Victoria López Serrano Felix (; born 26 July 2006) 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 an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and a winger 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 ...

club

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 the Spain national team. She also plays for

FC Barcelona B FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

. López began her club career in the youth sections of

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 Alfredo ...

in 2015, where she stood out as one of the best young female prospects in Spain. She made her debut in Liga F at age 15, becoming the youngest-ever player in Spain's top women's division. She later moved to

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 ...

in 2022, where she broke multiple club records due to her age, being the youngest player to debut for FC Barcelona women's team, to play in the Champions League for any FC Barcelona team, and debut and score in a ''Clásico'' ( women's or men's). With Barcelona, she has won two league titles, two

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 ...

titles, one

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 ...

title, and two

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. ...

titles, as well as two Spanish second division league titles with Barcelona's reserve team. As part of Spain's youth national teams since 2021, López has found success with Spain's under-17 team, finishing runner-up in the Under-17 Euro in both

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 ...

and

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 ...

, and winning the

2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the 7th edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the multinational–international women's youth football championship, contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, si ...

. In this competition, she was awarded the Golden Ball trophy as the best player of the tournament. She made her senior debut in 2024, becoming the youngest player to play for the

Spain women's national football team The Spain women's national football team, officially known as the Spain national football team (), has represented Spain in international Women's association football, women's football competitions since 1980. It is governed by the Royal Spanis ...

. In her second appearance for Spain, they won the

2024 UEFA Women's Nations League Finals The 2024 UEFA Women's Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2023–24 edition of the UEFA Women's Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the women's national teams of the 55 member ...

Early life

Victoria López Serrano Felix was born on 26 July 2006 in the

Vallecas Vallecas was a municipality of Spain that disappeared as such in 1950, when its annexation to the municipality of Madrid took place. Nowadays, the territory is roughly occupied by two districts: Puente de Vallecas (population 240,917) and V ...

neighborhood of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

to Jesús López Serrano Pérez and Joy Felix. Her father is Spanish and her mother was Nigerian. Her mother was a business owner in López's early childhood but was forced to close the family business due to the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. López has an older brother who she would often play football with starting at age 4, and as she got older, she joined organised girls' teams and played against girls that were four years older than her. López's mother died from a

brain tumour A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign (non-cancero ...

in 2018, when López was 11 years old. As her mother was spending long periods in the hospital near the end of her life,

's president and the club's players helped take López to and from training, as her father was not able to. As a frequent goal celebration, she will often look up and point to the sky after scoring in remembrance of her mother.

Club career

Youth football

López' earliest experience with a club was playing as a

centre-back 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 ...

in a 7-a-side girls' football team, C.D. Sport Villa, based in Vallecas. Around the same time that she began playing in girls' football teams, she was approached by Alba Mellado, who captained Madrid CFF and coached some of their girls' youth sections. Mellado attempted to convince López to join Madrid CFF's youth ranks, but she and her parents wanted to keep her on the same team with her friends. She played at Sport Villa for half a season before her father pulled her out of the club, as she was not doing well in school and was getting into fights with her brother; she was not allowed to play football for half a year, during which time she took up horse riding. After this, López went to a summer training camp for

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

where she was coached by footballer

Paloma Lázaro Paloma Lázaro Torres del Molino (born 28 September 1993) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right winger who plays for Servette. Club career At Rayo Vallecano, Lázaro was part of the squad that won the team's third consecut ...

, who wanted her to join Rayo's youth ranks. She ultimately went to Madrid CFF.

Madrid CFF

Youth, 2015–21

Following a summer training camp, López planned to join Rayo Vallecano's youth section but changed her mind after meeting Madrid CFF's Mellado again, on a summer holiday in

Benidorm Benidorm ( , , ) is a municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Known as the “New York City, New York of the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean”, Benidorm has been a tourist destinatio ...

