Abel Ruiz Ortega

Abel Ruiz broke into the record books before he broke into a first team. Across his time with Spain's youth sides he became the country's most capped and most prolific Under-17 international, with 37 appearances and 27 goals, and by 2019 he had already collected a UEFA European Under-17 Championship, a UEFA European Under-19 Championship and a gold medal at the Mediterranean Games. That trophy run continued into senior youth football: in 2024 he won gold with Spain's Under-23 side at the Paris Olympics, and in June 2021 he earned his first senior cap, scoring in a 4–0 friendly win over Lithuania.

His club path started at Barcelona, where he rose through the academy and debuted for the B team in the 2016–17 season. His only appearance for the first team came in 2018–19, a season Barcelona finished as La Liga champions. Rather than fight for minutes at Camp Nou, he moved to Portugal in 2019, joining Braga on loan; the switch became permanent the following year for €8 million, at the time the most expensive signing in the club's history. Ruiz spent five seasons in Braga, kept his heads down through the graft of regular football, and left with a Taça de Portugal and a Taça da Liga to his name.

Girona brought him to Spain in 2024 for a fee of around €9 million, with Braga holding a 10% sell-on clause. It marked a return to Spanish football for a forward whose development, from Almussafes through Barcelona's academy to a decade of youth-international medals, had largely played out on the biggest underage stages in Europe before he had properly established himself among senior professionals.