Barcelona's women's team is going through one of the most delicate moments in its recent history. Its invincible team has fallen apart and now faces a difficult period.
What just two seasons ago was the most feared team in Europe is now experiencing a weakening process that threatens to break its hegemony.
The squad that amazed the world has been dismantled by a factor that has little to do with sports. It's the impact of financial fair play.
Although it's a self-sufficient section, capable of self-financing, the club's wage bill regulations are governed by the situation of the men's team. That has ended up punishing the group led from the offices by Joan Laporta.
Meanwhile, in England, clubs' expenses in women's soccer are tax-deductible, while in Spain, investment in this sector is penalized.
An unstoppable bleeding
In just two years, Barça's women's team has lost ten key players who were part of that European champion group. International footballers, leaders in their national teams, who provided a balance between experience and youth, have decided to seek new destinations after seeing that the blaugrana project no longer guaranteed them stability.
This bleeding must be added to two especially concerning cases: Mapi León and Salma Paralluelo. The Aragonese center-back and the international forward are currently the most desired pieces in the locker room.
The truth is that Barça no longer has the economic or sporting strength to ensure they will stay.
If an offer comes, they will leave
The doubts in the club are clear. If significant offers come for Mapi or Paralluelo, Barça will have to open the door. Just as recently, players who seemed untransferable ended up leaving due to the impossibility of balancing the accounts.
It happened with Mariona Caldentey, Fridolina Rolfo, or Ingrid Engen. Barça, the best team in Europe, wasn't able to keep them. Now Mapi León and Salma Paralluelo are waiting for their moment to leave the club.
Salma Paralluelo herself, who had become a symbol of the future and renewal of Barça's women's team, is one step away from leaving. In the case of Mapi León, with years of leadership in defense, her departure would be a sporting and emotional blow of great magnitude.
The inheritance from the men's team
The main problem is that Barça's women's team isn't falling because of its own mistakes, but because of the burden of the men's team. The wage bill of the first soccer team affects all sections. Even though the women's team is self-financing, it doesn't escape LaLiga's economic control.
The result is devastating: the most admired team in Europe, a benchmark in the professionalization of women's soccer, is watching its best players leave the project. Meanwhile, the club still can't find solutions to protect one of its brightest jewels.
From the top to the edge
Two years ago, Barça's women's team lifted the Champions League in Bilbao and marked an era. Today, that same squad is broken and its immediate future is full of uncertainties. If the trend doesn't change, the risk of going from the top to the edge is more real than ever.