The midfielder is having an incredible campaign and will hope that continues as the Catalans face Chelsea in the Women's Champions League semi-finals
Has there been a better player in Europe this season than Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati? Arguably not. No one has been involved in more goals in the Women's Champions League, with the 25-year-old topping the assist charts and is only being outscored by Wolfsburg's Ewa Pajor – a striker.
Such contributions have helped Barca reach a fifth successive European semi-final, in which they will take on English champions Chelsea this weekend in the first leg at Stamford Bridge.
But it's not just this year that Bonmati has caught the eye. For several seasons, with her attacking talents complemented by qualities on the other side of the ball, she has been up there as one of the world's best. Indeed, it's not rare to see her pop up in her own box with a goal-saving tackle.
"Three or four years ago, I decided that if I wanted to be a complete player, I had to do those things also," she tells GOAL. "Not only score and make assists, but also do defensive tasks to help the team."
Has she got the individual recognition she deserves in that time? Certainly not. The midfielder wasn't even nominated for the Ballon d'Or when Barca won the Champions League in 2021, and then finished a distant fifth in the 2022 voting despite a superb season being backed up by an excellent European Championship.
But that is not Bonmati's priority. Her goal is to win with her team and, with 12 major honours to her name already, she's certainly been doing that.
Now, with Barca just two games away from a fourth Champions League final in five years, the technically gifted Catalan wants to continue along that prosperous path…
Getty ImagesTotal Barcelona dominance
It’s been another absolutely sublime season for Bonmati and Barcelona.
So far this season, the team has played 36 games and won 34 of them. The only blips on their record are a Champions League group-stage defeat to Bayern Munich and a cup game that was handed to their opponents, Osasuna, after fielding an ineligible player.
Despite a flurry of summer signings needing time to settle – including England duo Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh, Brazil forward Geyse Ferreira and talented teen Salma Paralluelo – and the absence of Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas due to injury, the Catalans are well on track for a fourth successive league title.
“I think that we are having a great season,” Bonmati says. “We are a team that is so ambitious and, every year, wants to improve more and be better than last year. I think that I am so ambitious also. I want to be the best version of myself every year and show better things every year.
“This year, I have a different role in the team because last year, the coach told me that when we build up the team, I had to be near the centre-backs, to help.
“Now, this year, this role is taken by Keira and Patri [Guijarro] and I am in a position that is more offensive. I scored a lot of goals with my left foot that last year I didn't, so I tried to improve because if you can shoot with both feet, it's better.”
Averaging a goal or an assist every 84 minutes in the league, she’s certainly having an attacking influence, but also one at the back, too, as she adds with a laugh: “I'm little but I try to help the team also in defensive tasks in every part of the pitch.”
AdvertisementGetty ImagesAdapting in midfield
That Barca have racked up such an incredible record without Putellas, who won the Ballon d’Or for a second time in a row earlier this year, is a huge testament to the quality of the entire squad.
For many years, the club’s midfield has been one of Putellas, Bonmati and Guijarro, but the former’s devastating ACL injury has broken that talented trio up and the latter pair have had a role in introducing a new signing into the middle of the park, in Walsh.
The England star joined Barca off the back of helping the Lionesses win Euro 2022, named Player of the Match in the final, and Bonmati has been doing her best to help her adapt to the unique ways of her new club.
“I speak a lot with Keira because she doesn't understand Spanish,” she explains. “Sometimes, when she doesn't understand something, I try to help her.
“Alexia, Patri and me, we have been playing together for a long time. We know each other a lot. Alexia is a great footballer, so [her injury] was significant for the team. But then we have to keep going.
“Keira Walsh came in. We have different players who can play inside like [Claudia] Pina and Mariona [Caldentey] also. We have different options.
“I think we are a good team because we have a lot of good pieces, not only one piece. I think that our success is because of the team.”
GettyImproving year on year
This season, Bonmati believes the team has improved because it is even more complete. The new signings have settled in and are now having a serious impact.
“We have a very large and good squad,” she says. “We have a lot of good players so we have a lot of things. You can make different starters, different XIs, and when maybe things go bad, you have substitutes that can change the match.
“I think this year we have a complete team, a more complete team than last year.
“We have a new team because we had a lot of signings. At the beginning, maybe it was a little bit difficult for them. It's normal because here in Barca, we train and we play so differently and you have to learn a lot of things that, if you have never trained here, it's so difficult.
“But now we are playing together for nine months so the new players have adapted and we are a very, very good team.
“I am here to help because I've been playing for Barcelona since I was 13 years old. I know the club very well and also the style.”
GettyWhere is the individual recognition?
When you watch Bonmati play, it is easy to tell that she has been at the club so long. The intelligence and elegance in her play typifies ‘the Barca way’, while her ability to adapt to different roles is in line with the ideas that Johan Cruyff brought to Catalunya so long ago.
These qualities don’t just make her an excellent player for Barcelona, though. They make her one of the absolute best in the world, even if the individual recognition hasn’t always come her way.
After Barca won the Champions League in 2021, Caroline Graham Hansen told GOAL that she didn’t believe players in the Spanish league got enough recognition.
Indeed, the Norwegian was one of many that year who were a key part of that European triumph but would be overlooked when it came to individual awards. Bonmati was another.
“I don't like to talk about these things because these things don't depend on the players, you know?” the midfielder says, giving her two cents on the subject.
“What I can say is that our goal, our work, is to do the best play every day, to be the best team. When you are the best team and you play well and you win everything, maybe you have more options to be there.
“Maybe you don't have to focus on this because it depends on a lot of things. If something has to come, it's going to come, but I prefer to focus on winning as a team and winning the Champions League, winning the league – winning,” she laughs. “And then we will see.”