. Mellado was accompanied by Madrid CFF's president, Alfredo Ulloa, and goalkeeper, Paola Ulloa, and had been wearing a Rayo shirt, which caught López's attention. Though López's parents again refused her joining the club, Mellado was allowed to spend the next few days with the family, bonding with López and going through training drills on the beach. López's parents eventually agreed to let her undergo trials at the club, which she passed, joining the club at 9 years old. She entered competition at the under-10 (') level. In 2019, López competed in the first La Liga Promesas Femenina, a tournament played amongst the under-12 sections of most teams in the Spanish first division. She scored seven goals – including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in the final – and was named tournament MVP. She scored 60 goals in 17 matches during the 2020–21 youth league season.

Senior, 2021–22

López had to reach the minimum age of 15 before she was able to debut with Madrid CFF's senior team. On 5 September 2021, she became the youngest player to debut in Spain's first division at just 15 years old when she entered the match to replace Geyse in the 73rd minute against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

Barcelona

2022–23

On 26 July 2022, López joined

on a five-year contract. She started at the club primarily as a B team player who also trained and sometimes played with the first team. Her first appearance for the first team came on 17 September 2022, when she was given a start in a 2–0 home win against UD Tenerife. She became the youngest debutante for Barcelona's first team in the professional era, at 16 years and 49 days old. In November, she became the youngest-ever player, male or female, to feature in a Clásico match when Barcelona won 4–0 over

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. She later went on to become the youngest player to compete in the Champions League with FC Barcelona, debuting on 21 December at 16 years and 148 days old, beating

Ansu Fati Anssumane Fati Vieira (born 31 October 2002) is a professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward or Forward (association football), winger for club FC Barcelona, Barcelona. Born in Guinea- ...

's record of 16 years and 321 days old. A month later on 25 January 2023, she made history by becoming the youngest goalscorer in Barcelona's senior team history when she scored in their 7–0 victory over Levante Las Planas in the league. López continued to compete with Barcelona B at the same time that she began to play more regularly with the first team. She scored her first goal for

Barcelona B 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 cit ...

on 5 March 2023, the first goal in a 3–0 win against Athletic Club B. López won her first senior title with Barcelona on 1 May 2023, when the club won the 2022–23 Spanish league with a 3–0 win over Sporting Huelva. On the same day, she won her first title with Barcelona B, who were crowned champions of the

2022–23 Primera Federación The 2022–23 Primera Federación season was the second season for the Primera Federación, the third highest level in the Spanish football league system. Forty teams participated, divided into two groups of twenty clubs each based on geographi ...

, Spain's second-tier women's football league.

2023–24

In the 2023–24 season, López broke another one of Ansu Fati's records by becoming the youngest player to score a goal in El Clásico, which she accomplished at 17 years and 116 days. In October 2023, she was included in the 10-women list of finalists for ''

Tuttosport ''Tuttosport'' is a daily sports newspaper based in the city of Turin, Italy. History and profile ''Tuttosport'' was first published on 30 July 1945. Renato Casalbore (who later died in the 1949 Superga air disaster alongside the Grande Torino ...

'''s European Golden Girl award alongside three of her Barcelona teammates. López made many appearances for the first team during the 2023–24 season in which they won a quadruple, consolidating the promise she had shown in her appearances the previous season and becoming reliable in the squad.

International career

Youth

López competed in multiple youth tournaments with Spain's under-17 national team, including both the

and 2023 U-17 Euro and the 2022 U-17 World Cup, the latter of which she won. In the

2022 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship The 2022 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-17 Euro 2022) was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the women's under ...

, Spain finished as runners-up after losing the final on penalties to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. López had provided the assist for Spain's equaliser in the final, but missed the fifth penalty in the shoot-out. During the tournament she scored one goal, in a 4–0 win over

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

in the group stage. The result qualified Spain U-17 for the

as one of the favourites, a tournament they won. López played in each of Spain's group stage matches, and assisted Spain's only goal in their final group stage match, a 1–0 win over

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Finishing second in their group behind

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, Spain had an unfavourable draw and played their quarterfinal against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

; López scored both of Spain's late goals in a 2–1 comeback victory to progress, her only goals in the tournament. Spain defeated Germany in their semi-final and Colombia in the final, with López awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. Asked about the victory afterwards, López reflected that the U-17 World Cup was "the lowest level title";

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

opined that this was a sign of both López' ambition and her familiarity with the game's elite, as she already trained with the first team of Barcelona, considered the best team in the world. Though she did not have a prolific goalscoring tournament, her brace against Japan was significant, and her game play was said by ESPN to be important for Spain to control possession. The website noted that "whenever Spain were in any real trouble, they often just gave her the ball." In the final year before she began getting called up to Spain's senior national team, she competed with Spain at the

2023 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship The 2023 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the women's under-17 national teams of Europe. Estonia was hostin ...

