Martina Fernández Vila (; born 1 October 2004) 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 lea ...

who plays as a defender or

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

club Everton, on loan from

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

, and Spain under-23 national team. With Barcelona, Fernández has won the Spanish league multiple times, including as part of their continental quadruple in 2023–24.

Early and personal life

Martina Fernández Vila was born on 1 October 2004 and is from Ordis in the

Province of Girona The Province of Girona ( ; ) is a Provinces of Spain, province in the northeastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. It is bordered on the northwest by the province of Lleida, on the southwest ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. She grew up near to her maternal grandparents, with whom she maintains a close relationship. She began studying

biomedicine Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

but, in 2023, stopped pursuing this as a career to focus on football. As of 2024, she continues part-time study at a biomedical laboratory.

Club career

Borrassà and Girona

Fernández' first sport was tennis, but she told her mother that she preferred football; her mother looked for ways to enable this and went to the football club in the next town,

Borrassà Borrassà () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Cataloni ...

. Though the girls' team was fully subscribed, the coach allowed Fernández to take part in a trial session with the boys' team at her mother's insistence: after three sessions, the coach promised to sign her. She spent three years at Borrassà before signing for Girona FC Femení B. At Girona, she played with the second team (considered its youth cadet team, generally 19-year-olds) from the start, rather than age group teams, staying for two seasons.

Barcelona

Youth

Fernández joined

in the women's youth section in 2018. In her first year with the club she stayed with her family in the province of Girona, over from Barcelona, and travelled with other players to train. Often ignoring the toll this took, her family then asked that she be supported to live at a school in Barcelona; after half a season of this situation, the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

forced her back to Ordís. Fernández moved back to Barcelona later in the year with her older sister. When the club opened Oriol Tort Training Centre, including a girls' student dormitory as part of

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; ), is FC Barcelona's youth academy. It includes more than 300 young players and has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success, producing several world class players and ...

, in 2021, one of the nine places was given to Fernández.

2022–2024

She played her first official match for the first team in February 2022, becoming one of the youngest debutants in the senior squad. She made five appearances in the

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and

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in the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons. She then had a larger role in the 2023–24 season, due to a large number of injuries to the squad's first team defenders, establishing herself as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. She made her

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. ...

debut on 13 December 2023 against

Rosengård Rosengård (literally "Rose Manor") was a city district () in the center of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Husie, forming Öster. In 2012, Rosengård had a population of 23,563 of the municipality's 307,758. It ...

, and scored her first goal for Barcelona in the 92nd minute of this game. Fernández was fully promoted to the first team ahead of the 2024–25 season, but experienced injury and spent the first half of the season recovering from knee surgery. Having made two appearances for the team, Fernández won the 2024–25 Liga F when Barcelona were confirmed as champions in May 2025.

Loan to Everton

Wanting to maintain the regular first team playing experience she had in the previous season, Barcelona and Fernández looked for a loan opportunity once she was fully recovered. On 4 January 2025, Fernández was announced at Everton on a loan deal until the end of the season. From her arrival, she played every minute for Everton, starting and completing all matches as their primary centre-back. Everton finished the season eighth place in the

, in a tight mid-table; Fernández ranked well among all the league's defenders and was named the team's Young Player of the Season.

International career

Fernández was first called up to the Spain under-19 squad in October 2021, for European matches, but did not make the final travelling squad. On 9 November 2022 she scored the opening goal in Spain's 3–0 defeat of

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Pinatar Arena The Pinatar Arena is an association football stadium located in San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia, in south-eastern Spain. The 3,000-seat stadium is part of the larger Pinatar Arena Football Center which also includes a sports club, hotel, training ...

. In 2022, she won the Under-19 Euro title, and helped Spain defend it when they won again in the 2023 Under-19 Euro. She played the whole 120 minutes of the final that was eventually decided on penalties. On 30 November 2023, Fernández debuted with the under-23 team, starting and playing the full match in a friendly against Sweden.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

;Barcelona * Primera División: 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 *

: 2021–22, 2023–24 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

: 2023–24 *

: 2023–24 Spain under-19 *

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

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual * Everton F.C. Women Young Player of the Season: 2024–25

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Martina 2004 births Living people Women's association football midfielders Women's association football defenders Spanish women's footballers FC Barcelona Femení players Footballers from the Province of Girona People from Alt Empordà FC Barcelona Femení B players Primera Federación (women) players Liga F players Segunda Federación (women) players Spain women's youth international footballers 21st-century Spanish sportswomen Everton F.C. (women) players Women's Super League players Expatriate sportspeople in England