Salma Paralluelo

Salma Celeste Paralluelo Ayingono (born 13 November 2003) is a Spanish professional footballer and former sprinter who plays as a left winger for Liga F club Barcelona 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 to a Spanish father and an Equatorial Guinean Fang mother, the latter having moved from Equatorial Guinea so that her son from a previous relationship with a severe congenital vision deficiency could receive better medical treatment in Spain. In December 2012, when the young man was 21 years old, he disappeared in Zaragoza and his body was found the following month. Apart from the aforementioned, she has two more brothers, José Jaime and Lorenzo, both footballers.

Club career
Paralluelo is a product of UD San José in Zaragoza. She has played for Zaragoza CFF and Villarreal in Spain. She is also a 2022 FIFA Puskás Award nominee.

She signed for FC Barcelona 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, one of two "pokers" on her way to being Barcelona's top goalscorer in all competitions (Caroline Graham Hansen 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
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.

She was included in the Spain squad list for the 2023 FIFA World Cup. During the quarter-final match against the Netherlands 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 Sweden to take her team to its first senior World Cup final. After winning the final against England, in which she played as a starter, she was proclaimed the best young player of the tournament.

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 meter hurdles, 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 years sub-18 world best time. With this result she was also qualified for the 2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival, 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. 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 FC Barcelona, Salma Paralluelo announced that she wanted to focus solely on football in the future, thus retiring her career in athletics.

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: 2022–23, 2023–24
 * Primera División: 2022–23, 2023–24
 * Copa de la Reina: 2023–24
 * Supercopa de España: 2022–23, 2023–24

Spain

Individual
 * FIFA Women's World Cup: 2023
 * UEFA Women's Nations League: 2023–24
 * Spain U20
 * FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup: 2022
 * Spain U17
 * UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship: 2018
 * FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup: 2018


 * FIFA Women's World Cup Young Player Award: 2023
 * 433 – Women's Talent of the Year: 2022–23
 * Hija Predilecta de Zaragoza (2023)
 * Ballon d'Or Féminin 3rd place: 2023
 * IFFHS Women's World's Best Youth Player: 2023
 * IFFHS Women's World Team of the Year: 2023
 * IFFHS Women's UEFA Team: 2023
 * IFFHS Women's Youth (U20) UEFA Team: 2023
 * Laureus World Sports Award for Breakthrough of the Year Nominee: 2024

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)