da esoccer bet： The star of the Women's World Cup is finally getting her flowers, with her crowning as the best player in the world for 2023 so well deserved

da bet sport： When Barcelona won the Women’s Champions League for the first time in 2021, as part of an incredible treble, Aitana Bonmati was outstanding, even named Player of the Match in the final. Yet, when the Ballon d’Or nominees for that year were announced, she was inexplicably missing from the 20-player shortlist.

Anyone who has watched, played alongside or had the tricky task of trying to thwart Bonmati knows that she has been one of the best players in the world for several years now. Indeed, she has played an integral part in Barcelona overtaking eight-time European champions Lyon as the team to beat in the women’s game.

Sadly, though, there haven’t been too many individual accolades added to a trophy cabinet bursting with team triumphs – until this year. After helping Barca claim another treble, her role in Spain’s historic Women’s World Cup win made her case impossible to ignore.

On Monday, Bonmati was officially crowned the best player on the planet when she won the 2023 Ballon d’Or Feminin – and it’s about damn time she got that spotlight!

Getty ImagesDestined for greatness

Those who have known Bonmati since she was a little girl have known for a long time that she is special. She would play football in the playground, in the square in the centre of town – anywhere, really – and she caught the eye even then.

She would often face difficulties as the only girl Xavier Rovira, a friend of the Barcelona star since they were around four years old, remembers as much, but that was never going to stop her. “Her character helped her overcome all of this because she just wanted to play football,” he tells GOAL.

It’s no surprise that she was iron-willed even then. After all, Bonmati's parents went against Spain's traditional naming customs and so the surname by which she is known is that of her mother, not her father. Strong values have been instilled in her since she was a child.

“Since we were little, you could see that she wasn't normal,” Rovira says. “She played sometimes at the same level or better than many boys. That was not normal at all. We knew that she was a bit special.”

AdvertisementGettyBarcelona through and through

Born and raised in Sant Pere de Ribes, a small Catalonian town around 40 kilometres from Barcelona, Bonmati joined the Blaugrana when she was 14 years old. Her family, her friends, they are all fans of the club, and the midfielder’s biggest idols all played in its iconic blue and garnet colours – Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Pep Guardiola.

Bonmati was promoted to the B team when she was 16 years old. Two years later, she was playing under Xavi Llorens in the first team, having shown "the personality and courage" to do so, the coach told .

Today, in her own words, she is “carrying the [club’s] DNA in [her]” after 11 years at Barca. She is a midfielder in the tiki-taka mould, one who can perform so many different roles and help the team in so many different ways, one playing world-class football for the club of her heart, FC Barcelona.

GettyNot without obstacles

She is living her dream, but to reach the top of the mountain has not been without obstacles. Indeed, what Bonmati has achieved was simply impossible when she first started to fall in love with this sport.

“She did not have a reference in women's football so it was a bit impossible to think about becoming a professional player,” Rovira remembers. “It was difficult to imagine being able to dedicate oneself professionally. We didn't talk about her playing for Barca or playing in the Champions League. It was something impossible at that time.”

With the women’s game still having so much room to grow, Bonmati was an anomaly as a young girl playing – and excelling – in football, too. “When she was a child, there were many times when she didn't have a good time,” Rovira adds. “Especially in high school, it was really accentuated. Somebody would insult her and then she would feel bad just for the fact that she was a woman who was playing football.

“Also, often she was better than them. She played better football than some boys, so this hurt the pride of some boys who found it difficult to assimilate how a girl was better than them. I think all this, overcoming these periods, is what gave her the leap to be able to reach the top. It wasn't easy for her to live through this period, mainly in high school. It was difficult.”

GettyAn ambitious character

But Bonmati was never going to be stopped. She’s a very ambitious person, telling GOAL earlier this year: “I want to be the best version of me every year and show better things every year.” That has typified her character since she was a young girl, and it is that which Rovira believes helped her overcome some “hostile” environments when she was growing up.

“She's very ambitious,” he explains. “I think that it's difficult to influence her. I think that is something maybe she gets from her mother. Her mother is also a person with a very clear idea. She fought a lot in the past to achieve things, like with her surname.

“I think that she has always been very ambitious. She's a very perfectionist person. I think that her own character is what has brought her to where she is today. It's not something about [those on the] outside, it's more something about her inside.”