Melanie del Pilar Serrano Pérez (born 12 October 1989) is a retired Spanish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in the Spanish

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

. Serrano spent her entire 19-season-long football career with

FC Barcelona Femení Futbol Club Barcelona Femení, commonly referred to as Barça Femení, is a Spanish professional women's association football, women's football team based in Barcelona, Catalonia. It's the women's football section of FC Barcelona and it compete ...

. As of her time of retirement, she is the club's female leader in appearances, and the club's record title holder, having won 27 trophies.

Early life

Serrano was born in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

on 12 October 1989. When Serrano was 12, her mother moved her and her sister to Blanes,

Girona Girona (officially and in Catalan language, Catalan , Spanish: ''Gerona'' ) is a city in northern Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter River, Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 103,369 in ...

. Serrano’s first experience in a football team was with local side Deportivo Blanes. She underwent trials to join the club after her mother could not afford the fees necessary to join. She later played youth football with CD Cantely and Dos Hermanas. Serrano was fourteen when she was recruited to join Barcelona’s women’s youth teams. As a teenager, Serrano traveled 3 times a week from Blanes to the

Mini Estadi Miniestadi (, meaning in English "Mini Stadium"), officially named "Miniestadi", was a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The 15,276-seat stadium was situated across from Camp Nou, the home stadium of FC Barcelona. The stadium was ...

in Barcelona, where she would train.

Club career

Serrano spent her entire professional career with

. Serrano was 14 years old when she made her first-team debut on 15 September 2004, in a 4-4 draw against

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

. Serrano became a first-team player in 2007, and Barcelona were relegated to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

the same year. They returned to the

in 2008. Serrano was a member of the squad that won Barcelona's first league title in the 2011–12 season. She started Barcelona's

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

debut the following 2012–13 season, in a 0-3 home loss to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Serrano scored Barcelona’s opening goal in the final matchweek of the 2012–13 Primera División campaign, helping secure their second league title against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

. On 6 January 2021, Serrano scored in the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

against Espanyol in the first competitive match played between women at the stadium. On 30 June 2020, Serrano extended her Barcelona contract to the end of the 2020–21 season. In June of 2021, Serrano renewed her Barcelona contract for a final year until the end of the 2021–2022 season. In the following season, Serrano achieved multiple final milestones with the club. On 6 February 2022, Serrano played her 500th match for Barcelona and scored in a 7-0 win over Eibar. On 16 April, Serrano reached 400 appearances in the Spanish league. On 13 May 2022, Serrano officially announced her retirement from football after 19 seasons. At the time of her retirement, she was the leader of appearances for FC Barcelona's women's section, and was in the top 10 for total appearances at FC Barcelona, regardless of gender. She also retired with 27 trophies, the most of any

player.

International career

Serrano was a member of Spain's under-19 women's national team, and featured in the

2007 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship } The UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2007 Final Tournament was held in Iceland between 18–29 July 2007. Players born after 1 January 1988 were eligible to participate in this competition. Final tournament Group stage Group A ---- ---- --- ...

. Her full international debut at the senior level was on 29 October 2009 against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

at 20 years old. Serrano played one match in qualification for the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

, subbing in against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Melanie was part of Spain's squad at the

in Canada. Serrano did not play any matches during the World Cup as Spain bowed out in the group stage of the competition.

Personal life

As of 2019, Serrano is studying nursing. In June of 2021, Serrano’s career was honored by the mayor of Blanes, Àngel Canosa, with a stone plaque of the Blanes

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

. Serrano is in a relationship with Lara Salmerón. In September 2021, the couple announced that they are expecting twins. The twins, Natura and Itzel, were born on 17 February 2022.

Honours

Club

;Barcelona *

: 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

: 2007–08 *

; *

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

* Supercopa Femenina: 2019–20, 2021–22 * Copa Catalunya: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

References

External links

* *
Profile
at

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Serrano, Melanie 1989 births Living people Spanish women's footballers Spain women's international footballers Liga F players FC Barcelona Femení players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers from Seville Women's association football fullbacks Women's association football midfielders Spanish LGBT footballers FC Barcelona Femení B players Queens League players