Do we like Aitana Bonmatí?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent record, real causes and no harmful words, held back from the top only because the record is thin on LGBTQ+ issues and has one public spat.
Aitana grew up in Sant Pere de Ribes, near Barcelona, the only girl kicking a ball with the boys at school. Her parents flipped the traditional Spanish naming order for gender equality, so she carries her mother's surname first. She joined Barcelona's academy at 14, and the women's team went professional in 2015. She made the first squad a year later.
The defining fight came in 2023. She was one of 15 players who made themselves unavailable over coach Jorge Vilda's treatment of the squad, then returned, and she helped Spain win its first World Cup and took the Golden Ball. In February 2025 former federation boss Luis Rubiales was convicted of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso without consent, and fined €10,000. Aitana called the sentence correct, though she was surprised there was no coercion sentence, and said “I believe that this case happened for a reason.”
Her one proper stoush was in December 2023. Spain lost 3-2 to Italy after restarting the second half a player short, and radio station Cope reported that coach Montse Tomé asked her three times if she was OK. Aitana said she felt unwell and asked to be taken off, and she hit back publicly at the report. It reads as a heat-of-the-moment spat. A video of her allegedly insulting a security guard has done the rounds on one Spanish site, but that's tabloid territory and no major outlet has confirmed it.
On the harm test, there's nothing nasty on the record. In January 2025 she said Saudi Arabia has a long way to go on equality between men and women, and that she wouldn't feel comfortable playing a women's Supercopa there. She has also said “I know I have a voice that’s heard and that carries weight.” To be straight with you, I found nothing from her either way on LGBTQ+ rights, so that pass rests on a clean record and her women's-equality advocacy, not on any rainbow statement.
The recent news is more career than controversy. In late 2025 she was reported to be joining Mexican broadcaster TUDN as an analyst for the 2026 World Cup, after first hesitating because she was still playing. She said she saw it as a chance to try something new. The report noted there was no formal announcement at that stage.
The good stuff is real. In 2021 she picked Movement on the Ground, which runs sport programs for refugee kids on Lesbos, to receive a €50,000 Visa player-of-the-match donation, saying she hoped it would help girls' wellbeing. In 2024 she surprised the Barça Foundation's Genuine team at training and showed them her Ballon d'Or and The Best trophies. She is also a role model on her own terms, telling reporters “It’s a privilege to have become a role model for so many girls and boys.”