Verónica Boquete

Early life Verónica Boquete Giadáns was born on 9 April 1987 in Santiago de Compostela to Nicasio Boquete and Mercedes Giadans. Boquete was inspired to play football by her father, who was a coach in Spain's Third Division, and her brother Adrián, who also played football. She recounts that when she was a child, she was the only girl in her city that played with boys. For a year, she was only allowed to train with the all-boys team, as there was a rule that girls were not allowed to play matches for boy's teams. After her father and the club's president helped take her case to the CSD to change the rule, she played in teams of boys until she was fifteen years old. In the three years she spent in Zaragoza, Boquete averaged a goal every two matches. On 21 June 2009, Boquete played the first major final of her career, the Copa de la Reina final, against her former club Prainsa Zaragoza. Espanyol won by a resounding 5-1 scoreline, and Boquete won the first major title of her career. In the 2008-09 Superliga campaign, Boquete scored a personal best 15 goals.

2010: Summer in Buffalo and Chicago In 2010, Boquete moved to the USA for the summer to play for the Buffalo Flash of the USL W-League, a semi-professional and developmental league. She only featured for the Flash for a month, but still made an impact by scoring eight goals in nine matches. On 31 July 2010, Boquete scored a brace in the 2010 USL W-League Championship helping lead the Flash to victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps. She was named MVP of the tournament and her performances captured the attention of the Chicago Red Stars of the WPS. She joined the Red Stars on 8 August 2010, but had some immigration issues before coming to the team that caused her to miss three matches. When she arrived at the very end of the season, she helped Chicago win their final two matches of the season, recording a goal and two assists across both games. Boquete recounted later in her playing career that in Chicago, she was finally able to see a future where she could become a professional footballer.

Philadelphia Independence Boquete came to wider international prominence after signing for Philadelphia Independence of the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) in 2011. The club made the transfer official on 21 January, but she played out the rest of her league season with Espanyol before coming to the club on 4 June. Philadelphia reached the final of the playoffs against the Western New York Flash, which advanced to penalties after being tied in extra time. Boquete took and converted her penalty, but the team ended up losing 4-5 at the end of the shootout. At the end of the season, she was awarded the Player of the Year Award after making just 11 league appearances. In addition, she had been awarded the Player of the Week award three times.

Energiya Voronezh On 12 September 2011, Boquete was confirmed to be moving to Russian side Energiya Voronezh. It was reported that she would be earning €80,000 a year at the club. With Energiya, she made her debut in the UEFA Women's Champions League on 29 September against Bristol Academy. She scored her first Champions League goal in the second leg of the Round of 32 tie against Bristol. Energiya were knocked out by fellow Russian side Rossiyanka in the following round. Boquete did not stay at the club for long, departing for Tyresö in January. The team folded due to financial struggles the following year.

Tyresö FF Playing for Tyresö FF in 2014In January 2012 Boquete announced a transfer to Swedish Damallsvenskan club Tyresö FF on a two-year contract. At Tyresö, she found herself to be part of a "superteam" alongside other women's football greats such as Marta, her childhood role model, Caroline Seger, Ali Krieger, Jennifer Hermoso, Lisa Dahlkvist, Caroline Graham Hansen, and Christen Press, amongst others.

Tyresö won the Damallsvenskan title for the first time in the 2012 season. Boquete was named the Damallsvenskan's Midfielder of the Year for 2012, and finished her season with 8 assists, the third-most in the league. In August 2013, Boquete was nominated for the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award for the first time. She ended up finishing fifth in the voting. Boquete once again concluded that year's Damallsvenskan season as the third-highest assister, this time reaching 9 assists. She was also included in the league's Best XI of the season.

