Alexia Putellas is again the best women player of the season. If last year the player for Barça feminí already won the Ballon d'Or and the trophy for the best UEFA footballer of the year, this Thursday she has repeated the distinction at European level. The Catalan player received the award this Thursday in Istanbul after the 2022/23 Champions League draw.
👑 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐚 𝐏𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐬 😍@alexiaputellas is named the 2021/22 UEFA Women's Player of the Year - the first player to win the award twice in a row! 🏅👏#UEFAawards pic.twitter.com/cwoHXmqqJ5
— UEFA Women’s Champions League (@UWCL) August 25, 2022
Alexia Putellas is still the best
There was no doubt that Barça's big star would take the award. Champion of the Spanish Women's League, winner of the Copa de la Reina and also victorious in the Spanish Super Cup, all that was lacking was for her to win the women's Champions League again (which Barça lost in the final, against Olympique de Lyon). But even so, the Catalan midfielder was the top scorer in the Women's Champions League with 11 goals.
Alexia Putellas won the annual prize this Thursday ahead of England's Beth Mead, Arsenal player and champion of the Women's European Championship with the England team, and Lena Oberdorf, Wolfsburg player and European runner-up with the German team.
👏🏻 Felicitats, @alexiaputellas. Premi a una temporada inoblidable pic.twitter.com/D1StUARcpa
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_cat) August 25, 2022
Benzema, the other big winner
UEFA also handed out three further awards in an evening of great emotions and in which the groups were drawn for the Champions League 2022/23. And if Alexia Putellas was the big winner in the women's category, the male player who dominated was Karim Benzema. The Real Madrid striker, converted into an immortal for the merengues after achieving the 14th Champions League, was a just winner. The French forward beat his team-mate and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and Manchester City star Kevin de Bruyne.
As for the award for the best coach, the winner wasn't a surprise either: Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian coach of Real Madrid won over Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) and Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool) in the voting. Finally, the prize for the best woman coach went to the coach of the reigning European champions, England: Sarina Wiegman. The two finalists were Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, the coach of Germany, and Sonia Bompastor, the coach of Olympique de Lyon.
The good luck of the UEFA ceremony did not, however, shine on the Barça men's team, and in the Champions' League draw they ended up in a veritable group of death: Group C, with Bayern, Inter and Viktoria Pilsen. The first group matches are on September 6th and 7th.
UEFA Men's Champions League groups 2022/23
| GROUP A | GROUP B |
| Ajax | Porto |
| Liverpool | Atlètic de Madrid |
| Nàpols | Bayer Leverkusen |
| Rangers | Bruges |
| GROUP C | GROUP D |
| Bayern de Munic | Eintracht de Frankfurt |
| Barça | Tottenham |
| Inter de Milà | Sporting de Portugal |
| Viktoria Pilsen | Olympique de Marsella |
| GROUP E | GROUP F |
| Milan | Reial Madrid |
| Chelsea | Red Bull Leipzig |
| Red Bull Salzburg | Xakhtar Donetsk |
| Dinamo de Zagreb | Celtic |
| GROUP G | GROUP H |
| Manchester City | PSG |
| Sevilla | Juventus |
| Borussia Dortmund | Benfica |
| Copenhague | Maccabi Haifa |