Sandra Paños

Levante (2010–2015)

In 2010, Paños made the jump to the Spanish first division when she signed for Levante. Despite offers from Atlético Madrid, she chose Levante because of the club's proximity to her hometown of Alicante. After a successful first season, she renewed her contract with the club in 2011 until 2012. On 4 June 2015, Paños scored the first and only goal of her career with a free-kick from midfield against Espanyol; taken in the 87th minute to put Levante 3–2 up, it was the match-winning goal.

Barcelona (2015–2024)

At 22 years old, Paños moved from Levante to Barcelona after the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the summer that the Catalan club professionalised their women's side. In her first Champions League season, Panos was named to the UEFA Women's Champions League Squad of the season, the first ever Barcelona player to do so. She was also the recipient of her first Zamora Trophy. In the 2017–18 season at Barcelona, she received her second Zamora Trophy for conceding just 12 goals in 26 league matches. Paños shared goalkeeping duties with Laura Ràfols until Ràfols' retirement in 2018. The season following Ràfols' departure, she picked up a captaincy role for the first time in blaugrana and was named the club's third captain. In 2019, Paños was given her third Zamora Trophy award, conceding a personal-best 11 goals in the 2018–19 league season. For the 2019–20 season, her role as captain was decreased to fourth captain as Alexia Putellas made…

She was the first-choice goalkeeper at the 2009 U-17 Euro and the 2010 and 2011 U-19 Euros. In September 2011, she was called to Spain's senior national team for the first time, replacing injured María José Pons. Five months later she made her debut in a friendly against Austria. She was a part of Spain's squad at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, where she was Spain's third keeper. Since Jorge Vilda's takeover of the national team in 2017, Paños has been a regular starter with Spain. She started each of Spain's four matches at the UEFA Women's Euro 2017, captaining the side in their final match of Group D against Scotland. Spain advanced to the quarterfinals but were eliminated in a penalty shoot-out by Austria, who scored all 5 of their penalties. Despite having rotated with Lola Gallardo in goal during warm-up matches for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, Paños started all four of Spain's matches of the final tournament. Spain advanced to the knockout round of a Women's World Cup for the first time in their history, facing the United States in the Round of 16. Paños faced two penalties, both of which were scored by Megan Rapinoe, and the United States won the match 2–1. Paños was among Las 15, the fifteen players who withdrew from international selection during a dispute with the Spanish federation in 2022; though reportedly being open to return for the 2023 World Cup, the coach had chosen a new starting goalkeeper during her absence and did not want to introduce tension in…

Club

As of 17 June 2026

International

As of match played 6 September 2022

Sandra Paños García-Villamil was born on 4 November 1992, to Luis Ernesto Paños and Gemma García-Villamil. Paños began playing as a goalkeeper when there was a vacant position in goal for her futsal team. She later played 7-a-side football before playing for her first club, Sporting Plaza de Argel (formerly known as Hércules), when she was 10 years old. Her father formerly played for Hércules in the 1980s. Her older brother, Javi, was also a footballer. On June 12, 2026. She is married to coach and former player Sara Mérida.