Amongst rumors that the club was facing financial troubles, Boquete announced that she would be leaving the club once their season ended. The club reached the 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League Final, which was played against Wolfsburg on 22 May. In the months leading up to the final, Boquete suffered two major injuries – an overload of her calf muscle and a ligament tear in her quadriceps of her right leg. She managed to recover in time to start the final, and two minutes after Marta scored Tyresö's first goal, Boquete poked in their second following a cross from Marta. Tyresö went into halftime victorious, but conceded twice quickly into the second half. They ended up losing the match 3–4, which was Boquete's final match for the club. Tyresö declared bankruptcy and folded very soon after their Champions League Final loss, an expected development following a long period of financial problems. Western New York originally held her NWSL rights. She joined the Thorns following Tyresö's participation in the 2013-14 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 went on to score four goals and record 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. Her six assists set a single-season record for the Thorns, which was broken by Tobin Heath two seasons later. During her time in Portland, she won the league's Player of the Week award three times. She was also nominated for a second consecutive UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award in July, where she again finished fifth in the voting. At the end of the 2014 NWSL season, she placed second in the voting for the NWSL MVP Award, she was named to the league's Best XI, and was voted to be Portland's Player of the Year by the club's fans. While she was with Frankfurt, she was nominated for the first time to the 2014 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Award, the predecessor to the Ballon D'or Féminin. With this nomination, she became the first Spanish woman to be nominated to the Ballon d'Or. She finished in 8th place out of 10 nominees with 6 percent of the voting.right With the UEFA Women's Champions League trophy in 2015Boquete reached her second consecutive UWCL final with Frankfurt. She started the final on 14 May 2015, despite continuous discomfort in her ankle and quadriceps. Frankfurt ended up winning 2-1 against PSG, and with this win, Boquete became the first Spanish player in history to win a UEFA Women's Champions League title. She was named to the UWCL Squad of the Season for 2014-15, and finished her campaign with 6 goals and 4 assists. Shortly after signing, Boquete picked up a hamstring injury during pre-season that kept her out of play for five months. She still picked up her third consecutive nomination to the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award and finished 4th in the final voting, a place higher than the previous two years. She made her official comeback on 20 November 2015, playing 20 minutes in a Frauen-Bundesliga match against Leverkusen. After returning from injury, Boquete found herself struggling to adapt to Bayern's playing style. The club defended their Bundesliga title victory, but fell to FC Twente in the Round of 32 of the 2015-16 UEFA Women's Champions League knockout stage. Boquete left the club at the end of the season, uncharacteristically making just 9 appearances and scoring no goals. Boquete arrived with motivations of helping PSG win their first UEFA Women's Champions League title. At PSG, Boquete spent a lot of her time coming off the bench.

In her first season at PSG, the club reached the 2017 UEFA Women's Champions League final, the third of her career. Boquete subbed on for PSG in the 57th minute and played through both periods of extra time to reach a penalty shootout. Boquete converted her penalty, but PSG ended up losing the match in dramatic fashion after an unsuccessful penalty attempt from PSG's goalkeeper Katarzyna Kiedrzynek and a successful penalty conversion from Lyon's goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi.

By early 2018, Boquete became dissatisfied with her reduced playing time and agreed a mutual termination of her contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

Beijing BG Phoenix Following her stints in Bayern and PSG where she struggled to find her place in either team, Boquete accepted an offer from Beijing BG Phoenix, her first footballing experience outside of Europe or the United States. She signed a one-season deal with the Chinese club and was given her customary number 21 jersey. The club finished 6th place out of 8 in the 2018 Chinese Women's Super League.

Utah Royals 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. At the end of the 2019 NWSL season, she had the third-most assists in the league with 6.

Amidst internal issues and controversy within the Real Salt Lake organization, Boquete confirmed in November 2020 that she would not be returning to Utah for the 2021 NWSL season, and that she would go back to playing football in Europe. She ended her stint with the Royals having scored one goal and recording eight assists.

AC Milan Boquete joined Italian side AC Milan on 9 November 2020. In her first season, she made 19 total appearances for the club across all competitions, and was an important factor in the team's eventual Champions League qualification. At the end of 2020, Boquete was named to the 2020 FIFPRO Women's World 11. She accepted the award, but reflected on social media that she did not believe she deserved a place in the XI.

In the second leg of the 2020–21 Coppa Italia semifinal, Boquete scored a brace to help Milan triumph 4-2 (5-4 aggregate) over their historic rivals Inter. Prior to the Coppa Italia final, the club agreed to extend her contract for a year, which was announced on 20 May 2021. She competed in the 2021 Coppa Italia final on 30 May 2021, which eventually went to penalties after a 0-0 extra time result. Boquete took and missed her team's first penalty, and Milan fell to Roma 1-3 on penalties.

In the following season, she had a less prominent role, and only made 6 league appearances. Boquete confirmed her early departure from the club on 1 January 2022. Prior to her departure announcement, she was not part of Milan's squad for any of their seven most recent matches, fueling reports of conflict with head coach Maurizio Ganz.

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

Como 1907 On 14 July 2025, Boquete was signed on a free transfer by Como 1907, who had just registered in Serie B.

International career

2004–2006: Youth national team career Boquete's first international experience with Spain came with their U-19 team, which she played with in 2004. She later went on to win the 2004 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship with Spain and compete in the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Cup.

