When holding midfielder Patri Guijarro was asked to play in defence for the 2021 Champions League final against Chelsea because Barcelona’s regular centre-back Andrea Pereira was suspended, it was out of her comfort zone. But she was flawless and Barcelona won 4-0.

And when Barca discovered that attacking midfielder Alexia Putellas was set to miss almost the entire 2022-23 season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, their replacement in the transfer market was not an equivalent playmaker, but instead defensive midfielder Keira Walsh. Guijarro was asked to step forward into the role played by Putellas, the world’s best player. She was up for the challenge.

“I watched a lot of videos of her to analyse how she moved and what she looked for in build-up play,” Guijarro said in No Nos Digas Que Es Imposible (Don’t Tell Us It’s Impossible), a new book about Barcelona by Maria Tikas. “She’s not a fast player, but she’s very intelligent when it comes to finding space and looking forward.”

When that season’s Champions League final arrived, Guijarro was now established as a key attacking midfielder. Putellas had returned from injury, but she was not 100 per cent fit and had to be content with a place on the bench. Barcelona went 2-0 down to Wolfsburg, but Guijarro scored twice at the start of the second half to draw them level, before Fridolina Rolfo smashed in the winner. Guijarro, a starring centre-back in the equivalent fixture two years before, was named player of the match as an attacking midfielder.

That sums up Guijarro; constantly sacrificing herself for the team and capable of playing almost any position. That is why she is such a good all-round holding midfielder, a position crucial to the possession play of both Barcelona and Spain. Traditionally, players in that role do not get the plaudits, especially when they are playing in the same midfield as Putellas and Aitana Bonmati, who have split the past four Ballon d’Or awards between them. But maybe that is starting to change.

“Patri is the foundation of the team,” said team-mate Vicky Lopez in a press conference before the semi-final against Germany. “She’s the one who drives the team forward, who makes us all play well and perform at our best. If you watch a match and focus only on Patri, you can’t help but smile when you see her play.

“Playing with her is very easy and very difficult at the same time. There are passes that only she sees and you don’t expect. You have to get used to her. She doesn’t give easy passes. Her passes are almost always forward, with purpose. For me, playing with her is very nice. She’s one of the best in the world and very underrated.”

Last year, Spain won the men’s European Championship with Rodri voted the player of the tournament and then, later in the year, winning the Ballon d’Or. Rodri symbolised the new Spain. On the one hand, he had all the typical qualities of a Spanish holding midfielder: comfortable in possession and intelligent in a positional sense. But he was also a more aggressive, offensive-minded player than his predecessors. He pushed up and pressed high. He pushed forward to offer a goalscoring threat. His team, in turn, were more direct than previous Spain sides. And all this can be said of Guijarro.

Look at a touch map from her performances so far at this tournament and it is not what you expect of a holding midfielder. Most of her touches are well inside the opposition half, partly a reflection of Spain’s dominance, but partly because she often takes advantage of being unmarked to push on.

Guijarro’s aggression means Spain are excellent at getting into good attacking situations immediately after being without possession. Take this move early on in the 5-2 win over Belgium. Not many holding midfielders would be closing down this high up the pitch.

But after Guijarro helps to force a turnover, she simply keeps on running and gets on the end of this through ball from Mariona Caldentey.

Five seconds after hopefully closing down an opponent, Spain’s holding midfielder is playing a cutback from close to the byline.

Away from the pitch, Guijarro is a sensitive, reliable figure. She was one of the first signings of Barcelona’s professional women’s era in 2015, although she was initially hesitant, as she wanted to finish high school in her native Mallorca. Eventually, an agreement was made that she could finish her studies at La Masia, becoming something of a revolutionary as the first female player to study at the club’s academy. She was instantly respected in the dressing room and was named one of the side’s captains at the age of just 21.

Those who know her best describe her as loyal and caring, to the point of neglecting herself and her own interests in order to look after others. She conveys this same attitude to the team when she plays.

“Patri is one of the best people you could ever meet,” says one person close to the player, who preferred to remain anonymous to protect relationships.

Guijarro is also Spain’s dressing-room DJ. When Lopez was selected to start against Portugal in the team’s opening Euro 2025 game, she knew what to play. “Before the match, Patri played some dembow songs to motivate me,” Lopez told RTVE after the match (dembow is a music genre with roots in the Caribbean). On and off the pitch, she looks after her team-mates and sets the rhythm.

If Spain feel like a more aggressive, attack-minded side than at the 2023 World Cup — getting the ball forward quicker and also pressing with more intensity — it is partly because of the return of Guijarro, who refused to play for Spain during that era.

She has long been famous for fighting for women’s footballers’ rights. She feels deeply that she has to leave this sport in a better state than she found it, not only in terms of sporting success, but also off the pitch. And she has demonstrated this in everything she has done throughout her career.

She and Barcelona team-mate Pereira were co-founders of FutPro, a union for female professional footballers in Spain, and she became a member of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) assembly. “There had never been any FutPro players who voted for the president of the RFEF, and finally we were able to,” she said in an interview with newspaper El Mundo earlier this month. “For us, voting was like women’s suffrage in Spain in 1933.”

Lawyer Amanda Gutierrez, FutPro’s president, told The Athletic: “Thanks to a change that FutPro is working on following the ‘Se Acabo’ (‘It’s Over’) movement, we insist there should be female assembly members. There is now one female futsal player and six in Liga F. It is very important to be an assembly member because they are the ones who vote for the president and decide the president’s salary. They have a say in what is decided. It is a way of being involved and knowing what is going on. It is a huge responsibility and Patri took it on.”

In September 2022, 15 Spain players sent an email to the RFEF declaring themselves unavailable for selection and demanding what they considered basic conditions for professional footballers. Guijarro was among the hard-liners; as the months went by, more than half of the initial 15 agreed to return. But she refused, alongside — most notably — Barcelona team-mates Mapi Leon and Claudia Pina, as well as Lola Gallardo, Ainhoa Moraza, Nerea Eizagirre and Amaiur Sarriegi.

Spain lifted the World Cup without her, with holding midfielder Teresa Abelleira performing well in that position.

Guijarro is not a proud person. What happened has not prevented her from returning to the national team when she felt the changes they were asking for within the institution had been made. She eventually agreed to return ahead of the Olympics last summer, after the RFEF’s clean-up, which involved dismissing president Luis Rubiales and coach Jorge Vilda.

Centre-back Leon remains a significant absence from this side, but the return of Guijarro and Pina, as well as Lopez’s evolution into a first-teamer, have made Spain more complete. Among wonderful contributions in the final third from the likes of Pina and Putellas, Guijarro has probably been Spain’s most consistent player at the Euros.

The moment that sums it up best is her goal against Italy: not just because she got herself on the scoresheet, but because of the nature of the goal. Latching onto a loose ball from an Italy clearance, she simply slammed it into the net.

 

Spain have scored prettier goals at this tournament, but this was what Guijarro is all about. What other defensive midfielders would regard as a potential interception, she sees as a potential goal. From defence to attack, without pausing for breath.

Guijarro finished a respectable 11th in the Ballon d’Or voting last year, although she was behind five Barcelona team-mates, and ultimately her role is generally considered to be about letting more attacking players shine. But her performances at Euro 2025 have been even more dominant than we’ve become accustomed to. In this form, she is a serious contender to be named the best player at this tournament, and maybe the best in the world.

(Top photo: Guijarro celebrates her goal against Italy at the Euros; by Florencia Tan Jun – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)