana started playing football in Ribes, and later in Cubelles, a special town for The Grandma, who spent her childhood in this beautiful town in El Garraf...
Aitana Bonmatí i Conca (born 18 January 1998) is a Catalan professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Futbol Club Barcelona. She is considered one of the best players in women's football, having won the Ballon d'Or in 2023.
Bonmatí has been with Barcelona since 2012, developing through La Masia for six years. She was promoted to Barcelona's first team ahead of the 2016-17 season, and made off-the-bench appearances for the club until her break-out year in the 2018–19 season.
In 2019, she started the first UEFA Women's Champions League final of Barcelona's history, and later in the year was voted Catalan Player of the Year for the first time.
Throughout the 2020-21 season, Bonmatí was essential to Barcelona's continental treble-winning campaign. She had one of the most noteworthy performances of her career in the 2021 UEFA Women's Champions League final, scoring Barcelona's third goal and being named MVP of the Final.
In the 2022-23 season, she vastly improved her goalscoring prowess, as she scored 19 times in all competitions, while also powering her team to yet another domestic league and Champions League double.
More information: FCBarcelona
Aitana Bonmatí was born on 18 January 1998 in Vilanova i la Geltrú, a town of the Garraf, Catalonia.
In her childhood, she played basketball, but at age seven she took up football and played with boys in mixed teams. She often recalls getting picked on by boys for her short stature. The first clubs she played football with were CD Ribes and CF Cubelles, both male/mixed sex teams, which she believes helped improve her strength and intensity.
At the age of 13, she joined Barcelona to play in their youth teams, where she would take two-hour long public transport rides with her father to get to practice.
Bonmatí started her Barcelona career by joining Juvenil-Cadet, the second-highest developmental team for girls at FC Barcelona.
In 2013 with Juvenil-Cadet, Bonmatí won the team's respective league and the Copa Catalunya competitions. The next season, she again won the league with Juvenil-Cadet, going undefeated. In the final of the Copa Catalunya, the match went to penalties where she converted her penalty but ended up losing 4–2 to Sant Gabriel after the shootout.
Bonmatí moved up to become a Barcelona B player after two years at the club. During her time with the B team, she sparingly made appearances for the first team in preseason. Throughout the 2015-16 season, Bonmatí played an important part in winning the championship of Segunda Division, Group III for the first time in the club's history, by scoring 14 goals for Barcelona. At the end of the season she was promoted to the Barcelona's first team by the manager Xavi Llorens.
FCF has described Bonmatí as pure elegance and has noted her versatility as a player, able to adapt to different positions, play centrally, as a midfielder or as a winger.
After winning her first Catalan Player of the Year award, Jordi Ventura, the coach who signed her to Barcelona's Cadet team, emphasised that she is an intense player, very competitive and perfectly dominates with both legs. In the same article, former FCB Femeni coach Xavi Llorens describes Bonmatí as having innate elegance in driving the ball and being very competitive... versatile, can play in three, four or five positions and does not lower her level.
Ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA described her in her player profile as technically gifted with superb vision with plenty of character and combative when required with an eye for goal.
Bonmatí sees her short stature as an advantage due to her low center of gravity that makes it hard for opponents to take her off the ball.
Pep Guardiola said, Aitana Bonmatí 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 (Andrés) Iniesta.
Bonmatí's idols are Xavi and Andrés Iniesta. She has also stated that she models her game after former club and national team teammate Vicky Losada.
Bonmatí studied Physical Activity and Sports Sciences at Ramon Llull University and graduated in 2021. In September 2022 it was announced that Bonmatí started to study for a Master's degree in Sport Management at Johan Cruyff Institute.
More information: Instagram-Aitana Bonmatí Conca
Win or learn, never lose.
Aitana Bonmatí i Conca
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