2005–2012: National team debut Boquete's senior Spain women's national football team debut came in February 2005, in a 0–0 friendly draw with the Netherlands.

2012–2014: Euro and World Cup qualifications Spain reached qualification playoffs for the 2013 UEFA Women's Euro following a second place finish in qualification group B. Boquete was injured for the first leg of the playoff against Scotland, which Spain drew 1-1. Just three minutes later, Boquete redeemed herself by scoring the winning extra time goal from a volley in the 122nd minute, effectively qualifying Spain for their first UEFA Women's Euro since 1997. Boquete later reflected on this goal as the most important one of her career.

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.

2015–2016: World Cup and Quereda dispute On 11 May 2015, Quereda announced his squad list for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, with Boquete being named captain. Prior to the tournament, the RFEF and Spain's coaching staff had greatly mishandled the team's arrival to Canada. They arrived only two days in advance after being forced to take multiple layovers on their flight to the country. Additionally, they were poorly physically prepared and did not participate in any friendly matches in the six months leading up to the tournament, all events that established a great sense of tension in Spain's squad.

Spain had a difficult tournament, drawing their first match against Costa Rica and losing the next one against Brazil. 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. After the match, Quereda was filmed screaming in the face of Vicky Losada, who was in tears on the team bench.

The events that transpired after the South Korea match caused tensions to overflow within the Spain national team camp, leading to a player revolt against Quereda, who had been coach of the national team for 27 years. On 19 June, each of the 23 players in their 2015 World Cup squad published an open letter asking for Quereda to be dismissed as national team coach. It was the second time that players of the Spain national team wrote a letter to ask for Quereda's dismissal, with the first incident happening in 1997. This time, Boquete was the unwritten leader of the player revolt, and gave multiple interviews and press conferences to defend the actions of the players. Once the team returned to Spain, Boquete spoke to the media in the Madrid–Barajas airport and told them that the players were a united front, and that they demand that the RFEF create a "serious project." Over the coming days, the players in the squad spoke to media individually to expand and elaborate on their grievances. Overall, the players accused Quereda of mishandling his role as coach both on and off the pitch. They complained that they used outdated training methods from the beginning of Quereda's tenure, that they were unprepared for the tournament after arriving late and not playing any matches for months, and that they didn't receive any analysis or background on their World Cup opponents. Further, the players alleged that Quereda was highly controlling, had a history of blacklisting players he didn't like, made comments on players weights, and that he would frequently say rude and misogynistic things. The RFEF thanked him for his 27 years of service for the national team, praising him for "creating a solid structure" and achieving "outstanding results." In his place, the Federation appointed Jorge Vilda, who had coached and found success with multiple Spanish women's youth national team sections.

2016–present: 2017 Euro exclusion and aftermath Under Vilda's leadership, Boquete was gradually phased out of the team over the next two years alongside Spain's other veteran players. However, she did feature in some of Spain's later qualification matches for the 2017 UEFA Women's Euro. La Roja officially clinched Euro qualification on 12 April 2016 against the Republic of Ireland, where Boquete scored 2 in a 3-1 win. By June 2017, she had only featured in 6 of Spain's nineteen matches since the 2015 World Cup. On 20 June 2017, she was surprisingly and controversially omitted from Spain's squad for that year's UEFA Women's Euro. Shortly after, she posted a letter to the public on social media expressing her sadness for not being called up, and wishing good luck to her teammates at the competition.

When reflecting on being dropped from the Spanish squad for the Euros, she often laments that neither Vilda nor any staff member from the national team communicated their decision to her. Following the Euros, Boquete was never chosen to play for Spain again and was effectively blacklisted from national team duty. In a 2018 interview, Boquete told These Football Times that her omission from the squad was "not a surprise," that she "could see it happening," and had been "preparing for it for months." Boquete's national team career ended with an accumulation of 62 caps and 38 goals, the latter being a team record that stood for four years until Jenni Hermoso overtook her in February 2021. Since leaving the national team, she has given commentary on many Spain women's national team matches, including during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Throughout the years following her omission from Spain's 2017 Euro squad, Boquete would continue to speak publicly about her difficult experiences in the national team. On 28 October 2021, she was featured in a Movistar+ documentary called Romper El Silencio ("Break the Silence"), 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, said in the documentary that Quereda was psychologically abusive, vocally homophobic, controlling, and that he created a toxic playing environment in the national team for decades. In 2022, during the Las 15 conflict, Boquete would continue to offer her support to the 15 players demanding better conditions within the national team.

