Alexia Putellas, 22, plays for FC Barcelona women’s team in Spain’s Primera Division and this summer, the Spanish midfielder is training at IMG Academy getting ready for next season.

I caught up with Putellas to talk about the soccer (futbol) landscape in Spain, her experiences in the United States and her long-term career goals.

Last season, Putellas and Barca finished second in the league and qualified for the UEFA Champions League but for the first time since Putellas joined the club in 2012, the team failed to win any sort of championship.

Here’s what she had to say:

How was last season for you and FC Barcelona? What were the team’s goals for the season?

The two main objectives always for Barcelona is to win the league and to at least try to get second place or third place that way you can at least qualify for Champion’s League. And then it’s always an objective for us to win the Queen’s Cup as well.

For me personally, it was a hard year because we didn’t meet those objectives and it was also my first year after three years of playing for Barcelona that I didn’t win a single title. That was hard for me to accept.

What is women’s soccer like in Spain? Is it comparable at all to the men’s side? 

Every day female soccer is being more and more recognized in Spain, the only thing is that male soccer over there is on such a high, it’s hard to get up to that level but I’ve noticed that every year there’s more and more interest.

For example, our last game of the season when we tied and lost by one point in goal differential, we ended up with 25,000 people filling that stadium. So for female sports in Spain that’s a very very high number.

In the United States, a lot of soccer conversation has circled around the national team players making the same amount of money as the male soccer players. Is that a conversation that’s going on in Spain also? If at all? 

The men’s league, it’s on a different galaxy than what girls soccer is even compared to right now in Spain. I know that for example, the Women’s World Cup here in the United States, the women’s national team did a phenomenal job, they’ve won World Cups, they’ve won Olympics.

So I mean their at a point where they’re a little more advanced and they probably have earned the right to be able to ask for more money but in Spain that league really hasn’t developed to its potential yet. I don’t even feel that we’re at a point where we could make even a demand to be able to ask for more than what we’re receiving at this time.

Out of all the places in the world where you could have trained, why come to the United States and specifically Bradenton/IMG?

This all came about through a relationship that we have built together. I’ve never been to the United States, so it’s always been a goal of mine to come to the United States and visit.

To come to Bradenton, really was just to be able to come to IMG Academy and that really just took place through our relationship. When the opportunity came up to come to IMG, I didn’t think twice about it. When I got here and saw the facilities I was really intrigued to see how IMG was developing kids and female athletes at a young age. I’m really intrigued to see the camps that IMG provides to see that development at a young age compared to what we do over in Spain.

I saw you going around and talking with the campers, are you interested in how young athletes train in general, worldwide growing the game? 

I’m actually really intrigued to see the development of players in the United States. In Spain, in Barcelona, we have whats called the “masia” which is a school that kids start going to at a very young age. Ever since they are just a couple feet tall, they are already kicking the ball around and learning the development of soccer and how that works.

For me though to see, I understand the boys side and what the potential is in a club like Barcelona but considering that the United States national team on the female side is so great, and right now is at the top of everything, I wanted to come to the United States to really see what the development was like more so for the girls. Just to understand that level and really how everything works at a young age. I’m very interested in how that’s taking place over here.

What have you seen so far that has stood out to you?

Basically the fact that they don’t offer in Spain facilities that allow you to train like a professional athlete when you are a young kid. You just don’t have that opportunity.

Secondly, the American mentality for girls soccer moving forward and I think in all sports, the American mentality is always, you can reach your goals and you can become a pro. In Spain, the mentality really isn’t that mentality of you can become a pro.

Its pretty awesome for me to see all of these kids are working really hard to reach their goals to become a professional athlete or be able to go to college. That’s kind of the difference I’ve noticed, its kind of in the mentality of each individual.

I know the goal of the team is to win championships, but what are your next career goals on a personal level?

To continue winning every possible title and cup that I can. I also want to get into the Olympics, that’s going to be a big objective for me personally. Just keep winning. That’s really the bottom line for me. I just want to win as many games as I can.

I’ve always had in my head growing up a personal goal is to reach 100 matches with the national team. Right now, I’m at 30 appearances at the national level so I’m going to hopefully hit 100 and that’s the biggest goal that I want to accomplish.

How competitive is the Spanish national team for women?

The team took in a gentleman named Jorge Vilda, after the previous coach retired, and he has really changed the mentality and got the girls really excited.

I feel like from this point forward you’re going to see a lot more competitiveness out of the whole team and you’re going to start seeing Spain as a nation kind of get more on the map with the national tournaments.

I’m very excited for where it’s going.

Putellas trained at IMG Academy from July 2 to 15.

More information regarding Alexia’s training at IMG Academy can be found by searching the hashtag, #AlexiaAtIMG, on social media.