Verónica Boquete

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Spanish international footballer

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Boquete and the second or maternal family name is Giadans.

Verónica Boquete Giadans (born 9 April 1987) is a Spanish footballer who plays as a forward or midfielder for Italian Serie A club Fiorentina. As well as in her native Spain, she has played professionally for clubs in the United States, Russia, Sweden, France, Germany, China, and Italy. She captained the Spain national team at their first World Cup appearance in 2015 and has also captained the Galicia national team for their entire history.

1 Club career
2 International career
- 2.1 International goals
3 Personal life
- 3.1 Successful FIFA video game women's pe*ion
- 3.2 Estadio Vero Boquete
4 Honours
- 4.1 Club
- 4.2 International
- 4.3 Individual
5 References
6 External links

Club career

Boquete came to wider international attention after signing for Philadelphia Independence of the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2011. She was a key player in Independence's 2011 season with four match-winning goals, and she was awarded the Player of the Year Award. In addition, she had been awarded the Player of the Week prize three times.

Boquete previously played for Xuventú Aguiño in her home region of Galicia, followed by Prainsa Zaragoza and RCD Espanyol in Spain, and Buffalo Flash (W-League) and Chicago Red Stars (WPS) in the summer of 2010. With Espanyol she won two national cups. She was the top scorer of the 2010–11 Superliga Femenina with 39 goals. Following the end of the 2011 WPS season she played for Russian side Energiya Voronezh in the Champions League.

Playing for Tyresö FF in 2014

In January 2012 Boquete announced a transfer to Swedish Damallsvenskan club Tyresö FF on a two-year contract. Tyresö won the Damallsvenskan *le for the first time in the 2012 season and she collected a league winner's medal alongside teammates Marta and Caroline Seger, who had also played in WPS.

On 7 April 2014, Portland Thorns FC acquired Boquete (along with midfielder Sarah Huffman) from the Western New York Flash in exchange for Courtney Wetzel, Kathryn Williamson, and Portland's first-round pick in the 2015 NWSL College Draft. Western New York originally held her NWSL rights. She joined the Thorns following Tyresö's participation in the 2013-2014 UEFA Women's Champions League tournament, making her first appearance for the Thorns on 7 June 2014 versus the Western New York Flash. She scored her first goal for the Thorns on 15 June 2014 versus the Washington Spirit. She would go on to score four goals along with six *ists in her 15 total appearances for the Thorns, culminating with the team's semi-final loss against FC Kansas City on 23 August 2014. During her time in Portland, she would garner the league's Player of the Week award three times.

On 25 August 2014, following the conclusion of the Portland Thorns season, Boquete signed with 1. FFC Frankfurt, the 2014 runners-up in the Frauen-Bundesliga. She expressed her desire to return to Portland in the future, "I'm going to try to do my best in Germany and I hope that I can come back (to Portland) next year, too."

On 27 May 2015, Boquete signed for the Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich, on a two-year contract. After a season truncated by injury, she was signed by big-spending French club Paris Saint-Germain, who hoped she could help them win the UEFA Women's Champions League.

In February 2018 Boquete became dissatisfied with her reduced playing time and agreed a mutual termination on the final months of her Paris Saint-Germain contract, to accept a transfer offer from Beijing BG Phoenix. She signed a one-season deal with the Chinese club and was given her customary number 21 jersey.

On 4 January 2019, Boquete announced her signing to the Utah Royals FC of the National Women's Soccer League. She was named to the NWSL Team of the Month for May 2019.

On 6 January 2022, Boquete joined Fiorentina on a deal until the end of the season.

International career

Boquete with Spain in 2013

Boquete is a veteran of Spain's 2004 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship *le win and their subsequent 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship campaign.

Boquete's senior Spain women's national football team debut came in February 2005, in a 0–0 friendly draw with the Netherlands.

In October 2012 Boquete scored the winning extra time goal in the 122nd minute of Spain's 3–2 win over Scotland in the second leg of the UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying play-off. The Spanish looked to be heading out when she had missed a penalty three minutes earlier. With this goal, Boquete qualified Spain for their first UEFA Women's Euro since 1997.

In June 2013, national team coach Ignacio Quereda confirmed Boquete as a member of his 23-player squad for the UEFA Women's Euro 2013 finals in Sweden. She became captain ahead of Spain's first-ever appearance at the Women's World Cup in 2015 in Canada. In the final group game against South Korea at Lansdowne Stadium in Ottawa, both teams were playing for a place in the last 16; she opened the scoring although Spain was unable to hold the lead and lost 2–1.

Boquete had a prominent role in the player revolt which led to the departure of long-serving coach Quereda following the poor performance at the World Cup. Boquete was eventually phased out after the player revolt alongside Spain's other captains, and two years later she was surprisingly and controversially omitted from Spain's squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2017 by replacement coach Jorge Vilda. After being left out of the Euro squad, Boquete was never chosen to play for Spain again and has effectively retired from national team duty. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Boquete said "I know my time with the national team is over, and I know it's not because my football."

On 28 October 2021, Boquete was featured in an Movistar+ do*entary called Romper El Silencio, where she detailed her experiences while playing in the Spanish national team under Quereda. Boquete, alongside former teammates Vicky Losada, Natalia Pablos, and Mar Prieto, claimed in the do*entary that Quereda was psychologically abusive, vocally *phobic, controlling, and that he created a toxic playing environment.

International goals

Personal life

In June 2013 Boquete became the first Spanish female footballer to release an autobiography. En*led Vero Boquete, la princesa del deporte rey (Vero Boquete, the princess of the king sport), it was ghostwritten by Marca writer David Menayo.

Successful FIFA video game women's pe*ion

In 2013, Boquete started a pe*ion on Change.org, which called upon video game producer Electronic Arts to introduce female players in its FIFA series and attracted 20,000 signatures in 24 hours. The pe*ion was eventually successful, as EA Sports revealed in May 2015 that she and the rest of Spain would join 11 other female international teams (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Sweden and the United States) in FIFA 16, which was released in September 2015 (on the 22nd in North America and the 24th in Europe) for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and also on Windows PC.

Estadio Vero Boquete

On 8 November 2018, the city hall of Santiago de Compostela agreed to rename their main stadium to Estadio Vero Boquete de San Lázaro, in homage to Boquete.

Honours

With the UEFA Women's Champions League trophy in 2015

Club

RCD Espanyol

Copa de la Reina de Fútbol (2): Winner 2009, 2010

Tyresö FF

Damallsvenskan (1): Winner 2012

FFC Frankfurt

UEFA Women's Champions League (1): Winner 2014–15

Bayern München

Bundesliga (1): Winner 2015–16

International

Spain

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (1): Winner 2004
Algarve Cup: Winner 2017

Individual

UEFA Women's Championship All-Star Team: 2013
FIFA FIFPro Women's World11: 2020

References