Patri Guijarro interview: Barcelona’s guiding force who allows Bonmati and Putellas to make magic
If you asked any of the managers who have been at Barcelona Femeni since 2019 to pick one player they would take to any of their teams, they would agree on one name: Patri Guijarro. All the moves go through the 28-year-old holding midfielder. She is the balance between attack and defence, their guiding force.
Her work won’t feature prominently in many of the highlights, but without it, there wouldn’t be any. It is now commonplace to see teenagers making their debut at the top level of football, but it wasn’t when Guijarro did so for UD Collerense in Spain’s top tier at 15. By 21, she was one of Barcelona’s captains, and the day before her 23rd birthday she started in the 4-0 win against Chelsea in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final.
Now, she is ready for her seventh final, and Barca’s sixth in a row in Europe’s biggest competition, as one of the team’s long-standing pillars. The first, in 2019, was eye-opening as they were hammered 4-1 by Lyon. But it was a turning point.
Barcelona stepped up training, strengthened physically, and became one of Europe’s elite teams. In 2021, behind closed doors, they lifted a European title for the first time by thrashing Chelsea and have been there since. This weekend they face OL Lyonnes in Oslo, Norway and the Mallorca-born star has not lost any desire for more medals.
“It makes us angry when people tell us we’re spoiling them,” she says, sitting in the stands of their home ground, the Estadi Johan Cruyff. “We’re demanding and want to reach every final, win every title. We pass that demand on to the people so they expect us to win everything.
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