Sandra Paños García-Villamil (; born 4 November 1992) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

in the

Liga MX Femenil Liga MX Femenil, also known as Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, Federación Mexicana d ...

. She previously played for

Liga F The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as the Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of Sports league, league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent ...

teams Levante (for five years) and

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 ...

(for nine), where she was a captain. She also played for the Spain national team for a decade, accumulating over 50 caps. Paños is recognised as one of Spain's best women's goalkeepers, winning a record four Zamora Trophies; with Barcelona she won the league,

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

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 ...

and

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. ...

on multiple occasions. Internationally, she represented Spain at three major tournaments: 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 f ...

, the 2017 UEFA Women's Euro, and 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, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

Early and personal life

Sandra Paños García-Villamil was born on 4 November 1992, to Luis Ernesto Paños and Gemma García-Villamil. Paños began playing as a goalkeeper when there was a vacant position in goal for her

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

team. She later played

7-a-side football Seven-a-side football is one of the minifootball variations of football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, ...

before playing for her first club, Sporting Plaza de Argel (formerly known as Hércules), when she was 10 years old. Her father formerly played for Hércules in the 1980s. Her older brother, Javi, was also a footballer. She is in a relationship with coach and former player

Sara Mérida Sara Mérida Pérez (born 8 April 1993) is a Spanish retired footballer who played for RCD Espanyol. Debuting as a teenager with Espanyol, she won the Copa de la Reina twice and the Copa Catalunya once. As a youth international with Spain she wo ...

Club career

Levante (2010–2015)

In 2010, Paños made the jump to the

Spanish first division The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

when she signed for Levante. Despite offers from

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

, she chose Levante because of the club's proximity to her hometown of

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

. After a successful first season, she renewed her contract with the club in 2011 until 2012. On 4 June 2015, Paños scored the first and only goal of her career with a free-kick from midfield against

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

; taken in the 87th minute to put Levante 3–2 up, it was the match-winning goal.

Barcelona (2015–2024)

At 22 years old, Paños moved from Levante to

after the

, the summer that the Catalan club professionalised their women's side. In her first Champions League season, Panos was named to the UEFA Women's Champions League Squad of the season, the first ever Barcelona player to do so. She was also the recipient of her first

Zamora Trophy The Zamora Trophy () is a association football, football award, established by Spanish newspaper ''Marca (newspaper), Marca'' in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" rati ...

. In the 2017–18 season at Barcelona, she received her second

for conceding just 12 goals in 26 league matches. Paños shared goalkeeping duties with

Laura Ràfols Laura Ràfols Parellada (born 23 June 1990) is a Spanish former Women's association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (soccer), goalkeeper. She served as the captain for FC Barcelona Femení, Barcelona, and also represented the cl ...

until Ràfols' retirement in 2018. The season following Ràfols' departure, she picked up a captaincy role for the first time in ''blaugrana'' and was named the club's third captain. In 2019, Paños was given her third

award, conceding a personal-best 11 goals in the 2018–19 league season. For the 2019–20 season, her role as captain was decreased to fourth captain as

Alexia Putellas Alèxia Putellas i Segura ( , Alexia Putellas Segura; born 4 February 1994), often known mononymously as Alexia, is a Spanish professional footballer from Catalonia who plays as a midfielder or forward for Liga F club Barcelona, which she cap ...

made the jump to second captain. In 2020, following the premature end of the 2019–20 league season due to 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 ...

, Paños was awarded her fourth

, a record number. That season, she conceded a personal-best 0.26 goals per game. In the quarterfinals of the

, Paños saved a penalty from

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

’s Chloe Kelly and recorded a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usually seen as a result of ...

in a 3–0 win. In May 2021, Paños extended her Barcelona contract to June 2024. Days after announcing her contract extension, she started the second Champions League final of her career and recorded a clean sheet against Chelsea, as the team won the match 4–0. Paños was named to the 2020–21 UEFA Women's Champions League Squad of the Season, and later won the 2020–21 UEFA Women's Champions League Goalkeeper of the Season award. At the end of the 2020–21 league season, she had conceded a league-best 12 goals. Paños was ineligible to win the

however, as she suffered a thigh injury in October 2020 that kept her out of play for three months, and did not complete in at least 28 matches. Paños returned to her role as Barcelona's third captain ahead of the 2021–22 season, after regular captain

Vicky Losada María Victoria "Vicky" Losada Gómez (, ; born 5 March 1991) is a Spanish association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for Brighton & Hove Albion W.F.C., Brighton & Hove Albion, which she also Captain (association football), cap ...

moved to Manchester City. In October 2021, she was named as a nominee to the

2021 Ballon d'or The 2021 Ballon d'Or (French: ''Ballon d'Or'') was the 65th annual ceremony of the Ballon d'Or, presented by ''France Football'', recognising the best footballers in the world in 2021. The nominees for the ceremony were announced on 8 October 2 ...

