Salma Celeste Paralluelo Ayingono (; born 13 November 2003) is a Spanish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and former sprinter who plays as a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Liga F The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as the Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of Sports league, league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent ...

club

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

and the Spain national team. She is the first ever player to have won all three World Cups, having won the 2023 FIFA World Cup, 2022 FIFA U-20 World Cup, and 2018 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Early life

Paralluelo was born in

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

to a Catalan father and an Equatorial Guinean

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mother, the latter having moved from

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...

so that her son, Florencio, from a previous relationship, who had severe congenital vision deficiency, could receive better medical treatment in Spain. Apart from the aforementioned, she has two more brothers, José Jaime and Lorenzo, both footballers. She was raised in a working class neighbourhood in Zaragoza with her three older brothers. She began playing football with classmates as a young child. Her father lost his job during her early childhood, which worsened her family's financial position. Her mother later moved to Switzerland for work and had limited contact with Paralluelo, who remained in Spain and was raised primarily by her father. Paralluelo saw her mother during Christmas and summer holidays for most of her childhood. Her father described her a student who passed her classes but was not "brilliant". She is close friends with

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

bronze Olympic medalist,

Ana Peleteiro Ana Peleteiro-Compaoré Brión (Birth name, née Peleteiro Brión; born 2 December 1995 in A Coruña, Spain) is a Spanish triple jumper and the current national record holder. She won the gold medal in the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Champio ...

, whom she met during her athletics career as a teenager. In December 2012, her older half-brother, Florencio, disappeared while going to meet with friends from his university. His body was later found in a reservoir 35 days later in the Erbo River in Zaragoza. No violence or foul play was suspected in his death. Paralluelo participated in sports to cope with her brother's death.

Club career

Paralluelo is a product of UD San José in Zaragoza. She has played for

Zaragoza CFF Zaragoza Club de Fútbol Femenino, formerly known as ''Club Deportivo Transportes Alcaine'' for sponsorship reasons, is a Spanish women's association football, football team from Zaragoza playing in Segunda Federación (women), Segunda Federació ...

and

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

in Spain. She is also a 2022

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nominee. She signed for

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

at the end of the 2021–22 season, after her contract with Villarreal ended. In the 2023–24 season, she scored four goals in the 7–1 away win against

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

, one of two "pokers" on her way to being Barcelona's top goalscorer in all competitions (

Caroline Graham Hansen Caroline Graham Hansen (; born 18 February 1995) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Spanish Liga F club FC Barcelona Femení, FC Barcelona and the Norway women's national football team, Norway w ...

eventually took the league Pichichi title) as the team won four trophies. Still struggling in some tougher games, her growth as a footballer "made leaps" in the season.

International career

25th Laureus World Sports Awards - 240422 213934

Paralluelo won the 2018 UEFA Under-17 Championship and the 2018 FIFA U-17 World Cup. In April 2021, her anterior cruciate ligament was torn during a match. She returned to win the 2022 FIFA U-20 World Cup. She made her senior debut on 11 November 2022, starting and scoring a hat-trick in a 7-0 friendly home win over

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. She was included in the Spain squad list for the 2023 FIFA World Cup. During the quarter-final match against the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

on 11 August, she scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory after extra time, to qualify Spain for the first time in history into the semi-finals of a World Cup. On 15 August 2023, she scored a goal in Spain's 2–1 victory over

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to take her team to its first senior World Cup final. After winning the final against

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, in which she played as a starter, she was proclaimed the best young player of the tournament. In October 2024, she announced that she would take an indefinite break from football due to physical and mental fatigue. She made 92 appearances with the Spanish national team and Spanish football clubs in just two years from 2022 to 2024. In June 2025, she was called up by the Spanish national team for the

UEFA Women's Euro 2025 The 2025 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2025 or simply Euro 2025, will be the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the wome ...

tournament in Switzerland.