. López had a much more prolific tournament compared to her previous Under-17 Euros campaign, scoring in the group stage, the semifinal, and the final. She scored both goals in Spain's 2–0 victory against Germany in their opening match of the group stage, the first of which was the fastest goal scored in Under-17 Women's Euro history. Spain finished first in their group and reached the semi-final against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, where she scored Spain's first goal in a 3–1 victory, helping advance them to their second consecutive U-17 Euro final. They met

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in the final, and ''Les Bleues'' held a 3–0 lead over Spain by the 78th minute, with López conceding the penalty that led to France's third goal. She then immediately scored two goals within two minutes, but Spain were unable to overturn their 0–3 deficit and finished the match with a 2–3 loss. In total, she scored 5 goals and was the joint-top goalscorer of the tournament alongside French players Liana Joseph and Maeline Mendy. She earned the Player of the Tournament award for her performances.

Senior

As López was born to a Spanish father and a Nigerian mother, she was eligible to represent both

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

at international level. According to her father, she was pursued by the

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas de Madrid, Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the natio ...

since she was young, and never contacted by the

Nigeria Football Federation The Nigeria Football Federation (known as Nigeria Football Association until 2008) is Nigeria's association football, football sports governing body, governing body. It was formally launched in 1945 and formed the first Nigerian national football ...

, though López herself mentioned her affection for the Nigerian team and (before she became

cap-tied Cap-tied is an adjective, used primarily in association football, to describe a player who has represented a senior national football team in more than three games (including at least one competitive game) and as a result is unable to represent a ...

to Spain) suggested she might play for them to honour her mother. López made her senior Spain debut at the

, aged 17. She received her call-up to the squad in February 2024, to play in the playoff stages of the 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League A. She won her first cap in the semi-final, subbing on for

Jenni Hermoso Jennifer Hermoso Fuentes (born 9 May 1990) is a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Liga MX Femenil club Tigres UANL (women), Tigres UANL and the Spain women's nationa ...

in a 3–0 win over

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, becoming the youngest player to debut for the Spain women's team, at 17 years, 6 months, and 27 days. Spain's victory qualified them for the

2024 Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

, the first Olympic qualification in their history. Spain went on to win the Nations League final against

, when López again replaced Hermoso late in the match. Spain's Nations League victory was Lopez's first senior title with the Spanish national team.

Personal life

As of 2023, López is completing her ''Bachillerato científico''.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

FC Barcelona B *

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, officially the Primera Federación Versus e-Learning for sponsorship reasons (formerly known as Primera RFEF). is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administe ...

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 FC Barcelona *

, 2023–24 *

: 2023–24 *

, 2023–24 *

, 2023–24 Spain U17 *

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup is an annual (biennial until 2024) international women's association football tournament for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA) ...

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 ...

: runner-up

Spain *

UEFA Women's Nations League The UEFA Women's Nations League is a biennial international Women's association football, women's football competition contested by the senior List of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the member association ...

: 2023–24 Individual * Golden Girl: 2024 * IFFHS Women's World's Best Youth Player: 2024 * FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Golden Ball:

Player of the Tournament:

*UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship Team of the Tournament:

* IFFHS Women's Youth (U20) World Team: 2022, 2023, 2024 *

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 Youth (U20) UEFA Team: 2023, 2024 *La Liga Promesas Femenina Best Player: 2019 *La Liga Promesas Femenina Top Goalscorer: 2019

References

External links

Vicky
at BDFutbol * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Vicky 2006 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Women's association football wingers Madrid CFF players Liga F players Spain women's youth international footballers Spanish people of Nigerian descent Sportspeople of Nigerian descent FC Barcelona Femení B players FC Barcelona Femení players Primera Federación (women) players Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Spain UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen