The World Cup is blaugrana... like in 2010
20 August 2023 goes down in history as the day that Spain won the Women's World Cup at Stadium Australia, Sydney. But it is also a historic date for FC Barcelona.
Of the 23 players in the winning squad, no fewer than nine were from FC Barcelona. Seven of them were in the starting line-up, and one of the two that weren't was double Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas, who did come on for what turned out to be 13 minutes of injury time at the end.
Curiously, from a Barça perspective, there are a number of similarities with the Spanish men's World Cup victory of 2010..
Both the Barça goalkeepers, Víctor Valdés and Cata Coll, went to the tournament as replacement keepers, although the latter ended up being the first choice and performed superbly throughout the knockout stages.
Both Vicente del Bosque and Jorge Vilda had 100% Barça centre backs. Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué were as much automatic choices as Irene Paredes and Laia Codina. The former played every game, while Codina, like Coll, was introduced to the campaign later and performed so well that she held onto her place for what remained.
Defender Ona Batlle is the female parallel of David Villa. She is officially a Barça player now after signing from Man United, just like Villa was when he joined Barça from Valencia just before South Africa 2010.
La Masia always produces a wealth of Spanish midfielders. In 2010, Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta were three of the finest exponents ever of the art, and in 2023 the MVP award for the tournament went to Aitana Bonmatí. Alexia Putellas also played her part in every game, and young Maria Pérez, who is still a Barça Atlètic player, has everything in her to be a huge name in the future.
Young Salma Paralluelo has broken through in this competition in a similar fashion to Pedro Rodríguez 13 years ago. Both were used as super-subs, and both lived up the 'super' mantle in every regard.
Spain now follow Germany as only the second country to have won both the men's and the women's World Cup. And in both cases, there is no question that FC Barcelona had a tremendous amount do with those victories.