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Vicky López

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In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is López Serrano and the second or maternal family name is Felix.

Vicky López
López with Barcelona in 2024
Personal information
Full name Victoria López Serrano Felix[1]
Date of birth (2006-07-26) 26 July 2006 (age 18)
Place of birth Madrid, Spain[2]
Height 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in)[3]
Position(s) Attacking midfielder, winger[3]
Team information
Current team
 Barcelona
Number 19
Youth career
Madrid CFF
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2021–2022 Madrid CFF B 20 (14)
2021–2022 Madrid CFF 8 (0)
2022–2024 Barcelona B 23 (3)
2022– Barcelona 30 (10)
International career‡
2021–2023 Spain U17 26 (14)
2023– Spain U19 4 (2)
2024– Spain 4 (0)
Medal record
Women's football
Representing  Spain
UEFA Women's Nations League
Winner 2024 France–Netherlands–Spain
FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
Winner 2022 India
UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship
Runner-up 2022 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Runner-up 2023 Estonia
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 20:26, 10 May 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 20:26, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

Victoria López Serrano Felix (listenⓘ; born 26 July 2006) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder and a winger for Liga F club Barcelona and the Spain national team. She also plays for FC Barcelona B.

López began her club career in the youth sections of Madrid CFF 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 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 titles, one Copa de la Reina title, and two UEFA Women's Champions League 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 and 2023, and winning the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. 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. In her second appearance for Spain, they won the 2024 UEFA Women's Nations League Finals.

Early life

Victoria López Serrano Felix was born on 26 July 2006 in the Vallecas neighborhood of Madrid to Jesús López Serrano Pérez and Joy Felix. Her father is Spanish and her mother was Nigerian.[4][5] Her mother was a business owner in López's early childhood but was forced to close the family business in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.[6] 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.[7][8] Her earliest experience with a club was playing as a centre-back in a 7-a-side girls' football team, C.D. Sport Villa, based in Vallecas.[7] 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.[9] 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.[7][8]

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;[10] she was not allowed to play football for half a year,[7] during which time she took up horse riding.[6][10] After this, López went to a summer training camp for Rayo Vallecano where she was coached by footballer Paloma Lázaro, who wanted her to join Rayo's youth ranks.[7] She ultimately went to Madrid CFF.[11]

López's mother passed away due to a brain tumour in 2018,[9] when López was 11 years old.[6] As her mother was spending long periods in the hospital near the end of her life, Madrid CFF's president and the club's players helped take López to and from training, as her father was not able to.[6] As a frequent goal celebration, she will often look up and point to the sky after scoring in remembrance of her mother.[6][9]

Club career

Madrid CFF

Youth, 2015–21

López with Madrid CFF in 2019

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. Mellado was accompanied by Madrid CFF's president, Alfredo Ulloa, and goalkeeper, Paola Ulloa,[7] 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.[7][8] López's parents eventually agreed to let her undergo trials at the club,[6][10][11] which she passed, joining the club at 9 years old. She entered competition at the under-10 (benjamín [es]) level.[11]

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 in the final – and was named tournament MVP.[12] She scored 60 goals in 17 matches during the 2020–21 youth league season.[4]

Senior, 2021–22

López had to reach the minimum age of 15 before she was able to debut with Madrid CFF's senior team.[10][13] 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.[13][1][14]

Barcelona

López (right) preparing to take a corner kick with Alexia Putellas (left) in a UEFA Women's Champions League match against Brann

2022–23

On 26 July 2022, López joined FC Barcelona on a five-year contract. She started at the club primarily as a B team player who would occasionally enter the first team dynamics.[15] Her first appearance for Barcelona's senior 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 debutant for Barcelona's first team in the professional era at 16 years and 49 days old.[16][17] 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.[17] 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, which surpassed Ansu Fati's record of 16 years and 321 days old.[10][16][17][18] A month later on 25 January 2023, she made history by becoming the youngest goal scorer in Barcelona's senior team history when she scored in their 7–0 victory over Levante Las Planas in the league.[19]

López continued to compete with Barcelona B at the same time that she began to play more regularly with the senior team. She scored her first goal for Barcelona B on 5 March 2023, the first goal in a 3–0 win against Athletic Club B.[20][21] 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, Spain's second-tier women's football league.[17]

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.[14][22]

In October 2023, she was included in the 10-women list of finalists for Tuttosport's European Golden Girl award alongside three of her Barcelona teammates.[23][24][25] 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.[26]

International career

Youth

López competed in multiple youth tournaments with Spain's under-17 national team, including both the 2022 and 2023 under-17 Euro and the 2022 U-17 World Cup, the latter of which she won.[27]

In 2022, she finished as runner-up at that year's UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, where she reached the final with Spain, where the team lost 2–3 on penalties to Germany. In the final on 15 May 2022, López assisted Spain's first goal of the final with a free kick that Marina Artero headed in to equalize the match.[28] After both teams each scored a second goal, the match finished with a draw in regular time and advanced to penalties. López took and missed Spain's fifth and decisive penalty of the shootout, resulting in a victory for the Germans.[29][30] She ended her tournament having scored one goal, in a 4–0 win over Norway in the group stage.[31]

