Spain star's unorthodox rise to top - and struggle to stay there

In 2023 Salma Paralluelo became the first player to win the World Cup at all three levels - U17s, U20s and senior As the 2023-24 season drew to a close Salma Paralluelo had the world at her feet. Her first two years at Barcelona had delivered a quadruple and a treble, and the intervening summer yielded the biggest prize of all with Spain - the World Cup. At 20 years old the former athlete had also finishedthird in the Ballon d'Orfor a second successive year. Her ascent to the top had been meteoric. Then came the breaking point. In October 2024, after making 92 appearances for club and country in under two years, Paralluelo announced she was taking an indefinite break from the game,citing mental and physical fatigue.,external She has been battling to rediscover her form since. This is the story of Paralluelo's remarkable rise to the top of the game, her injury and personal struggles, and why she can still light up Euro 2025 with Spain. Salma and her brother Lorenzo (right) joined Villarreal's academy together, while their elder brother Jose Jaime played for affiliate club Roda Born in Zaragoza to a Guinean mother and Spanish father, Paralluelo endured a difficult childhood. With her mother living in Switzerland for work and contact limited to phone calls and sporadic visits, she was raised primarily by her father in Spain, alongside her two brothers Jose Jaime and Lorenzo, and stepbrother Florencio who suffered from a severe congenital vision deficiency. In December 2012 when Paralluelo was 10 years old her family was rocked by the mysteriousdisappearance of Florencio,,externalwho left the house to meet his friends one evening after university. His body was found a month laterin a reservoir.,external With such tragedy in her family life, Paralluelo found solace in sport. Throughout her youth she excelled at football and athletics. She made her senior debut for neighbourhood club Union Deportiva San Jose at 15 years old, while starring in multiple track and field disciplines at Deportivo San Jose Athletics Club. Former Spain Under-17s coach Tona Is, now head coach of Panama women's national team, selected 15-year-old Paralluelo for the U17 European Championship and U17 World Cup in 2018, and says the forward's talent immediately set her apart as Spain went on to win both competitions. "She was just different," Is told BBC Sport. "In her there was a speed that we did not have in the national team. She is a very fast girl, very quick. "You saw it in the first World Cup we won for Spanish football [U17 in 2018]. From then on we have continued to see her quality." Paralluelo is a former Spanish indoor champion in the 400m and women's 4x400m relay Paralluelo was earning national recognition on the athletics track too,winning gold in the 400m hurdles and medley relay,externalat the Baku 2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival. Her stellar showing in both fields captured the interest of Villarreal, who struck an agreement with athletics club Playas de Castellon that enabled Paralluelo to continue taking part in both sports. Paralluelo scored 23 goals in 37 appearances to help Villarreal earn promotion to the top flight - though her time in the famous yellow shirt was not without struggle. In April 2021 her second season was ended by an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that would put her football and athletics ambitions on hold. At the time shewrote on Instagram:,external"I had a dream as a little girl that I wanted to be the best athlete and the best soccer player in the world, and this complicated step is not going to take that dream away." Nine months of rehabilitation later and Paralluelo bounced back, scoring three goals and registering two assists in nine games towards the end of the season, including a memorable strike at Barcelona. Paralluelo suffered an ACL injury in April 2021 while at Villarreal "At the moment I am enjoying both sports. Why choose one or the other?" said Parallueloduring her official unveiling,externalas a Villarreal player in September 2019. Two years later though, aged just 18, Champions League holders Barcelona came knocking and Paralluelo could avoid the decision no longer. She sought advice from coaches on both sides of the divide, but ultimately the decision was hers to make. "We talked many times across the national team camps about her being calm, and when the time was right she would figure out what she had to do," said former Spain Under-17s head coach Is. "Of course I wanted to say 'choose football', because it would be an injustice not to, right?" Maria Tikas, a journalist for Barcelona newspaper Sport, adds: "If you are doing both sports and then Barcelona calls you to play for them it is like a train that comes once in life. "It's a situation where you think, 'I've got to take it'. It was a 'now or never' situation." Paralluelo joined Barcelona from fellow Spanish club Villarreal in 2022 aged 19 After opting to dedicate herself solely to football, Paralluelo's first months at Barcelona were a period of transition. "It seemed like at the start she was only focused on her speed," says Is. "Since moving to Barcelona she has gained a lot in terms of understanding the game, and her reading of the game has improved a lot. She now has the polish that she lacked at a young age." Paralluelo needed to adapt off the pitch too, with the professional environment of the reigning European champions a world away from what she had been used to. "Barcelona is a really professional team. You have to be strict with schedules and routines - there is not just training," says Tikas. "A lot of players have breakfast at the club, so you have to be there before training. Then there is video analysis and technical work too. "She had to adapt to the lifestyle of being in a top club as well - it is a job, not a hobby." Paralluelo's debut season in Catalonia proved impressive, with her 15 goals and six assists in 30 appearances helping her side win the Women's Champions League and domstic league and cup double, and also earning her selection for the 2023 World Cup in Australia. She started the first four games of that tournament before turning super-sub, coming off the bench to grab the winner in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands, while she also scored in the semi-finals against Sweden. Handed a starting spot in the final, Paralluelo then tormented England, smashing an effort off the woodwork in the first half asSpain went on to win 1-0and claim their first major women's title. Paralluelo's rise continued in her second season with Barcelona as she racked up 34 goals and seven assists as they clinched a quadruple - adding the Spanish Women's Super Cup to the successful defence of their three other titles. She was then part of Spain's squad for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, scoring a late consolation as the world champions lost 4-2 to Brazil in the last four. But soon after her exhausted body cried out "enough is enough". Tikas explains: "The Olympics were horrible for her, she wasn't feeling well - there were a lot of things to deal with. "She has always had pain in her knee so they [Spain and Barcelona] decided that 'OK, we have to stop and do some work or she could get seriously injured again'." For four months Paralluelo worked on a tailored training programme away from her team-mates, with the aim to rebuild and strengthen her muscles, returning to play her first 10 minutes of the season against Hammarby in December. Paralluelo later described the break as"a process that I needed for my own good",external- but it left the door ajar for Barca and Spain team-mate Claudia Pina to emerge as another stellar option on the left wing. Pina played almost twice the amount of minutes as Paralluelo in Liga F last season, recording 17 goal contributions to Paralluelo's 10. She also scored 10 goals in Barcelona's run to the Champions League final to clinch the European Golden Boot. Yet Tikas believes Paralluelo still has a prominent role to play for club and country. "I think it depends on the opponent, especially at Barcelona. Claudia is more like a fourth midfielder - she is a winger but also likes to play inside. And then Salma is quicker, a more physical player," explains Tikas. "For teams that come to play, Salma will play because she can run behind, and against teams that sit back and just defend Pina is more likely to play because she is technically better." So how might both players be utilised by Spain coach Montse Tome at the European Championships this summer? "For Spain there are two positions that are undecided - the left wing, Salma or Pina, and the forward," suggests Tikas. "Salma can play [forward] too but I think that will be Esther [Gonzalez] because she has played in many important games. Depending on the opponent and the gameplan, left wing will be Salma or Pina." Paralluelo started Spain's Nations League group decider against England in June, though Pina stole the showwith a second-half doubleto send Spain through. But Paralluelo's 2023 World Cup heroics showed she can step up on the big stage when called upon. "[Salma] should be up there with the best players [in the tournament] but right now there are many Spanish players who could be," says Is, who also coached the likes of goalkeeper Catalina Coll and forwards Pina and Eva Navarro in the Spanish youth ranks. "You asked if she could be 'one of the stars'. Well, Spain has 23 stars."