At the age of just 19, Salma Paralluelo Ayingono has experienced diverse sporting success. Representing Spain at youth level, she won both the women’s under-17 UEFA European Championships and the FIFA World Cup in 2018, with her World Cup performances earning the nickname ‘Usain Bolt’ from teammates. Salma lived up to these expectations the following year, winning two gold medals in 400m hurdles at the 2019 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival after becoming the second youngest athlete ever in European Athletics Indoor Championships history.

Her athletic ability is a prominent element of her attacking threat, but Salma also possesses quality technical skills. At Villarreal, Salma was a lethal goal scorer and fired The Yellow Submarine to promotion into the top division. After recovering from an ACL tear, she began to find the back of the net again, displaying her talent with an incredible long-range goal against FC Barcelona alongside scoring twice in the women’s under-20s FIFA World Cup final against Japan in the summer. This prompted Barça to sign Salma after her contract expired at Villarreal.

Joining the Blaugrana as a young talent in a transfer window filled with world-class arrivals such as Geyse Ferreira and the Manchester City duo of Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh, many were expecting the instant impact from the established, elite players. However, Salma has immediately added goals to the Barcelona attack. This tactical analysis, in the form of a scout report, will identify why Salma Paralluelo is ready to have a breakout year as the present and future of Barcelona and Spanish football.

Player Profile

Salma Paralluelo is a left-footed attacker capable of playing anywhere across the front line. Her blistering pace and brilliant timing of runs make her a constant threat, giving opponents a real challenge for keeping her quiet. A reliable set-piece taker, Salma’s ball-striking provides the deadly end product that can punish opponents that fail to manage her menacing movement. The combination of neat footwork, solid ball-striking, and unrivalled physical attributes creates an attacker that can influence any game and opponent, regardless of her position and role.

Salma’s versatility has been used by all sides at club level and on the international stage. With Villarreal, Salma was selected to operate in the wide areas, before eventually being a strike partner option for Sheila Guijarro in Villarreal’s 4-4-2 tactics. Since her recent arrival at Barcelona, Salma has been an outstanding option across the front line in Jonatan Giráldez’s 4-3-3. Productive as a central striker and nifty on both wings, Giráldez has a slight preference for fielding Salma on the right wing. The figure below displays her heatmaps from the last two seasons, although it must be considered that we are early in the 2022/23 league campaign and Salma’s 2021/22 season was hindered by injury.

Meanwhile, when representing Spain at any level, Salma is typically deployed as a left winger. Her tournament-winning contributions at youth World Cups and European Championships primarily came from the left, alongside her first two caps for the senior team in the recent November international window. For La Roja under Jorge Vilda, Salma scored a hat-trick off the left wing on her debut in a 7-0 victory over Argentina before making a substitute appearance against Japan a few days later.

Devastating Dynamism

As a phenomenal athlete, Salma Paralluelo is physically levels above any opposition full-back and is gradually beginning to maximise her physical superiority. She is agile, twisting and turning with the ball at her feet to evade pressure, sustaining possession and producing shooting or passing angles. Salma also has the strength and balance to withstand physical defenders, with the ability to ride challenges and receive with her back to goal. Nevertheless, her pace is the most unstoppable and eye-catching attribute.

Off the left wing, Salma is comfortable operating as the width holder, but her threat is optimised with runs in behind. Always looking to start wide with initial separation from the defender, she will aim to be on the shoulder of the last defender. Salma can beat her opponent from a standing start and can use the pass as a trigger in behind off the shoulder to prevent being offside with her blistering pace. An example of this can be seen below, for Salma’s third goal against Argentina and the Albiceleste right-back Gabriela Chávez.

Generally, the full-back should not be positioned outside the vertical line of the player in possession, to prevent the defence-splitting through ball and force play wide. This is most pertinent when facing the devastating movement of Salma Paralluelo. In the example above, not only does Chávez get caught square and unaware of Salma’s position, but the Argentine right-back is also way beyond the vertical line of Redondo and invites the pass in behind. Salma successfully stalls her run before darting behind to latch onto Alba Redondo Ferrer’s through ball, rounding the goalkeeper outside the box before finishing calmly.

Regardless of her role, Salma instinctively looks to stretch play and utilise her movement beyond defences. However, she is starting to become efficient with her run-making, more frequently making movements towards goal to penetrate defences and generate goal-scoring opportunities. Off the right wing, she will attempt out-to-in runs across the face of defenders. With Spain and Barcelona being possession-dominant, players regularly look to receive the ball to feet. Salma has recently applied her well-rounded SAQ skills expertly, dropping off and showing to receive to attract the opponent, before spinning and exploiting the vacated space behind the opponent with her gifted agility and speed.

Despite her extremely threatening movements in behind, Salma also offers value when dropping off and receiving the ball to feet. Her acceleration enables her to make late movements and create separation to receive away from defenders. This gives defenders the dilemma of following Salma between the lines or remaining in the defensive line. The example above displays her movement and Spain’s fluidity with rotations creating a conundrum for Japan right-back Risa Shimizu. As Claudia Zornoza takes a heavy touch, Salma and left-back Olga Carmona make perfectly timed, opposite movements to puzzle Shimizu. This allows Salma to receive, attract another defender in Japan’s back five and retain possession.

When deployed as a centre-forward, Salma likes to play first-time passes and bounce passes to teammates with her back to goal. Attracting an opposition defender, she can create space in behind and can facilitate up-back-through combinations. Salma has also shown variety in her box movement. She can time runs to the back post for square passes to perfection with her acceleration, but she is also smart enough to hold back to receive a cut-back, rather than darting to get in front of an opponent.