Athletics

As an athlete, Paralluelo began her career at the San José Athletics club in Zaragoza. She won the Jean Bouin road race in Barcelona from 2012 to 2016 in her age group. In June 2016, Paralluelo participated for the first time in the Spanish championships in her age group (U14) and won three disciplines (80 meters hurdles, shot put, 80 meters). In 2017, she won the 60 meters hurdles at the U16 Spanish Indoor Championships and finished sixth in the 100 meters hurdles at the U16 National Outdoor Championships that summer. She joined the Scorpio-71 club, the largest athletics club in Zaragoza. In 2018, Paralluelo won the 300 meters at the Spanish U16 Indoor Championships in 39.46 s and finished second in the triple jump (12.06 meters) on the same day. At her age group outdoor championships in July, she broke the all-time Spanish record in the non-Olympic 300 meters hurdles discipline with a winning time of 42.56. In the outdoor season, in the third race of her life over the

400 meters hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

, during the Ibero-American Athletics Meeting in Huelva, Paralluelo ran a time of 57.43, beating the all-time best Spanish sub-18 record and also breaking that year’s sub-18 world best time. With this result she was also qualified for the

2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival The 2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, between 21 and 27 July 2019. Sports The following competitions took place: Venues Schedule The competition schedule for the 2019 European Youth Olympic Summer Fes ...

, where she won two gold medals in the 400m hurdles event, with a time of 57.95, and the medley relay. In late 2019 she went to Playas de Castellón. She won her first senior medal at the 2019 Spanish Indoor Athletics Championships, winning bronze in the 400-meter test with a mark of 53.83s, a Spanish national record in the sub-18 and sub-20 categories. Her result also allowed her to participate in the

2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held between 1 and 3 March 2019 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. This was the second time this event was held in the city after the 1990 edition and the third time it was held in the ...

. At the age of 15 years and 108 days, she was the second youngest ever participant in a total of 35 European Indoor Championships, only behind Norwegian race walker Kjersti Tysse (15 years and 34 days in the 1987 edition). In July 2022, after signing a contract with

, Salma Paralluelo announced that she wanted to focus solely on football in the future, thus retiring her career in athletics.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Paralluelo goal.''

Honours

FC Barcelona *

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

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, 2023–24 * Primera División:

, 2023–24 *

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: 2023–24 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

, 2023–24 Spain *

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2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

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: 2023–24 ;Spain U20 *

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2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

;Spain U17 *

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2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup is an annual (biennial until 2024) international women's association football tournament for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA) ...

Individual * FIFA Women's World Cup Young Player Award:

* 433 – Women's Talent of the Year: 2022–23 * Hija Predilecta de Zaragoza (2023) *

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French magazine ''France Football'' since 1956 Ballon d'Or, 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season. Conceived ...

3rd place:

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* IFFHS Women's World's Best Youth Player: 2023 * IFFHS Women's World Team of the Year: 2023, 2024 *

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Women's UEFA Team: 2023, 2024 *

Women's Youth (U20) UEFA Team: 2023 *

Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year The Laureus World Sports Awards is an annual award ceremony honouring individuals and teams from the world of sports along with sporting achievements throughout the year. It was established in 1999 by Laureus Sport for Good Foundation foundin ...

Nominee: 2024 * The Best FIFA Women's 11:

Records

Currently, Salma Paralluelo holds the following Spanish records in different age categories:

Under-18

* 300m (38.60) * 300m hurdles (41.97) * 400m hurdles (57.36) * Medley relay (2:08.53, with Laura Pintiel, Esperança Cladera, and Carmen Avilés) * 400m indoor track (53.83)

Under-16

* 300m hurdles (42.56) * 300m indoor track (39.27)

References

External links

Salma Paralluelo
at

Salma Paralluelo
at BDFutbol * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paralluelo, Salma 2003 births Living people Footballers from Zaragoza Spanish women's footballers Women's association football wingers Zaragoza CFF players Villarreal CF (women) players FC Barcelona Femení players Segunda Federación (women) players Liga F players Spain women's youth international footballers Spain women's international footballers Spanish female sprinters Spanish sportspeople of Equatoguinean descent 21st-century Spanish sportswomen 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players FIFA Women's World Cup–winning players Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Spain UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players UEFA Women's Euro 2025 players