Power, technique and speed are an essential part of football and Salma Paralluelo possesses all of them.
At just 19 years old, Salma Paralluelo has put in a Women's World Cup performance that could provide plenty of reasons for the England side to lose sleep ahead of its clash with Spain in the tournament final on Sunday.
Born in the northern Spanish city of Saragossa to a Spanish father and an Equatorial Guinean mother, Paralluelo grew up dedicated to both football and athletics.
As a teen, she also became junior national champion in the 400-metre sprint, the triple jump, and both the 60- and 400-metre hurdles. Paralluelo still holds Spain’s under-20’s record for the 400-metre sprint and the under-18’s 400-metre hurdles.
This time last year, she hadn't even made her debut for La Roja. At that point, she had reached a sporting crossroads over whether to choose football or athletics. But she did pick football.
Salma Paralluelo could have been preparing for next year's Olympics if she had decided to stick with track and not make the switch to football.
The Spanish player has flourished in her role as “super sub”. In the quarter-finals, she came on for Jennifer Hermoso, Spain’s all-time top scorer, against the Netherlands and scored the winning goal in the 111th minute.
It was a similar story in the semi-final against Sweden, where Paralluelo replaced two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and opened the scoring in the 81st minute with a sublime swivel shot. After scoring the extra-time winner, the 19-year-old once more inspired Spain as they reached their first-ever Women's World Cup final.
Both times she came off the bench and both times Paralluelo earned Player of the Match honours. She also became the youngest player to score an extra-time goal in the World Cup.
England will go into the World Cup final at Stadium Australia with the pedigree of European champions -- Sarina Wiegman's team defeated Spain in the quarterfinals at Euro 2022 en route to winning the competition -- but, in Paralluelo, Spain possess the player who can turn the game in an instant - the 19-year-old has already done that twice at this World Cup.
One of the England players likely to be tasked with nullifying the threat posed by Paralluelo is Lucy Bronze, her club teammate at Barcelona. As Bronze knows more about Paralluelo, she will surely know how to contain her on Sunday, but that's left to be seen.
Paralluelo first entered the Spanish national football team as a youngster, winning both the World Cup and European Cup with the under 17’s side in 2018. She has played for Spanish clubs Zaragoza CFF and Villarreal in addition to FC Barcelona.
Whether Vilda uses her from the start or as an impact player on Sunday matters little. Paralluelo has proven she has all the tools in her arsenal to make her mark. Why not now in the tournament’s grand finale?