Vicky López once again wrote her name in the history books of Spanish football. At 17 years, 6 months and 27 days, the FC Barcelona player became the youngest footballer to debut with the senior Spanish team and she did so, nothing more and nothing less than in a Nations League semi-final, against the Netherlands . Despite her youth, the midfielder’s pulse did not tremble, and she showed her usual self-confidence with the ball, even daring to shoot over Van Domselaar’s goal.
She came onto the field at the end of the match, in the 73rd minute, replacing Jenni Hermoso and wearing the number ‘3’ of Tere Abelleira, who was left out of the final squad due to her muscle problems. Just four minutes later, Spain would seal the game 3-0, the work of Ona Batlle.
“I have enjoyed it a lot,” Vicky López acknowledged to the TVE cameras after her debut, who wanted to thank the coach for the opportunity given: “I will continue working to make them much more,” she promised. The young promise of FC Barcelona confessed what Montse Tomé’s words were before she took the field: “she told me to enjoy it, that it is a unique experience.”
She finished the game covered by all her teammates while wearing that shy smile that always accompanies her and that contrasts with her wild lioness mane. “I’m embarrassing, I don’t like these things, but I appreciate the support that my colleagues have given me from the first moment I arrived,” she said.
She arrived at FC Barcelona in the summer of 2022, from Madrid CFF, where she had already broken barriers by becoming the youngest footballer to debut in the F League, at just 15 years old. In the same market she would arrive at the Catalan club Salma Paralluelo who would become a kind of older sister for Vicky. They are very close and in addition to her adaptation to a top-level club like FC Barcelona, ??they are now also experiencing their first steps with the senior team together.
The call for the final phase of the Nations League caught the young Blaugrana pearl by surprise. She was studying at La Masia, where she has resided since her arrival in Barcelona because she had a history exam the next day. She studies the second year of Scientific Baccalaureate and combines it with her training and matches.
Under-17 world champion, it was clear that Vicky López had outgrown the under-17 level for a long time, but her jump directly to the senior team has been a complete surprise. One more record of precocity collected by the Blaugrana footballer who holds, among others, the recognition of being the youngest footballer to debut in the Champions League with FC Barcelona, ??at 16 years and 148 days, ahead of Ansu Fati (16 years and 321 days). She also surpassed the Blaugrana striker as the youngest scorer in the history of the classics, scoring her first goal against Real Madrid at 17 years and 116 days, compared to Ansu Fati’s 17 years and 358 days.
Now, the next goal is even more ambitious, the Olympic Games next summer, the first in history for the Spanish women’s team. “All soccer players dream of these moments,” Vicky López acknowledged after the game before proudly exclaiming: “We’re going to Paris!”