. On 31 October, Paños played in her 200th match for Barcelona in all competitions as her side won 8–1 against

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

. On 2 February 2024, Paños announced that she would be leaving Barcelona at the end of the 2023–24 season after nine years and 23 trophies with the club. During her time at Barcelona, Paños conceded 142 goals in 279 appearances, the eighth most appearances in the team's history; she kept 171 clean sheets. In her final season, after Cata Coll's breakthrough, Paños had a reduced role. She still made appearances in all competitions, performing at a high level, and was recognised for not complaining about fewer minutes.

Club América (2024-2025)

On 23 June 2024,

side

announced the signing of Paños.

International career

She was the first-choice goalkeeper at the 2009 U-17 Euro and the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and 2011 U-19 Euros. In September 2011, she was called to Spain's senior national team for the first time, replacing injured

María José Pons María José Pons Gómez (born 8 August 1984), commonly known as Mariajo, is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. She previously played for CE Sabadell (women), CD Sa ...

. Five months later she made her debut in a friendly against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. She was a part of Spain's squad at the

, where she was Spain's third keeper. Since

Jorge Vilda Jorge Vilda Rodríguez (born 7 July 1981) is a Spanish football coach and UEFA Pro Licence holder, who is currently the head coach of the Morocco women's national team, since 12 October 2023. Previously, he was the head coach of the Spain wome ...

's takeover of the national team in 2017, Paños has been a regular starter with Spain. She started each of Spain's four matches at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship organised by UEFA for the ...

, captaining the side in their final match of

Group D Group D may refer to: * FIA Group D - International Formula racing cars: ** Formula Two ** Formula Three ** Formula 3000 * One of six or eight groups of four teams competing at the FIFA World Cup ** 2022 FIFA World Cup Group D ** 2018 FIFA Worl ...

against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Spain advanced to the quarterfinals but were eliminated in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, who scored all 5 of their penalties. Despite having rotated with Lola Gallardo in goal during warm-up matches for the

, Paños started all four of Spain's matches of the final tournament. Spain advanced to the knockout round of a Women's World Cup for the first time in their history, facing the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in the Round of 16. Paños faced two penalties, both of which were scored by

Megan Rapinoe Megan Anna Rapinoe (; born July 5, 1985) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player who played as a Midfielder#Winger, winger. She spent most of her career playing for Seattle Reign FC, OL Reign of the National Wom ...

, and the United States won the match 2–1. Paños was among '' Las 15'', the fifteen players who withdrew from international selection during a dispute with the Spanish federation in 2022; though reportedly being open to return for the 2023 World Cup, the coach had chosen a new starting goalkeeper during her absence and did not want to introduce tension in competing for the role, omitting Paños and calling up her Barcelona number two, Cata Coll instead.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Barcelona * Primera División: 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 ...

, 2021–22,

2022–23 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 ...

, 2023–24 *

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, 2019–20,

, 2021–22, 2023–24 *

Supercopa de España Femenina The Supercopa de España Femenina or the ''Spanish Women's Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football, contested by the winners and runners up of the Copa de la Reina and the remaining highest ranked teams from the Primera Divisió ...

: 2019–20, 2021–22,

, 2023–24 *

Copa Catalunya The Copa Catalunya () is a knockout competition organised by the Catalan Football Federation for football clubs in the Catalonia autonomous community of Spain. History Between 1903 and 1940, it was known as the ''Catalan football championship ...

: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Spain U17 *

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

Spain *

Algarve Cup The Algarve Cup is an invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and ...

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in the competitio ...

Individual *

: 2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 *

Squad of the Season: 2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20,

* UEFA Women's Champions League Goalkeeper of the Season:

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

Women's UEFA Team: 2021,

References

External links

* * * *
Sandra Paños
at

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

Sandra Paños
at

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

Sandra Paños
at BDFutbol {{DEFAULTSORT:Panos, Sandra Spanish women's footballers Footballers from Alicante 1992 births Living people Spain women's international footballers FC Barcelona Femení players Liga F players Club América (women) footballers Liga MX Femenil players 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's association football goalkeepers Levante UD Femenino players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Sporting Plaza de Argel players UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players Expatriate women's footballers in Mexico UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen