Belén Martínez is not returning to Badajoz after losing her place in the top flight.
She returns after playing every match.
The forward featured in all 30 Liga F fixtures for Alhama last season. She accumulated 2,170 minutes, scored five goals and provided one assist in a campaign that ended with the Murcia club’s relegation.
At 37, her return to Extremaduran football could easily be presented simply as a veteran player coming home. Her recent numbers tell a different story.
Sportextremadura are signing a player who was ever-present in Liga F last season and has scored 26 league goals across her three campaigns with Alhama.
In her first season, 2023/24, she made 29 appearances and led the team with nine goals. A year later, she increased that total to twelve, finished as Primera Federación’s second-highest scorer and helped Alhama return to Liga F.
The division changed. Her involvement did not.
Martínez appeared in every match last season. She now drops down one tier, but does so to join a newly promoted club preparing for their first campaign in Primera Federación.
Five seasons away from Badajoz
Martínez left Badajoz in 2021 to sign for Villarreal.
Her journey had begun in Olivenza and taken her through Puebla de la Calzada, Cáceres, Extremadura and Santa Teresa. At Santa Teresa, she helped the club return to the top flight before playing the 2020/21 season in Primera División.
She made 58 league appearances and scored ten goals during two seasons with Villarreal. Martínez then joined Alhama, where she mounted another promotion challenge and earned another opportunity in the top flight.
Her record at the highest level since 2020 stands at 120 appearances, 8,104 minutes and 21 goals.
Five seasons after leaving Badajoz, she returns to a city where she spent a significant part of her career, although not to the same club she left.
A newly promoted side looks for certainty
Sportextremadura arrive in Primera Federación after earning two consecutive promotions, with survival their first objective.
Martínez provides one of the clearest certainties available to a newcomer. She knows the division, has won promotion from it and arrives after spending an entire season facing Liga F opposition.
She also returns to familiar surroundings. The forward was born in Olivenza, developed within Extremaduran football and joins other players from the region, including Estefanía Lima and Lucía Boyero.
Sportextremadura are not merely signing a player with a past in Badajoz.
They are signing a 37-year-old who returns home after playing every match in Liga F.