An example of this is shown above with her goal against Atlético Madrid. Salma creates a chance from nothing, receiving a long throw-in near the by-line and driving into the box. After attracting two opponents, the Barcelona attacker dribbles back towards the edge of the box and finds Mariona Caldentey. Mariona drives to the by-line and cuts it back to Salma, who is begging for the ball after holding off her run into the six-yard box. Salma connects well, with the ball finding the back of the net with a slight deflection.

More Than Just a Runner

While her most noticeable strength is evidently her immense speed and effective movement, Salma Paralluelo is impressive with the ball at her feet as a productive attacker and goalscorer. After breaking through at Villarreal, she scored 23 goals in 37 appearances for The Yellow Submarine. Since arriving at Barcelona, she has found the back of the net five times in seven Liga F fixtures. When representing Spain at all levels, Salma has averaged greater than one goal every two games, with her hat-trick against Argentina leaving her on three goals in two caps for La Roja.

Although her sample size is quite small, Salma attempted 5.84 shots per 90 in Liga F this calendar year, which was the most out of any attacker in the league. Her movement and willingness to enter the box, with 7.53 touches in the box per 90 ranking 3rd out of 127 Liga F attackers in 2022, is crucial to generating so many shooting opportunities. But her goalscoring record can largely be lauded for her brilliant ball-striking. Very composed in front of goal, she strikes through the ball with conviction and confidence to add pace. Although she is very one-footed and lacks finishes with her head and right foot, Salma will do anything to create and convert goal-scoring opportunities, even diverting the ball into the net with her chest against Costa Rica in the under-20 World Cup.

The figure below displays her xG map from Liga F so far this season. We can see her eagerness to arrive in the box for goal-scoring opportunities, coming in at the back post and being ready for cut-backs. Her xG per shot of 0.15 per shot is very strong, similar to SL Benfica’s Canadian forward Cloé Lacasse but not quite as high as elite goal-scoring centre-forwards like Arsenal’s Vivianne Miedema and fellow Spaniard Esther Gónzalez of Real Madrid.

Despite often being deployed as a winger, Salma rarely influences chance creation directly. Most of her actions occur in the final third, so she only completes 0.61 passes into the final third per 90. However, her 1.69 crosses per 90 are quite low compared to other quality attackers, and she only completes 1.23 passes into the penalty area per 90 with her typically more focused on attacking the box herself to score goals. But that is not to say that she can’t produce chances. Salma’s composure in front of goal extends to her picking out teammates in a congested area with cut-backs and passes across the face of goal. Although outside the box she doesn’t exactly have the greatest impact.

In the figure below, Salma has made an out-to-in run from the right wing to receive a penetrative pass from Clàudia Pina. As her run was brilliantly followed by Real Madrid left-back Sofie Svava, Salma found Barcelona’s teammate Fridolina Rolfö. Rolfö’s near post shot was saved by Misa Rodríguez and pushed around the post — but, once again, Salma immediately entered the box and was available as a cut-back option.

Meanwhile, Salma’s dribbling is exceptional and flexes her unstoppable SAQ attributes. Her first touch upon ball reception can occasionally be substandard, either getting stuck under her feet or too far ahead of her, but Salma’s acceleration and agility allow her to recover astonishingly. Her right-foot experiences minimal touches whilst dribbling, and her agility assists the predominantly left-footed dribbling. She doesn’t necessarily execute flamboyant skills whilst dribbling, but her effectiveness generally comes from good ball manipulation, alongside well-balanced feints and fake shots. In Liga F in 2022, Salma averaged 5.84 dribbles per 90 with a fine success rate of 57.89%.

The image below is an example of Salma receiving as Spain’s left width holder. Dropping to receive the forward pass from left-back Olga Carmona, the Barcelona winger is followed by Japan right-back Risa Shimizu. Salma’s first touch gets caught under her feet and entices a tackle from Shimizu, but Salma rapidly readjusts to shift the ball away from the challenge. She then skips past Shimizu and finds Valencia midfielder Fiamma Benítez Iannuzzi, who lofts a pass in behind for Salma to burst away and sprint towards.

Below we can see Salma Paralluelo’s penetrating carries from the last 18 months. She seldom dribbles towards the byline, generally looking to bring possession infield. As a left-footed left winger, many would expect her to employ her change of pace to create crossing opportunities near the byline. However, she almost exclusively carries the ball inside. Other dangerous left-footed left-wingers, for example, Manchester City’s Lauren Hemp, Chelsea’s Guro Reiten and Houston Dash’s María Sánchez have much more variety in their penetrative dribbling as they are comfortable carrying infield but are exceptionally threatening on the outside.

Conclusion

To conclude our analysis, Salma Paralluelo is an excellent attacker set for a brilliant breakout year. She will be striving to continue her superb form as FC Barcelona aim to successfully complete their mini rebuild after losing multiple major players. Blaugrana can’t improve on their historic league campaign of winning 90 points out of a possible 90, but Barça did lose the UEFA Women’s Champions League final against Olympique Lyonnais. They have secured progression into the knockout stages, despite losing away at FC Bayern Munich after a slow start but will face quality opponents that will require match-winning performances on the biggest stage from Salma. If she can produce the big moments, a place in the Spain squad for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand should be guaranteed.

Making an impact on the biggest stage, when it matters most, will be essential to Salma having a breakout year. She is more than capable of influencing high-pressure games of the highest quality with her devastating dynamism and lethal ball striking. Although there are areas of her game that can be enhanced to establish Salma Paralluelo as one of the world’s best attackers, this looks set to be an exciting and prolific year for Barcelona’s 19-year-old Spanish prodigy.