Ona Batlle Pascual (; born 10 June 1999) is a Spanish professional

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 ...

who plays as a full-back for

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club

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and the Spain national team.

Club career

Youth career

Ona Batlle Pascual was born on 10 June 1999 in

Vilassar de Mar Vilassar de Mar () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Maresme in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the coast between Premià de Mar and Cabrera de Mar, to the north-east of Barcelona. The town is both a tourist centre and a dormitory t ...

, a town in the province of

, and started to play football with Vilassar de Mar. In 2011, she was scouted by

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. Found ...

during a match with the

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under-12 team. She joined FC Barcelona's youth program

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and progressed through the ranks, earning promotion to

Barcelona B 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 ...

, Barcelona's highest-level youth team which played in the Segunda División, in 2014. On 9 November 2016, Batlle was called up to the first team and was an unused substitute in Barcelona's Champions League game against

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. In the summer of 2017, Barcelona changed focus to recruiting high-profile senior players, making it more difficult for youth players to break through to the first team. Batlle was one of seven

players to leave in the summer to pursue senior first-team opportunities with other clubs. On her departure, Batlle remarked she will not rule out a return to the club that "formed her."

Madrid CFF

Batlle signed to

Madrid CFF Madrid Club de Fútbol Femenino (; ''Madrid Women's Football Club'') is a Spanish women's football club based in San Sebastián de los Reyes, Community of Madrid, that currently plays in Liga F. History Madrid CFF was founded in 2010 by Alfred ...

in July 2017, the club's first signing following their promotion to the Primera División. She made her senior debut during the club's first Primera División match, as a halftime substitute for Laura del Río in a 1–1 draw with Levante. Batlle cemented her place as a starter during the season, playing in 28 of the 30 league matches including 26 starts as Madrid CFF ended their first Primera División campaign mid-table in tenth place.

Levante

After one season with Madrid, Batlle signed with Levante in June 2018. However, prior to the start of the season Batlle suffered an injury at the

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in August, delaying her debut for the club. She eventually made her first Levante appearance as a substitute in a 3–2 win away to former club Madrid CFF on 5 December 2018. Batlle scored her first Primera División goal in a 4–2 win over

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on 22 December 2018. On 24 June 2020, Batlle released a statement that she was not going to renew her contract with Levante and would instead become a free agent. She remained as one of 17 players in a

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against the Association of Women's Football Clubs (ACFF) and the Association of Spanish Football Players (AFE) at the time, disputing the use of the Compensation List that would inflate the fee necessary for other Primera División to sign allocated players as free agents. Batlle's compensation was set at €500,000.

Manchester United

On 13 July 2020, Batlle signed a two-year contract with an option for a third with English FA WSL club Manchester United. She made her debut on 6 September 2020, starting in the season opener as United drew 1–1 with defending champions

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. In total, Batlle appeared in 23 of United's 27 games during the season and was named Women's Player of the Year at the end of the campaign. In the first league game of the 2021–22 season, Batlle scored her first goal for the club in a 2–0 win against

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. She made 21 league appearances in the 2021–22 campaign and was recognised with PFA Team of the Year honours.

Barcelona

On 19 June 2023, it was announced that Batlle had joined

on a three-year deal following the end of her contract with Manchester United.

International career

Youth

Batlle has represented Spain at under-17, under-19 and under-20 level including at five major youth tournaments: two

UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, is a European championship football tournament, organized by UEFA, for national teams of women under age seventeen. The tournament was first played out ...

editions ( 2015 and

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), the

2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tourna ...

, the

2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2017 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (20th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football cham ...

and the

2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its i ...

. Spain won the

2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship was the eighth edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, the annual European youth football competition contested by the women's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. I ...

, beating Switzerland 5–2 in the final. Batlle started in four of the five games in the tournament. They finished as runners-up at the

edition, losing to Germany on penalties in the final. Batlle started every game for Spain at the tournament. The result automatically qualifying Spain for the

. Batlle started five of the six games including all of the knockout round as Spain finished third, losing to Japan in the semi-finals before beating Venezuela in the third-place playoff. In July 2017, Batlle was selected by Pedro López to represent Spain at the

. Spain won the tournament with a stoppage time goal from

Patricia Guijarro Patricia "Patri" Guijarro Gutiérrez (; born 17 May 1998) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for FC Barcelona and Spain women's national football team. She is the fourth-choice captain for Barcelona. Guijarro has p ...

against France. Batlle again started every game in the tournament and she was one of seven Spanish players selected to the team of the tournament. The result also qualified Spain for the

. Batlle only ended up playing one match at the World Cup, sustaining an injury against

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in the opening match that ended her tournament. Teammate

dedicated her goal against the

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to Batlle by holding up her shirt to the camera and the fans. Spain finished as runners-up, losing 3–1 to Japan in the final.

Senior

On 17 May 2019, Batlle made her senior debut in a friendly against

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, substituting in for Eunate Arraiza at halftime. She was left out of the 23-player roster for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...

three days later. In February 2020, Batlle was called up to Spain's squad for her first senior international tournament opportunity, the

2020 SheBelieves Cup The 2020 SheBelieves Cup was the fifth edition of the SheBelieves Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held in the United States. Featuring national teams from Spain, England, Japan, and hosts United States, it began on March 5 and ...

. She started the first two matches of the tournament, a 3–1 win against Japan and a narrow 1–0 loss to the reigning World Champion

as Spain finished second in their debut SheBelieves appearance. She was among '' Las 15'', a group of players who made themselves unavailable for international selection in September 2022 due to their dissatisfaction with head coach Jorge Vilda, but one of three who was selected for the tournament squad nine months later. She played the entirety of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final as Spain defeated

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1–0 to win the trophy for the first time.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Batlle goal.''

Honours

Barcelona *

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Manchester United *

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship rea ...

runner-up: 2022–23 Spain youth *

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The tournament is held in even-numbered ye ...

third place:

* FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup runner-up:

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: 2015; runner-up:

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is a competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belong to the ...

Spain * FIFA Women's World Cup:

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Individual *PFA WSL Team of the Year: 2021–22, 2022–23 * PFA WSL Fans' Player of the Year: 2022–23 * PFA WSL Fans' Player of the Month: February 2023 *

Team of the Tournament:

*Manchester United Women's Player of the Year:

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 ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Manchester United F.C. website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Batlle, Ona 1999 births Living people People from Vilassar de Mar Footballers from the Province of Barcelona Sportswomen from Catalonia Spanish women's footballers Women's association football fullbacks FC Barcelona Femení B players Madrid CFF players Levante UD Femenino players Manchester United W.F.C. players Liga F players Spain women's youth international footballers Spain women's international footballers Spanish expatriate women's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players Catalonia women's international footballers FC Barcelona Femení players