The 2023–24 season was the 36th season in the history of FC Barcelona Femení. The team competed in and won each of the domestic league, the Copa de la Reina, the Supercopa de España Femenina and the UEFA Women's Champions League; ahead of the season they were the defending champions of the league, Supercopa, and Champions League.
Barcelona ended the season with their first continental quadruple, winning 45 out of 48 matches played across all competitions with a 94% win rate; the team lost only one match, the first leg of the UEFA Women's Champions League semi-finals against Chelsea.
Barcelona won the 2023–24 Supercopa de España Femenina on 20 January 2024 and won the league title for the fifth consecutive season and for the ninth time overall on 4 May 2024; they ended the league season unbeaten with 29 wins and only one draw. They completed the domestic treble after they defeated Real Sociedad 8–0 in the Copa de la Reina final on 18 May 2024, winning a record tenth Copa de la Reina title. With the eight goals scored, Barcelona equalled the biggest win ever in a Copa de la Reina final.
As well as record titles, Barcelona had its most prolific season ever in terms of goals, scoring 211 goals in all competitions with a goal difference of +192. Caroline Graham Hansen had one of the best individual seasons ever for goal contributions, scoring 32 and assisting 28 for a total of 60 goal contributions across all competitions; Graham Hansen won the Pichichi award for the most goals scored in the league, with 21. She was not Barcelona's highest goalscorer, however, with Salma Paralluelo ending the season with 34 goals in all competitions. The team had 20 different goal-scorers and 19 different assisters throughout the season, and kept a clean sheet in 33 matches.
On 25 May 2024, Barcelona completed the second continental treble and the first continental quadruple in the team's history by defeating Lyon 2–0 in the Champions League final in front of 50,827 spectators, defending the previous season's title and winning the Champions League for the third time overall.
During the season, head coach Jonatan Giráldez announced that he would leave the club at the end of the season. Midfielder Aitana Bonmatí succeeded teammate Alexia Putellas in winning all of Europe's major individual awards for women's football.
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Notes
Season overview June 2023 Barcelona finished the previous season on 3 June 2023, winning the 2022–23 UEFA Women's Champions League.
Defensive midfielder María Pérez, who played in the first team for several seasons while on a B team contract, extended her deal on 7 June. She signed a permanent first team contract until June 2025. On 19 June, Barcelona announced the signing of right-back Ona Batlle on a free transfer from Manchester United. There was one departure in June, of Emma Ramírez; though she had a contract until the end of the 2023–24 season, Ramírez and the club came to a mutual agreement for contract termination.
July On 4 July, the club announced that it had terminated the contract of Nuria Rábano.
Mariona Caldentey became the first female footballer to be awarded Catalunya Ràdio's Trofeu Kubala for the best goal of the previous season, for her long-range goal against FC Rosengård in the previous season's Champions League, which was announced on 8 July. Caldentey then joined many of her teammates at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, which began on 20 July; Barcelona was the most-represented club at the tournament, with 18 players for eight national teams: including new signing Batlle and Giulia Dragoni of the B team, they counted 9 for Spain, 2 each for England and Norway, and 1 each for Brazil, Italy, Nigeria, Sweden and Switzerland.
The Catalan government announced on 25 July that the institution of the women's team had been awarded the Medalla d'Honor del Parlament de Catalunya, being the first sports team to receive it. Catalan president Anna Erra announced the honour with a speech detailing the virtues of the team and its status as a reference. The first team received the honour in person on 13 September at the Palau del Parlament de Catalunya.
August Pre-season training began on 1 August. There were only 8 players from the first team present at this first session, with the rest at the World Cup; 24 B and C team players, including new signings, also attended first team training. On 12 August, Barcelona opened the pre-season with a 3–0 win against AEM Lleida in a friendly played behind closed doors at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper. Clàudia Pina, Ariana Arias and Martine Fenger scored the goals for the team. Though still missing all of the World Cup players, and with only 13 B team players continuing to train for the pre-season, the matchday squad was managed so that nobody (for Barcelona) played more than 45minutes.
During the World Cup, Keira Walsh (England) and Laia Codina and Aitana Bonmatí (Spain) experienced injuries, but were fit to continue, with all three contributing to Barcelona being the most-represented club in the semifinals: England, Spain, and Sweden made it to the final four. Following their semifinal victories, Spain and England both reached the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup final for the first time. Between the finalists, there were 11 Barcelona players: Batlle, Bonmatí, Caldentey, Codina, Cata Coll, Salma Paralluelo, Irene Paredes, María Pérez, and Alexia Putellas for Spain, and Walsh and Lucy Bronze for England. Sweden, including Fridolina Rolfö, lost their semi-final but went on to win the bronze medal match, and Rolfö was named player of the match.
Spain and England contested the FIFA World Cup final, with 10 of the 11 Barcelona players (all but María Pérez) featuring in the match. Spain won 1–0 to win their first women's senior title; England achieved their best performance at a World Cup as runners-up. Bonmatí received the Golden Ball award as the best player of the tournament, with Paralluelo named the best young player of the tournament. During the match, Codina had to be substituted with a recurrence of her injury.