Spain's second-place finish qualified them for the 2022 U-17 Women's World Cup in India, where they were poised as one of the favorites to win. López competed in each of Spain's group stage matches,[32] and assisted Spain's only goal in their final group stage match, a 1–0 win over China.[33] La Roja finished second in their group behind Colombia and advanced to the quarterfinals against Japan. In the quarterfinals, López scored both of Spain's late goals in a 2–1 win,[34][35] which took Spain to the semifinals where they faced their 2022 Under-17 Euro final opponent, Germany. After defeating Germany, Spain was victorious in the final against Colombia.[36] At the end of the tournament, López was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player at the World Cup.[8][27]

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. 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.[37] Spain finished first in their group and reached the semi-final against England, where she scored Spain's first goal in a 3–1 victory, helping advance them to their second consecutive U-17 Euro final.[38][39] They met France 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.[40] 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.[37]

Senior

As López was born to a Spanish father and a Nigerian mother, she was eligible to represent both Spain and Nigeria at international level. According to her father, she was pursued by the Royal Spanish Football Federation since she was young, and never contacted by the Nigeria Football Federation, though López herself mentioned her affection for the Nigerian team and (before she became cap-tied to Spain) suggested she might play for them to honour her mother.[13][41][42] López made her senior Spain debut at the 2024 UEFA Women's Nations League Finals, aged 17.

She received her call-up to the squad in February 2024, while she was studying for a history exam.[14][43] She won her first cap in the semi-final, subbing on for Jenni Hermoso in a 3–0 win over the Netherlands,[44] becoming the youngest player to debut for the Spain women's team, at 17 years, 6 months, and 27 days.[14][45] Spain's victory qualified them for the 2024 Olympics, the first Olympic qualification in their history.[44][46] Spain later went on to win the final against France, where López again replaced Hermoso late in the match.[47] 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.[6]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 10 May 2024[48][49]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup[a] Continental[b] Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Madrid CFF B 2021–22 Segunda División Pro 20 14 – – – 20 14
Madrid CFF 2021–22 Primera División 8 0 0 0 – – 8 0
Barcelona B 2022–23 Primera Federación 15 1 – – – 15 1
2023–24 8 2 – – – 8 2
Total 23 3 – – – 23 3
Barcelona 2022–23 Liga F 10 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 12 2
2023–24 20 8 4 0 8 0 2[c] 0 34 8
Total 30 10 5 0 9 0 2 0 46 10
Career total 81 27 5 0 9 0 2 0 97 27
  1. ^ Appearances in Copa de la Reina
  2. ^ Appearances in UEFA Women's Champions League
  3. ^ Appearances in Supercopa de España

International

As of match played 9 April 2024
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Spain 2024 3 0
Total 3 0

Honours

FC Barcelona B

FC Barcelona

Spain U17

Spain

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b "Primera Iberdrola – Madrid CFF 0 - 2 Athletic Club". Royal Spanish Football Federation (in Spanish). 5 September 2021. Archived from the original on 5 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Vicky". Bdfutbol. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Vicky Lopez". University Soccer. Archived from the original on 5 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Dad reveals Madrid CFF goal machine wants to play for Nigeria despite call-up to Spain U17s". Archived from the original on 18 September 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  5. ^ Neira, Pablo de Llano (1 November 2022). "Vicky López conquista el mundo". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Jiménez, Mayca (18 February 2023). "La Vicky López más personal: la hípica, sus apodos 'olvidados' y el fútbol como refugio". Relevo (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Riquelme, Sandra (28 February 2024). "Un viaje a los orígenes de Vicky López, la niña prodigio del fútbol: «Me tiré tres días jugando con ella en la playa para ficharla»". Relevo (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
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  9. ^ a b c "La història de Vicky López fins arribar al Barça: una trobada casual la va apropar al futbol professional". 3Cat (in Catalan). 3 April 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
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  35. ^ Lopes, Flavio (23 October 2022). "Vicky Lopez turns it around for Spain with two late goals against Japan". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
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  37. ^ a b "Spain's Vicky López named 2023 Women's U17 EURO Player of the Tournament | Women's Under-17". UEFA. 30 May 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
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  42. ^ Emmanuel, Ifeanyi. "Dad reveals Madrid CFF goal machine wants to play for Nigeria despite call-up to Spain U17s | All Nigeria Soccer". www.allnigeriasoccer.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
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  44. ^ a b "Vicky López makes her debut in a historic match | www.rfef.es/en". Real Federación Española de Fútbol. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
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  48. ^ Vicky López at Soccerway
  49. ^ Vicky at BDFutbol
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  58. ^ "Spain's Vicky López named 2023 Women's U17 EURO Player of the Tournament". UEFA.com. 30 May 2023.
  59. ^ "2023 Women's Under-17 EURO Team of the Tournament". UEFA.com. 30 May 2023.
  60. ^ "IFFHS WOMEN'S YOUTH (U20) WORLD TEAM 2023". IFFHS. 5 January 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
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