Spain Celebrates Milestones in Women's Football Amidst European Growth
Spanish women's football gains historic recognition at home as UEFA highlights its rapid growth and investment across Europe in 2025.
- • Aitana Bonmatí named best female athlete in Spain for 2023, also honoring Spain's women's football 2023 World Cup win.
- • UEFA's Nadine Kessler underscores near doubling of women's matches in Europe and calls women's football a "rising star."
- • New UEFA women's club competitions, such as the Europa Cup, are planned to boost competitiveness and participation.
- • Partnerships with audiovisual platforms and exclusive scheduling are critical to the sport's growing visibility.
- • Spain and UEFA highlight women's football’s evolving professional and commercial landscape in 2025.
Key details
Spain is currently witnessing a remarkable rise in women's football, highlighted by the national team's 2023 World Cup victory and recognition at the highest levels of Spanish sport. On October 16, 2025, the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) announced the National Sports Awards, honouring several athletes and teams for their outstanding achievements in 2023 and 2024. Among them, Aitana Bonmatí was awarded as the best female athlete of 2023, in recognition of her key role in securing the World Cup win for the Spanish women's football team and her successes with FC Barcelona. The entire women's football team received special accolades for their historic World Cup triumph (Source ID: 103480).\n\nBeyond Spain, Nadine Kessler, UEFA's Director of Women’s Football, emphasized the sport's rapid growth across Europe at the World Football Summit in Madrid. She noted that the number of women's football matches in Europe has almost doubled from 450 to nearly 800, indicating a surge in fan interest and investment. Kessler highlighted that women's football is no longer a niche but a “rising star” that is attracting serious investment and evolving towards viable business models within club and national league structures. She praised the recent Women’s Euro in Switzerland for record attendance figures and outlined UEFA’s plans to expand women's club competitions by introducing new tournaments such as the Europa Cup to foster competitiveness and wider participation. Kessler also stressed the importance of dedicated scheduling for women's matches and partnerships with audiovisual platforms like Disney+ to boost visibility (Source ID: 103507).\n\nThis dual recognition—domestically by Spain and continentally by UEFA—illustrates a pivotal moment for women’s football. Spain’s achievements symbolize how investment and commitment translate into performance and excellence on the world stage. Meanwhile, UEFA’s strategies aim to sustain this momentum by building stable infrastructures, improving league competitiveness, and creating more commercial opportunities for women’s football clubs across Europe.\n\nWith figures like Bonmatí leading by example and administrators like Kessler driving change, the future of women’s football in Spain and beyond looks promising, fostering greater visibility and professionalization that align with growing fan support worldwide.
This article was synthesized and translated from native language sources to provide English-speaking readers with local perspectives.