The extraordinary normality of Claudia Pina

Moncada and ReixachJust over five minutes' walk separates Bar Gol, located at number 20 Carrer Major in Montcada i Reixac, from the La Salle Montcada School and the Miquel Poblet municipal pavilion. This is the distance between the establishment run by Beatriz Medina, Claudia Pina's mother, and the school where the Barça footballer began kicking a ball and the court where she played futsal with her first federated member. At home, they like to watch soccer, but it was Claudia herself who, as a child, made the ball one of her favorite toys. "She used to insist that her father Arturo go out and shoot, and even back then, some people told us she would go far, but, of course, she was very little!" her mother recalls with a smile.

At school, she began to try out various sports, and although she was good at other disciplines like handball and tennis, she chose futsal. First, there would be school leagues, and soon a proposal would arrive from a parent at the school to create a federated indoor soccer team in Montcada. Claudia and another girl, Daniela, were the only girls. It would only take a couple of seasons before they made the leap to Espanyol's youth teams. "The coach told us she played so, so well. She wanted to play soccer, and there wasn't a girls' team in Montcada. We called Espanyol and went for a trial," Bea recalls.

When the day arrived, it turned out the tryout was with the youth team and not the under-12s, which she should have been eligible for due to her age. "She was very embarrassed. We had to wait a while. She watched the training session until she decided to enter." The tryout went very well, and she was called up to participate in the summer tournaments. By September, she was already a player for Espanyol. Once again, she would quickly progress. Jordi Ventura, then the coach of the Barça youth team, told Xavi Llorens, the coordinator, that the player should be signed. Aside from her competitiveness and a talent that was already presumed to be innate, having played futsal also gave her a distinctive style.

Espanyol's change at Barça

"We were very happy at Espanyol, but, of course, she'd watched Messi's Barça games over and over since she was little. We told her she had to choose, and she chose Barça." It was a great opportunity, but it also meant more sacrifice for her parents and for Claudia, who was barely a teenager. "They trained at nine at night, when the boys finished. I'd take her, and her father would pick her up. She'd arrive in Montcada after eleven... She had to have dinner and get up early the next day to go to school. We hardly saw each other on Tuesday and Thursday nights!" Bea recalls.

What Claudia's mother couldn't imagine was that all those efforts at reconciliation would end up resulting in a footballer who, at just 16 years old, debuted with Barça and was crowned Ballon d'Or and Golden Boot winner at the U-17 World Cup, which she won with the Spanish national team. A loan move to Sevilla followed, where she fit in very well, but she was left with the thorn in her side of not winning her first Champions League title with Barça. She would do so in Eindhoven, in 2023. This shirt and the one from the U-17 World Cup, framed, hang on one of the walls of Bar Gol de la Bea.

Claudia Pina's loan to Sevilla

That she was making giant strides forward wasn't a coincidence. Lluís Cortés, who has known her since she was 11 years old, while he was the Catalan U-12 coach, recalls this. "In that generation, there were players like Laia Aleixandri, Laia Codina... but Claudia was the only one who was a year younger than the rest of the team. You could see her talent. Plus, she always won prizes at the summer camps and tournaments..." comments the coach from Balaguer.

Already as Barça manager, Cortés was the one who gave the green light to Pina's loan to Sevilla. "I think it was a very good decision for everyone. She came from youth football, where she was far superior to the rest. She needed to accumulate minutes at a different competitive pace. We had a meeting with Markel Zubizarreta [then the sporting director] and she understood. We had to get out of the Barça bubble and prepare to contribute interesting things to the first team."

Champions League top scorer

Pina is only 23 years old, but with the departure of Asisat Oshoala and Mariona Caldentey, she has emerged as one of the most important forwards in the league. In fact, she's the Champions League's top scorer with seven goals, which she often celebrates by drawing an L with her fingers, in tribute to her younger sister Lucía. "When they were little, they used to kill each other! Now they have a very beautiful relationship, and that makes me proud as a mother," says Bea.

"He's a great goal-scorer, and that's something unique and special. He's very smart and intuitive: he knows where the next move will fall, finding the opening, feinting with his body... He may not be the fastest or the strongest, but he has a talent and intuition that make him special and decisive. You can tell he's having a good time. "I've always told him to have fun, like when he played in the schoolyard. She does what she loves most and we're people who keep our feet on the ground," Bea concludes from her bar in Montcada, where Pina still lives with her mother and often visits her childhood friends. It's the extraordinary normality of a distinctive footballer.