Patricia Guijarro

Patricia "Patri" Guijarro Gutiérrez (born 17 May 1998) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Liga F club Barcelona and the Spain women's national team.

Guijarro has played a major role in Spain's most recent generation of youth national team success, making important contributions to their under-17, under-19, and under-20 teams.

Patricia Guijarro was born on 17 May 1998, in Palma, the capital city of the island of Mallorca.

She recounts being born into a "football family" and shared an interest in the sport with her parents since a young age.

She started playing football at age seven under her father's influence.

The first club she played for was hometown club CF Patronato.

At fourteen years old, Guijarro was called up to play with the youth levels of the UD Collerense squad after she was no longer allowed to play with boys.

She was promoted to Collerense's first team at just fifteen years old.

In a match against Barcelona, she caught the attention of then Barcelona coach Xavi Llorens who moved to sign her the following summer.

She started the final against Atlético Madrid that went to extra time and was rescued by a Mariona Caldentey goal in the 122nd minute that won her her second Copa de la Reina title.

Guijarro's first international youth tournament experience came when she was fifteen, with a callup to play for Spain at the 2013 UEFA Under-17 European Championship.

She played all 90 minutes of Spain's two matches in the finals.

The first finals match against Sweden went to penalties, and despite her penalty conversion, Spain lost the shootout 4–5.

They got some compensation, however, by defeating Belgium 4–0 in the next match.

Guijarro scored Spain's third goal of the match as they bowed out as third-place finishers.

Months later, in November, Guijarro was part of the Spain team at 2014 UEFA Under-17 European Championship.

She kicked off her tournament with a win against then-World champions France by scoring a goal from a corner to make the score 2–0.

A 4-0 thrashing of Germany put them at the top of their group and found them playing England in the semifinals, a match they won 2–0.

She drew first blood in the final against Germany, scoring in the ninth minute with a shot from outside the area.

Additionally, after her transfer to FC Barcelona Femení from UD Collerense in 2015, she has found both domestic success and European success with the club.

Guijarro's transfer to FC Barcelona was finalised in June 2015 with a three-year deal.

At the start of the 2017–18 season, she scored in a 3-0 Copa Catalunya victory against Espanyol, earning her third Copa Catalunya trophy.

In the semifinal of the 2017–18 Women's Champions League, she scored her first ever UWCL goal away at Lyon that helped keep Barcelona in the tie.

In the home leg, however, Barcelona were victim of a Eugénie Le Sommer strike that Guijarro nearly knocked off the goal-line, and exited in the quarterfinals to the eventual tournament winners.

Most notably, she received the Golden Ball and Golden Boot at the 2018 U-20 World Cup as Spain finished second.

She played in each of Barcelona's matches in the 2018 Copa de la Reina, including the semifinal that went to penalties.

She successfully converted her penalty as Barcelona advanced to their seventh Copa de la Reina final.

For a large portion of the 2018–2019 season, Guijarro was sidelined with a ganglion cyst injury on her right foot that lasted almost 5 months and required two operations.

Guijarro was part of the Barcelona squad that reached their first Champion's League final in 2019, as well as being integral part of the Barcelona side that won the 2020–21 UEFA Women's Champions League.

She scored two goals in the 2023 UEFA Women's Champions League Final as she won her second UEFA Women's Champions League title with Barcelona.

Her performances for Spain's youth and senior teams and Barcelona have made her widely considered one of the best midfielders in the world.

She was discharged from injury hours before the 2019 Champion's League Final, but did not feature in Barcelona's 4–1 loss to Lyon later that day.

At the start of the 2019–2020 season, she was given team captaincy for the first time as the fifth-choice captain.

In February 2020, she played in the first edition of the Supercopa de España Femenina, and was the first Barcelona player to score in the semifinals against Atlético Madrid with an outside the box volley.

She started the final against Real Sociedad, a 1–10 win that earned Barcelona and Guijarro their first ever Supercopa de España Femenina trophy.

In the first game of Barcelona's 2020–21 league season, she scored the first goal in a match against Real Madrid Femenino, making her the first goalscorer in the women's version of El Clásico.

Later that same season, Guijarro played the 2021 UEFA Women's Champions League Final, where she was put out-of-position at right centerback due to typical starting right centerback Andrea Pereira being suspended for the final.

On 16 May 2021, a day before her 23rd birthday, Guijarro started and played all 90 minutes of the match which ended 4-0 in Barcelona's favour.

Upon the departure of first-captain Vicky Losada, Guijarro's role advanced to fourth-captain for the 2021–22 season.

Guijarro has had extensive individual and team success at the youth level.