She plays for Barcelona. In the Polish national team, she wears the captain’s armband. But this isn’t Robert Lewandowski. We’re talking about Ewa Pajor, last season’s top scorer in Spain’s Liga F, who recently, along with Viktor Gyokeres, won the Gerd Muller Trophy.
“Ewa, follow your dreams and train hard,” said Ewa Pajor a few days ago in Paris as she accepted her award. In her thank-you speech, she mentioned that she’s just a girl from a small Polish village. Yet this “girl from a small Polish village” has achieved a lot – not only for Polish women’s football, but for the women’s game as a whole.
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When she was eight years old, she started playing with boys in the local club Orleta Wielenin. At 15, she was already playing for Medyk Konin’s senior team in Poland’s top league, becoming the youngest player ever to do so.
Just a year later, she was called up to the national team, where she made her debut against the Czech Republic. And she didn’t just debut – in the 84th minute, she scored. It was only a matter of time before one of Europe’s top clubs noticed such an extraordinary talent.
And indeed, it didn’t take long before Ewa moved to Germany to play in the Bundesliga. Specifically to Wolfsburg, one of the giants of women’s football – seven league titles and two Champions League trophies.
Pajor spent nine years there, winning the Bundesliga five times and the domestic cup nine times. The Champions League, however, eluded her.
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Last season, Pajor joined Barcelona, home to the best players in the world, including Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas. Pajor’s dream had come true – her football idol has always been Polish legend Robert Lewandowski, who gave her a warm welcome at the club.
There was a risk that the Polish star might get lost among the Spanish talent, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. In her first season, she became the league’s top scorer. In the Barcelona derby against Espanyol, she came off the bench – yet still scored a hat-trick, celebrating in the style of her idol Lewandowski.
And that’s not all. She became the first ever player to score a hat-trick in El Clasico against Real Madrid. With her new club, she celebrated a domestic treble.
Sadly, the most precious trophy – the Champions League – still slipped away. Barcelona had lifted it in 2023 and 2024, back when Ewa was still at Wolfsburg – in fact, in 2023, Wolfsburg lost the final to Barcelona.
In 2025, it looked like the Catalan giants might win a third straight Champions League, but Arsenal broke that run, bringing the trophy back to England after 18 years.
Despite all her success, the greatest triumph continues to evade Ewa Pajor. Perhaps luck will finally smile on her in 2027, when the Champions League final will be hosted in her home country, Poland.
For more stories of football heroines, follow queenballers.com – the site dedicated to women’s football.