Emma Moreno: every position leads forward

Emma Moreno attacked the space, received Carmen Álvarez’s pass and beat the goalkeeper to put Eibar ahead.

Waiting on the other side was Atlético de Madrid.

The club she had joined in 2015. The team with whom she had signed her first professional contract. The badge she still belonged to while accumulating minutes on loan at Ipurua.

It was her only goal in the 2025/26 Liga F season, but the move contained much of what defines her football. Emma did not wait for the ball to come to her feet, nor did she stay tied to a position. She read the space and started the run.

That is a constant in her career.

Growing up inside Atlético

Emma Moreno Torres was born on 2 May 2007 in Manzanares el Real, Madrid. She joined the Atlético de Madrid academy in 2015 and worked her way through its ranks until she was knocking on the first team’s door.

In 2023, aged 16, she signed her first professional contract. The club introduced her as a midfielder. Emma expressed her gratitude and said she wanted to keep improving “as a person and as a footballer.”

It was not an arrival. It was another step.

A year later, Atlético chose her alongside Taufik Seidu to represent the academy at the laying of the first stone of their new Ciudad del Deporte. It was an institutional occasion, but also a way of pointing to two players who embodied the future of the youth set-up.

For Emma, that future began to become present in September 2024. She made her official first-team debut in the Champions League preliminary round against Rangers, alongside fellow academy players Dana Benítez and Naara Miranda. Later, she also played her first Liga F minutes, against Deportivo.

She had reached the elite level. The next step was to find consistency.

Leaving to stop being a prospect

In the summer of 2025, Atlético agreed a loan move to Eibar.

The Basque club presented her as a player capable of operating as a striker, winger or attacking midfielder. The loan was designed to give her competitive football every week, help her take on responsibility, and test how her game held up when minutes stopped being an occasional reward and became a regular expectation.

Emma played 29 Liga F matches and accumulated 1,542 minutes during the 2025/26 season.

The numbers reflect a shift in phase. She stopped being just an academy product with potential and became a regular in a top-flight squad.

At Eibar she had to adapt to contexts very different from anything she had experienced in youth football. She could not always receive the ball near the area or play in a team that dominated territory. There were matches where she had to track back, protect her flank, or cover a lot of ground before she could think about attacking.

Her only league goal came against Atlético.

The move needed few touches. She spotted the space, started the run and finished. Where she had started from was secondary. What mattered was what she understood the situation was asking of her.

A footballer who refuses to be pinned down

Official sources have never quite put Emma in the same place.

Atlético introduced her as a midfielder when she signed her contract, then later referred to her as a forward. Eibar emphasised her ability to play across several attacking positions. UEFA lists her as an attacker at club level and a defender with the Spanish national team.

These are not contradictory labels. They describe a footballer capable of taking on different functions.

Emma can play through the middle because she has the quality to carry the ball and combine between the lines. She can play wide because she has the engine and the desire to get forward. She can attack the space in behind the defence and also start from deeper positions.

Her versatility is not simply about filling different boxes on a tactics board. What matters is that she understands what each one demands.

When she plays up front, she looks for space. When she starts from the wing, she tries to stretch the pitch and push on. When she operates as a full-back, she recognises the moment to join the attack and become a threat.

She is not a player misplaced on the pitch.

She is a player who understands different parts of it.

Champion with Spain

Emma has progressed through the Spanish national team age groups at the same pace she has moved forward at Atlético.

She won the Under-17 European Championship in 2024 and finished runner-up at the World Cup the same year. In 2025 she claimed another continental title, this time with the Under-19s, after Spain beat France in the final.

During that tournament she had already shown her ability to switch roles. She played at both full-back positions, in central midfield, as an attacking midfielder and on both wings. Spain did not use her to solve one specific problem — they used her because she could offer different answers within the same competition.

In qualifying for the 2026 European Championship she played five matches and scored against the Faroe Islands. In the final tournament, David Aznar turned to her again from an ostensibly defensive position.

Emma started at right-back against Switzerland on the opening day of the championship.

Spain set up in a 4-4-2, but the shape shifted with the ball. The left-back held her position alongside the centre-backs, while Emma pushed forward on the right. The structure became a 3-2-4-1, with her occupying the flank at the level of the attacking players.

Switzerland had packed players into the centre to block Spain’s combinations through the middle. Spain found one of their main outlets out wide.

Emma provided width, received the ball in advanced positions and looked to deliver crosses into the area. For long stretches of the match she was a full-back only in the team sheet. On the pitch she appeared almost as a winger.

The team could not break through Switzerland’s defensive block through the centre.

They went around it — down the right.

Returning with her role undecided

The loan at Eibar ends on 30 June 2026. After that, Emma must return to Atlético de Madrid.

There is no public confirmation yet of the role she will have next season. The club must decide whether she joins the first team, goes out on loan again to keep accumulating minutes, or takes a different path within their planning.

It is also not yet clear where they picture her on the pitch.

Perhaps there is no need to decide too soon.

Emma Moreno has spent more than a decade growing up inside Atlético. She has made her debut in the Champions League and Liga F, played regularly in the top flight at Eibar, and won two European Championships with Spain.

She has been introduced as a midfielder, a forward, and an attacker. With the national team she appears among the defenders. She has played through the middle, on both flanks, and from the full-back position.

She has not changed position so many times because she lacks one of her own. She has done it because she understands the game from different places.

Emma Moreno can start almost anywhere.

What matters is where she’s going.