If you asked any of the managers who have been at Barcelona Femeni since 2019 to pick one player they would take to any of their teams, they would agree on one name: Patri Guijarro.
All the moves go through the 28-year-old holding midfielder. She is the balance between attack and defence, their guiding force. Her work won’t feature prominently in many of the highlights, but without it, there wouldn’t be any.
It is now commonplace to see teenagers making their debut at the top level of football, but it wasn’t when Guijarro did so for UD Collerense in Spain’s top tier at 15. By 21, she was one of Barcelona’s captains, and the day before her 23rd birthday she started in the 4-0 win against Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final.
Now, she is ready for her seventh final, and Barca’s sixth in a row in Europe’s biggest competition, as one of the team’s long-standing pillars.
The first, in 2019, was eye-opening as they were hammered 4-1 by Lyon. But it was a turning point. Barcelona stepped up training, strengthened physically, and became one of Europe’s elite teams.
In 2021, behind closed doors, they lifted a European title for the first time by thrashing Chelsea and have been there since. This weekend they face OL Lyonnes in Oslo, Norway and the Mallorca-born star has not lost any desire for more medals.
“It makes us angry when people tell us we’re spoiling them,” she says, sitting in the stands of their home ground, the Estadi Johan Cruyff.
“We’re demanding and want to reach every final, win every title. We pass that demand on to the people so they expect us to win everything. But it’s difficult to do what we’re doing — from the inside we value it enormously.”
Guijarro, who has earned 75 appearances for Spain, has often put her talent at the service of the team. In the 2021 final Barcelona head coach Lluis Cortes asked her to play in place of suspended centre-back Andrea Pereira.
“I’d not really played as a centre-back. Lluis (Cortes) would put me there in some matches, but it’s not the same as in a final. Up front I had Pernille Harder and Sam Kerr,” she sighs, “world-class strikers.”
At the start of the 2022 season, then Barcelona’s coach Jonatan Giraldez, who is in charge of Barcelona’s opponents this weekend, asked her to fill in for Alexia Putellas — who was set to miss almost the entire 2022–23 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Guijarro started watching videos to learn the movements and make them her own, and played another Champions League final, the 3-2 win over Wolfsburg, in a different position: attacking midfielder.
“It was different from when I played as a centre-back because I had spent most of that season playing in that position,” she says. “It was difficult filling in for Alexia but I didn’t put the pressure on myself to be Alexia.
“It wasn’t until Christmas that I found my feet, a much more solid footing in my new role as an attacking midfielder.”
Guijarro is underplaying her role in that final. Barca were 2-0 down at half-time but were level within five minutes of the second period thanks to Guijarro’s double. Fridolina Rolfo scored the winner but there was no doubting the player of the match.
Guijarro is versatile and self-sacrificing as well as loyal and selfless, according to team-mates. And now she’s back in her primary position.
“It’s a position that has to encompass many things because, apart from reading the game, it’s a quiet role — one that’s rarely seen but does a lot,” Guijarro says.
“I like the word ‘balance’ — it fulfils many functions. It links attack with defence. I always try to be cautious by focusing heavily on defence, but I’m heavily involved in attack.
“The start of moves goes through the middle and at Barça the ‘6’ position is crucial for getting out of pressure situations and preventing counter-attacks. The ‘6’ position plays a major role in the small details that make the difference in a match.”
With Putellas and Bonmati — the last two Ballon d’Or winners, two for Putellas and three for Bonmati — the trio makes up the best midfield in Europe.
“It’s easy to connect with them. Aitana (Bonmati) is much more dynamic, Alexia is very intelligent,” Guijarro says. “We’re different players within the same team. We understand each other and coordinate well, and that has benefited us over the years by achieving incredible things.”
However, this final might be the last for the three of them. Putellas’ contract expires next month June — all scenarios are still at play — and it is fitting they are facing Lyon once more.
Guijarro and Barca lost twice to Lyon until they faced them again in Bilbao in 2024 and won 2-0. Guijarro took Putellas’ position once more as she was still struggling with fitness issues.
“It was spectacular,” she says with a smile. “We’d already lost two finals against Lyon, because they were the queens of Europe, but this time we were playing at home with 50,000 Barça fans travelling. We played a very serious, mature game. Everything was perfect that day.”
It was the first time they had beaten the French side and there was a changing of the guard in Europe. OL Lyonnes had to share with a newcomer, but is that the big European rivalry now?
“Perhaps in terms of statistics,” says Guijarro. “They have eight Champions League titles; we’ve reached six finals in a row. But we all know what football is like. Last year we lost to Arsenal. There are very good teams like Manchester United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Wolfsburg and Bayern who are there to compete in this sort of final.”
The 1-0 defeat Arsenal in Lisbon still rankles. “We didn’t play our best,” she says. “We had good quarter-finals and semi-finals, but in the final we didn’t play our best because of small details, things that have been analysed. We’d love to reach the final and be perfect, but we’re not. We know that final could have been ours.”
Opposite them now will be Giraldez, who they won two Champions League titles with (2023 and 2024) and was part of the coaching staff in 2021.
“Jonatan knows us, but we know him and his players,” Guijarro says emphatically. “As a coach, he has a different type of player and management style, his game plan, will be different from what he did here. Two years have passed in which we have evolved and improved a great deal.”
Last season Guijarro was one of the best players in Europe. The most consistent, at least. She reached every final, at club and international level. And it’s hard to find a moment when she did anything wrong. Even in the Euro final that Spain lost on penalties to England, she was the only Spanish player to score in the shootout.
At the last Ballon d’Or ceremony, she finished sixth, having been 11th 12 months earlier.
Her name is being mentioned with increasing frequency in individual awards because the role of the midfielder is increasingly valued, as shown by wins for Putellas, Bonmati, and Rodri in the men’s game.
“It makes me happy, but not for myself, generally for football, because people are paying more and more attention to small details,” she says.
But how does someone accustomed to staying in the background handle the praise?
“I value it immensely. I feel good about how I’m doing things, but that people are also happy and feel I’m helping them and doing things well — well, I value that too, it flatters me. But I’ll carry on my way, I’ll stick to my high standards, I’ll keep improving.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Barcelona, Spain, Champions League, La Liga, Women’s Soccer
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