In Barcelona, some people of the ‘entorno’ called her “the jinx”.
Ewa Pajor had played in five Champions League finals during her career: four with Wolfsburg in 2015-16, 2017-18, 2019-20 and 2022-23, and one with Barcelona in 2024-25 — and she had lost all five.
On Saturday, the day she won her first Champions League couldn’t simply be just any old day and so it proved as she scored twice to set Barca on their way to a 4-0 triumph over Lyon in Oslo.
In May 2025, exactly a year ago, she could find no consolation following the final that the Catalan club lost to Arsenal. In the summer of 2024, she signed for Barcelona, the team to beat, to finally add a European title to her honours list. She had a great season, scoring 44 goals, but in Lisbon she tried everything, yet couldn’t find the net — yet again — as Barcelona were beaten 1-0.
She arrived at the Ullevaal Stadion to play in her sixth Champions League final and this time, she was determined to put things right. She looked rushed in the first half, as did the whole team. Surely those five lost finals had been replaying in her head in the days leading up to it.
“It always made me sad and I wondered why I kept losing time and time again,” she said in an interview in March 2026 with the newspaper El Pais. “But every match, not just the final, has taught me a lot. It’s tough but the next day you have to get up and think about how you can be a better player. This has taught me a lot about how to be a person and a footballer.”
In the 18th minute, after VAR ruled out a goal by Lyon’s Lindsey Heaps for offside, she had a clear chance to make it 1-0 after being sent clear but failed to lob onrushing goalkeeper Christiane Endler. Half an hour into the match, she had another clear chance. She received the ball inside the box, was unmarked, but smashed the ball against the crossbar.
She missed the first, she missed the second, but not the third. In the first half, Cata Coll kept Barca in the game with her superb saves but they needed a goal and Pajor was determined to break her own curse.
Ten minutes after the restart following the break, she scored the first goal with a low right-footed shot across goal. When she saw she had beaten Endler, she looked towards her fans, threw her arms wide, ran backwards and then let out a cry of rage and relief.
Pajor celebrates opening the scoring against Lyon (Photo by Annika Byrde/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
A quarter of an hour later, she latched onto a killer cutback from Salma Paralluelo inside the box and blasted home the second. She could have completed her hat-trick but she returned the favour to Paralluelo at 2-0 and, instead of shooting, set up the winger to score the second of her brace and make it 4-0.
After setting up that fourth and final goal, she dropped to her knees on the pitch before Aitana Bonmati picked her up as if to say: “Believe it, it was you”.
Then, when the match ended, Pajor collapsed onto the pitch. Now, at last, she had her first Champions League title.
It was she who had scored the two most decisive goals, the ones that put Barcelona in a confident mood and allowed them to leave behind the haste that had caused them to lose so many balls in the first half.
It was she who led her team to their fourth Champions League title. She was the MVP and the competition’s top scorer with 11 goals. She collected the award for best player with red eyes from crying so much; she couldn’t stop.
“It’s special,” she told ESPN after the match whilst she couldn’t stop sobbing. “I don’t know what I have to say. To play for this club was the best moment of my career. I am grateful. Just that.”
The coaching staff went to find her, cupped her face in both hands and hugged her, all aware that if this Champions League success was special for anyone, it was for her.
Pajor plants a kiss on the Women’s Champions League trophy (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
“I think I’ve hugged her about 50 times already because I’m so happy for her,” goalkeeper Coll said in the mixed zone. “She’s one of the players who deserved it most. I don’t know anyone who does the job as well as she does, so methodically. It was her turn.”
“I’m particularly happy and proud for Pajor,” head coach Pere Romeu said at the press conference. “She’s a key player for us: she embodies hard work, team play and always putting the team before herself. I’m sure that if she could give away goals rather than score them, she would. She’s fundamental to our football.”
In the dressing room, Barca’s players took photos, danced and created content for social media, but Pajor held her gold medal with both hands so that it wouldn’t slip away and so she could show it to everyone.
Thus came full circle a journey that began exactly 10 years ago after the first final she lost.
The Polish player spent four years in her native country’s top flight with Medyk Konin until she signed for Wolfsburg in 2015. She spent nine seasons there until the call from Barcelona came.
She arrived in Catalonia in 2024 to fill the significant void left by Mariona Caldentey. It was no easy task but she hit the right note and fitted like a glove.
The Polish player’s talent and perseverance have been rewarded. The dream of a girl who used to help out on her parents’ farm in a small village has come true. Back then, she would imagine goalposts on the walls so she could play football. Now she scores decisive goals in Champions League finals.
Now, no one else will be able to call her “the jinx” ever again.