The World Cup final match saw records set by several Barcelona players: Putellas became the first woman to have won the FIFA Women's World Cup, UEFA Women's Champions League and the Ballon d'Or; Paralluelo became the first woman to win the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup, while also being the first player to hold both the U-20 World Cup and the senior World Cup titles at the same time; eight of the nine Barcelona players representing Spain became the first female players in history to win both the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA World Cup in the same year; and Bronze, starting her 20th career World Cup match, became the England player with the most starts in the World Cup.
There were also transfers in August: on the 18th, during the World Cup, it was announced that Manchester United had signed Geyse for €300,000 – the most expensive sale in Barça Femení history – and Arsenal had signed Codina. Codina's transfer to Arsenal was formally announced when the English club began training on 29 August, for a fee of just over €100,000. On 22 August, it was announced that the club had signed Dutch versatile player Esmee Brugts for free, with Brugts saying it had been her dream to play for Barcelona. It was also reported that María Pérez would be leaving the club on loan for a year, already having a return plan.
Barcelona defeated Juventus 5–0 on 24 August to win the Joan Gamper Trophy for the third time before undertaking a pre-season champions tour in Mexico, playing their first match there on 29 August. They won the game for the CAMP3ONAS Tour 2023 invitational trophy by defeating Liga MX Femenil champions Club América 2–0 at the Estadio Azteca in front of 34,931 fans.
On 31 August, Barcelona midfielder Bonmatí won the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award for her performances during the previous season. She became the third Barcelona player to win the award; including Putellas winning it twice, this made Barcelona the club with the most wins of the award (four). It also became the first club to receive the award in three consecutive years. There were three other Barcelona players in the top ten: Paralluelo (fifth), Walsh (seventh) and Caroline Graham Hansen (eighth). Coach Jonatan Giráldez came third for the UEFA Women's Coach of the Year Award.
September Barcelona ended their Mexican tour and pre-season on 1 September with a 1–0 win against Tigres UANL in front of 39,501 spectators at the Estadio Universitario, finishing pre-season with a perfect record of five wins in five matches and no goals conceded.
On 5 September, Rolfö and the club confirmed that she would have surgery for a knee injury that had developed in prior months. The next day, she was one of six Barcelona players nominated for the Ballon d'Or Féminin, along with Paralluelo, Patri Guijarro, Bonmatí, Asisat Oshoala and Mapi León. Nominees for The Best FIFA Football Awards were announced on 14 September: Bonmatí, León, Paralluelo and Walsh were nominated for The Best FIFA Women's Player; Coll and Sandra Paños were nominated for The Best FIFA Women's Goalkeeper; and Giráldez was nominated for The Best FIFA Women's Coach.
The club transferred Swiss versatile player Ana-Maria Crnogorčević to Atlético Madrid for an undisclosed fee on 6 September, a few days before Barcelona was scheduled to play their first match of the 2023–24 Liga F (on 10 September). The match was rescheduled due to the Liga F players' strike. The team played their first game, matchday 2, on 16 September, recording a 2–0 away win. In the match, Brugts made her debut and Putellas became the second player in the club's history to reach 400 appearances with the club (only behind Melanie Serrano, who holds the record with 517 appearances).
The first matches of the 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League A were held in September. Some Barcelona players were not selected due to injury; others were selected despite having withdrawn; and León and Guijarro withdrew after being selected as a boycott. The international break also saw youth games played, with two of Barcelona's first team called up to Spain's under-23 team (one of whom, Pina, also withdrew). Following a turbulent time in the Spain team, Putellas and Paredes were reinstated as its captains, also helping broker the "Treaty of Oliva" as a roadmap to improving the RFEF's treatment of the national women's team.
October The team played three league games (including the rescheduled first matchday) in the first week of October, winning 2–1 away to Sporting de Huelva; 6–0 against Valencia in their first home match of the season, including two own goals scored by Valencia defender Claudia Florentino; and 3–0 over Real Sociedad. The winning streak continued with a 1–0 victory over Atlético Madrid, in which Putellas became Barcelona's leading goalscorer with 182 goals, and the 6–1 defeat of Granada that featured Batlle's first senior goal for the club.
The draw for the 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League group stage took place on 20 October, with Barcelona drawn into Group A alongside Rosengård, Benfica and Eintracht Frankfurt – they had been in a similar group the previous year, with Frankfurt the only different (and still German) team.
On 30 October, Aitana Bonmatí won the Ballon d'Or Féminin, becoming the first women's player to win the World Cup; the Champions League; and the Ballon d'Or in the same year, and the first player to win the World Cup Golden Ball; the Champions League MVP; and the Ballon d'Or in the same year. Paralluelo, Rolfö, Guijarro, Mapi León and Oshoala were ranked 3rd, 4th, 8th, 16th and 20th respectively. The club received the Women's Club of the Year award, given to the team with the most nominees for the Ballon d'Or.
November