Esmee Brugts

Esmee Virginia Brugts (born 28 July 2003) is a Dutch professional football player who plays as a midfielder or left-back for Liga F club Barcelona and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

PSV

Brugts started playing football with boys as a five-year-old for SV Heinenoord. She moved to FC Binnenmaas eight years later to play there for four years. She was highly sought after when she signed her first contract with PSV at age 16 in 2020. On 13 August 2020, Brugts made her debut for PSV in a pre-season match against Olympique Lyonnais. She scored her first league goal against ADO Den Haag on 8 November 2020, scoring in the 90th+2nd minute. In her first season at PSV she played 13 league games, scoring three goals. In the final of the KNVB Women's Cup she played the whole match, with PSV defeating ADO Den Haag 1–0. In her second season she played in the final of the 2022 KNVB Women's Cup, losing 2–1 to Ajax. Brugts scored a hattrick against Telstar on 24 March 2023.

Barcelona

In August 2023 she signed a four-year contract with Barcelona. She scored her first goals for Barcelona with an eight-minute hat-trick against Eibar on 9 December 2023, playing as a number 9 initially and as a left-back later in the match due to a spate of injuries. By the end of the season, she had played as winger and full-back on both sides, as well as up front. Between the multiple positions and Barcelona notoriously taking time to adapt to, Brugts finished the season with fewer goal contributions, though considered good statistics for her debut season.