Barcelona's Ewa Pajor will never forget her 28th birthday, a day she ranks among the best of her life.
On Dec. 3, 2024, Pajor scored the goal that qualified her country for its first-ever major tournament in the women's game. Pajor struck in the 94th minute in Vienna to seal a 2-0 aggregate win against Austria and book Poland's place at this summer's European Championship in Switzerland.
It had to be her. No one has done more to put women's football on the map in the country. From leading Poland to glory at the U17 European Championship in 2013, to making her full senior debut (and scoring) later that year and going on to become the team's top scorer, with 64 goals in 97 caps so far, she is the reason a generation of young footballers now have a female icon to look up to in the country.
Pajor's club career has been even more impressive. After debuting for Polish club Medyk Konin as a 15-year-old (and scoring, of course) she went on to net 135 goals in 196 appearances for German side Wolfsburg, where she was a Champions League runner-up four times. She joined reigning European champions Barcelona last summer.
The goals keep coming. She goes into this weekend's potentially league-defining Clásico against Real Madrid at the Olympic Stadium having scored 33 goals in 33 games for Barça. She already has five hat tricks, including the first-ever in a women's Clásico when the teams met in the Copa de la Reina semifinal earlier this month. All of that in a season which has not been entirely straight forward for Barça as they adapt to a new coach -- Pere Romeu replaced Jonatan Giráldez last summer -- and the loss of key players such as Mariona Caldentey, Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh.
They have still been too strong for most teams -- winning the Spanish Supercopa, leading Liga F, on the cusp of a Champions League semifinal and into the Copa de la Reina final -- but there have been signs of weakness. Manchester City beat them in Champions League group stage, Levante inflicted a first home league defeat on them since 2019 and goals have, at times, been harder to come by than previously. However, sources close to the team point out that the side is evolving and they express confidence in finishing the season strongly, in part because of the variety and threat the team have now they can call on a natural centre-forward in Pajor.
"Her signing changed Barça's way of playing," Espanyol assistant coach Juan Ignacio Ibarra told ESPN. "I think they needed a striker who's good in the box, a goal scorer. It's something they haven't had in recent seasons, when [Claudia] Pina, Mariona and Salma [Paralluelo], who's perhaps the closest to a centre-forward, have rotated in that role.
"Barça lacked a player like Pajor, above all to have different options and to allow Salma to play wide. It's been a successful signing. The data is there. She's scored a mountain of goals and has been decisive."
Pajor likes to play on the last shoulder of her marker, exploiting the space behind defences which isn't often afforded to Barça, but she also has other qualities. Espanyol led until the hour mark when the teams met earlier this season, before Pajor scored a header from a dead ball to tee up a Barça comeback. "We prepared for the Barça game keeping in mind how she moves inside the area," Ibarra added. "She's great at attacking crosses, above all from [Caroline Graham] Hansen's right side. She attacks the first post so well.
"We paid a lot of attention to that in the video sessions before the game, how she moves in that space, her connection with Hansen, who she played with at Wolfsburg, and how she usually shoots first time.
"Also set plays. Even though it may not seem it because of her height, she's really incisive. In fact, that's how she scored the equaliser in the first game against us. She's been a top signing because she gives Barça that ability now to play with a striker in the box if they want."
Pajor is part of an increasing Polish presence around the Catalan club. While she leads the women's team in goals, the top scorer for the men's team is Robert Lewandowski. Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny also came out of retirement to join the men's side recently, while youngsters Emilia Szymczak and Weronika Araśniewicz are knocking on the door of the women's first team.
Szymczak and Araśniewicz having Pajor as a teammate allows them to see not only what is possible in the game, but also how much hard work it takes. Pajor's story is one of talent, but also of overcoming hurdles.
There have been the usual obstacles that a lot of current players in women's football suffered as children: a lack of organised football for girls. From a village of fewer than 100 people, as one of five siblings, she helped on her parent's farm, idolised Cristiano Ronaldo and played football with the boys, outscoring them.
Her ability took her away from the family when she was around 11, when she moved to a dormitory in Konin, accompanied by her sister Paulina, who is a year older, and joined Medyk Konin's youth system. It was there where she was first coached by Nina Patalon, who is now the manager of the history-making Poland national team. Pajor cried for days after leaving her family but knew it was the right thing to do.
"She turned up for training with a size five football and it was up to her knees," Patalon said in an interview with TVP. "She was slim, short hair... a little scared. My first thought was 'I hope I don't hurt her.' She was born in 1996, but the team was for players from 1994. The other girls couldn't handle her. She outperformed them in every way: speed, skill, aggression. It was the first time I saw such talent."
Pajor's debut for the first team came aged 15 years and 133 days, the youngest player to appear in Poland's top flight, followed by success with the national team at youth level and a move to Wolfsburg in 2015. It was at the German club where an eye problem, which Pajor had first noticed in Konin, was formally detected. One of the sponsors at Wolfsburg was an optician and a routine test flagged keratoconus, a condition that causes blurry and distorted vision. Reports in the Polish media suggest at one point she could see only 10% with her right eye and 30% with her left eye. She could have lost her sight, but a successful operation and adaptive contact lenses allowed her to continue her career.
Pajor has also recovered from two serious knee injuries, which severely limited her playing time during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. It was during this period that she sought other ways to improve her performances. She began to work with psychologist Daria Abramowicz, who also helps Poland's top tennis star and multiple-Grand Slam champion Iga Świątek.
Sources says she also used that time on the sidelines to study some of the game's best strikers in even more depth, fine-tuning her game for her return. It seemed to have an effect: in 2022-23, she was the top scorer in the Champions League and finished 18th in the Ballon d'Or, although the campaign ended in disappointment as Wolfsburg lost in the final to Barça, despite her brilliant long-range strike opening the scoring.
Those marginal gains have been accompanied by a natural talent, but also an incredible work ethic. As Wolfsburg coach Tommy Stroot said in 2023. "I rarely see a player who gives as much as Ewa in every single training session. The bar is already high for us, so for anyone to exceed that, is unbelievable."
It is another word various sources used to describe Pajor, though, in addition to resilience, which is driving her this season: ambition. Last year was good. She joined Barça -- which she said still causes her to have "wow" moments at home when she realises she plays for the Spanish giants -- and guided Poland to the Euros.
But 2025 could be better. Score and win against Madrid on Sunday and Barça will be 10 points clear at the top of the table, a first Liga F title for Pajor moving into sign. However, it is an elusive Champions League trophy which she really wants to win this season. It would serve as the perfect prelude for what is to come this summer: a historic first-ever major tournament with Poland.