BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2023 contender Aitana Bonmati

Age: 25 Position: Midfielder Teams: Barcelona and Spain

It would have been difficult for last season to have gone any better for Aitana Bonmati.

With Barcelona she won Liga F - Spain's top flight - and the Champions League, and at the World Cup she played a starring role in Spain's victory.

Bonmati has now become a two-time European champion at club level, dictating play from midfield with her trademark slick passing.

It was a spectacular season for the Spanish playmaker with the Catalan giants and therefore no surprise that she won the accolade of Uefa's women's player of the year.

But it was for her country where Bonmati's excellence made her a global superstar, with the 25-year-old integral to Spain's World Cup triumph - scoring three goals in the process and being named player of the tournament.

Former greats of the game - including those who were involved in the dominant Spanish men's team of the 2010s - have led to comparisons with another Spanish great in Andres Iniesta.

Bonmati in her own words

What were her 2022-23 highlights?

"I cannot tell you only one, I'm going to say two moments because I think they have the same value. First of all the Champions League, winning the second title with Barcelona. It has been so special and how we won the final 3-2 after we were losing 2-0, so it was an incredible game for all of us.

"The second one is the World Cup. Maybe I don't have more options to win this kind of trophy so winning the Champions League and also the World Cup for sure are the best moments of this year."

How did it feel to beat England in the World Cup final?

"It was incredible. You have to feel it in the moment. I remember it was a great match for us, we played one of our best games of the tournament.

"We put everything we had on the seventh match of the World Cup at the end of a big season. We gave everything to win it and we achieved it. That moment we are going to remember forever.

"When the referee whistle blew the final whistle, I said 'we did it'!

"I couldn't believe it. There were a lot of people in the stadium - I am lucky to be part of the generation experiencing this kind of moment that I never thought I would live."

Could her Spain side dominate like the men's side did when they won the 2010 World Cup?

"We have a very good team with talented players but we also have good generations coming through, we have players for now and the future.

"I think Spain can dominate the world, yes, but every tournament like this World Cup - the Olympics, the European Championships - they are so difficult to achieve but we are going to fight for everything.

"We think we have the talent but I want to respect the other teams, women's football is improving a lot and there are very good national teams."

She is not the only one in her family to leave a mark on Spanish history. How did her parents help change Spanish law?

"In Spain, when I was born in 1998, the law said [when naming a child] you have to put the father's surname first and the mother's surname second.

"Both my parents both said 'no we have to change it, we want people to choose what they want not what the law says'.

"They fought for changing the law and they achieved it in 2000. You can choose now and they achieved it. I'm so proud of them. I'm a fighter because of them.

"My first surname is my mother's - her name is Bonmati, my father's is Conca."

'A real perfectionist'

Manchester City men's manager Pep Guardiola: "Aitana Bonmati is a football player who has me completely in love with her for the way she plays. I would say she is like the women's [Andres] Iniesta playing for Barcelona."

Barcelona men's manager Xavi: "Watching Aitana play excites me, it gets me off my seat, and that's the reason people are so passionate about this sport.

"She's got all the ingredients to become the best player in the world because, on top of everything, she's a real perfectionist."

Last season's achievements

What else should you know?

• She came through Barcelona's famous academy at La Masia and remained loyal to the club since joining at the age of 13

• Former Spain midfielder Xavi wrote the foreword to her autobiography

• She has already won four league titles with Barcelona

• Bonmati is an ambassador for the United Nations' Refugee Agency

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