2004–2005 SD Xuventú Aguiño Nationality Spanish Number 21 | Years Team Height 1.62 m | |
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Full name Verónica Boquete Giadans Date of birth (1987-04-09) 9 April 1987 (age 29) Place of birth Santiago de Compostela, Galicia Playing position Current team Paris Saint-Germain Féminines Similar Irene Paredes, Vicky Losada, Sonia Bermúdez, Jennifer Hermoso, Alexia Putellas Profiles | ||
Verónica "Vero" Boquete Giadans (born 9 April 1987) is a Galician-born Spanish footballer who plays as a forward or midfielder for Division 1 Féminine club Paris Saint-Germain and both the Spanish national team as well as the Galician national team. She captained Spain at their first World Cup appearance in 2015.
Contents
- Club career
- International career
- Personal life
- Successful FIFA video game womens petition
- Club
- International
- Individual
- References
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.
She previously played for Xuventú Aguiño, Prainsa Zaragoza and RCD Espanyol in Spain, and Buffalo Flash (W-League) and Chicago Red Stars (WPS) in the summer of 2010. With Espanyol Boquete 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.
In January 2012 Boquete announced a transfer to Swedish Damallsvenskan club Tyresö FF on a two-year contract. Tyresö won the Damallsvenskan title for the first time in the 2012 season and Boquete 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 Boquete's NWSL rights. Boquete 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. Vero would go on to score four goals along with six assists 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.
International career
Boquete is a veteran of Spain's 2004 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship title win and their subsequent 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship campaign.
Her 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 Boquete had missed a penalty three minutes earlier.
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; Boquete opened the scoring although Spain was unable to hold the lead and lost 2–1.
Personal life
In June 2013 Boquete became the first Spanish female footballer to release an autobiography. Entitled 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 petition
In 2013, Boquete started a petition 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 petition was eventually successful, as EA Sports revealed in May 2015 that Boquete 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.