Laia Codina Panedas (; born 22 January 2000) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Liga F club FC Barcelona and the Spain women's national team. She has represented Spain in multiple youth national teams.

Early life and education

Born in Campllong,

Province of Girona Girona (; es, Gerona ; french: Gérone) is a province of Spain, in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is bordered on the northwest by the province of Lleida, on the southwest by the province of Barcelona, on the ...

, Catalonia, Codina began playing football when she was four years old. As a child, she was a player in the lower categories of the Unió Deportiva Cassà, a team from the Girona municipality of Cassá de la Selva. Until the age of 14, she played on boys' teams. In 2014, she signed for Barça. Codina studies journalism at the

Universidad de Vic Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

Club career

Barcelona

In 2014, Codina signed for Barcelona to play in the lower categories. In 2017, at the age of 16, she made the leap to

Barcelona B Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. Codina was one of the leaders of the reserve team, becoming the captain the same season they were promoted to the Segunda División Pro. In the summer of 2019, the club announced that Codina would be in the first-team dynamics, although would be kept mainly as a reserve team player until the end of the season. In June 2020, her contract was extended until 2022, in addition to her definitive jump to the first team the following season. On 13 October 2019, she made her league debut in a match against Sporting de Huelva. Just four days later, she made her UEFA Women's Champions League debut in a round of 16 match against Minsk. In her first season as a first-team player, Codina wore the number 3, which she had already worn in the subsidiary. In November 2020, she underwent surgery after suffering an injury to the patellar cartilage in her right knee during a match of the Spanish U-20 team. In March 2021, she began playing again after four months out from injury recovery.

Loan to Milan

On 29 July 2021, Codina signed a one year loan deal with Italian club A.C. Milan.

International career

Codina has been a regular on Spain's youth national teams, including the under-17, under-19, and

under-20 Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

squads. In the summer of 2018, she was selected by

Jorge Vilda Jorge Vilda Rodríguez (born 7 July 1981) is a Spanish Association football, football coach and UEFA Pro Licence holder, who is the current head coach of the Spain women's national football team - a position he has held since 2015. Vilda is also ...

to compete at the

2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2018 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2018) was the 17th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (21st edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football champ ...

. Codina was proclaimed a European Under-19 champion with the Spanish team after defeating the German team in the final. In July 2019, Codina was selected by Pedro López to represent Spain at the

2019 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2019 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Women's Under-19 Euro 2019) was the 18th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (22nd edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual international youth football champ ...

in Scotland. The team was eliminated in the semifinals by France.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours

;FC Barcelona *

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2022-2023 * UEFA Women's Champions League:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

* Copa de la Reina:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

;Spain U19 * UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...