Mapi León will leave Barça after nine seasons

Mapi León has decided not to accept Barça's reduced renewal offer and on June 30 will put an end to nine years of blaugrana, as advanced by Rut Vilar on the podcast of Catalunya Ràdio Fem Futbol. The Aragonese defender — an important piece in Pere Romeu's setup — would have already communicated the decision to the sporting management. Furthermore, according to Sport the footballer would go for free to London City, owned by magnate Michele Kang, who also wants to lure Alexia Putellas. The English team already took Jana Fernández and Lucía Corrales from Barça last summer — paying a transfer fee then.

The Aragonese footballer arrived at the Blaugrana club in the summer of 2017 from Atlético de Madrid. At the time, the Catalan entity paid €50,000 in what was the first transfer between two Spanish women's clubs in history. In all this time, Mapi has become an essential footballer in the heart of the Blaugrana defense, not only for her ability to correct in space and defend in open play, but also for her ability to bring the ball out under control. Her extensive list of honors includes eight leagues, seven cups, and three Champions Leagues, and she will seek to add to it with the two finals remaining before the end of the season; the Copa de la Reina and the Champions League.

Over these nine seasons, Mapi León has played more than 300 matches with the Blaugrana jersey and has scored 23 goals, some of them —like the one at Camp Nou the first time it was opened against Real Madrid in 2022— still remembered by the Culé fans. In recent years, the player has seen the bitter side of football. In December 2023, Mapi tore the outer meniscus of her right knee in training and was out of action for more than six months. This season, she has also missed two months of competition due to an anterior impingement in her right ankle.

The footballer —much loved by the fans— was also a protagonist with the Spanish national team. The Aragonese player was one of the 15 players who resigned from the Spanish national team in 2022 if there were no changes. All of them gradually returned —as long as Montse Tomé and Sonia Bermúdez decided to call them up—, but in Mapi León's case, she decided not to return until the end of 2025, three years after everything erupted. This caused her to miss the 2023 World Cup that the Spanish national team won in Australia and New Zealand.

Barça thinks of Martina

The blaugrana club has been working for some time to strengthen the defensive line. One of the names that has recently come up is Martina Fernández. The central defender from Ordis was transferred to Everton last July, but Barça retained a buy-back option. According to what ARA has been able to learn, the club would be in negotiations to exercise it and be able to strengthen the defense. A few months ago, Martina already expressed her desire to return to the Catalan club in an interview with this newspaper. "My goal has always been to return to Barça, because it is my dream, it is where I want to end up playing, and I will work to try to achieve it," said the native of Girona.

Mapi León's departure —along with the cruciate ligament injury that Laia Aleixandri suffered and which will keep her away from the field until 2027— weaken the center-back position, where only Irene Paredes, Aïcha Camara, and Marta Torrejón would remain, who also see their contracts end on June 30th. In parallel, last March Barça announced the signing of Julia Torres, a center-back from Sevilla with future potential. The commitment to young talent is the line to follow by the sporting direction —headed by Marc Vivés— given the economic obstacles to competing against other European clubs for the most talented and renowned players.