Following Jorge Vilda's dismissal as Spain's head coach in the aftermath of the Rubiales affair, Boquete posted a photo of herself on X smiling and holding a bottle of champagne with the caption "Vintage Champagne, 8 years of maturation in the bottle," a nod to Vilda's eight years in charge of Spain.

Response to Luis Rubiales kissing Jenni Hermoso

After the Spain national team won the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, then-president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, kissed Spain forward Jennifer Hermoso on the lips without her consent during Spain's trophy presentation. The incident prompted fierce international backlash and criticism, with Rubiales eventually being removed from his position as president and resigning in the following months. Largely due to her role in removing Ignacio Quereda as Spain coach in 2015, Boquete became a central figure in criticism of Rubiales, national team coach Jorge Vilda, Vilda's staff, and the RFEF as a whole.

On 25 August, Boquete brought together 80 other current and former Spanish international footballers into a WhatsApp group chat which she titled "Off to War," where they organized to write and sign a letter stating that they would not return to the national team unless Luis Rubiales was removed from his position within the RFEF. Days later, Boquete wrote an article about the demeaning treatment of women footballers in Spain, hoping that the international outcry following the incident would bring structural reform to Spanish football, rather than merely replacing Rubiales with someone similar. She further attributed Rubiales's behavior to a wider, cultural issue within the RFEF that requires systematic change.

Later on, in a September interview with German publication Der Spiegel, Boquete alleged that the RFEF hacked Hermoso's phone to find compromising images and videos that would help discredit her to the public. In addition, she criticized the Spain men's national team's "delayed" and "weak" statement about the incident, and further criticized the RFEF for appointing Montsé Tomé to replace Jorge Vilda. She argued that that "[Tomé] tolerated too many things [from Rubiales]" and that there were more qualified coaches with more experience that should have replaced Vilda. She further argued that Tomé's appointment was an attempt from the RFEF to put a woman in charge to "keep the players from complaining."

International goals Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1 8 May 2008 La Ciudad del Fútbol, Las Rozas de Madrid 2–1 4–1 UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying 2 4–1 3 28 May 2008 The Showgrounds, Newry, Northern Ireland 0–3 0–3 4 2 October 2008 Estadio Ruta de la Plata, Zamora 1–0 2–2 5 19 September 2009 Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali, Malta 0–10 0–13 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification 6 0–12 7 21 November 2009 Manisa 19 Mayıs Stadium, Manisa, Turkey 0–5 0–5 8 24 June 2010 Estadio La Albuera, Segovia 9–0 9–0 9 17 September 2011 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey 1–3 1–10 UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying 10 1–5 11 1–8 12 23 October 2011 La Ciudad del Fútbol, Las Rozas de Madrid 3–2 3–2 13 20 November 2011 Stadionul Buftea, Buftea, Romania 0–2 0–4 14 0–3 15 24 November 2011 Estadio Escribano Castilla, Motril 1–2 2–2 16 5 April 2012 La Ciudad del Fútbol, Las Rozas de Madrid 1–0 13–0 17 11–0 18 16 June 2012 Stadion Brügglifeld, Aarau, Switzerland 2–3 4–3 19 24 October 2012 La Ciudad del Fútbol, Las Rozas de Madrid 3–2 3–2 UEFA Women's Euro 2013 Play-off 20 16 June 2013 Pinatar Arena, San Pedro del Pinatar 1–0 2–1 Friendly 21 28 June 2013 Vejle, Denmark 0–1 2–2 22 2–2 23 12 July 2013 Arena Linköping, Linköping, Sweden 0–1 2–3 UEFA Women's Euro 2013 24 18 July 2013 Nya Parken, Norrköping, Sweden 0–1 1–1 25 14 January 2014 La Manga Stadium, La Manga Club 1–0 1–2 Friendly 26 13 February 2014 Estadio Las Gaunas, Logroño 1–0 12–0 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification 27 8–0 28 17 September 2014 Spartak Písek, Písek, Czech Republic 0–1 0–1 29 3 March 2015 Estadio Municipal, La Roda 1–0 2–2 Friendly 30 22 July 2015 Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, Canada 0–1 2–1 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup 31 24 January 2016 Stadion pod Malim Brdom, Petrovac na moru, Montenegro 0–2 0–7 UEFA Women's Euro 2017 qualifying 32 8 April 2016 Complexo Desportivo da Covilhã, Covilhã, Portugal 1–4 1–4 33 12 April 2016 La Ciudad del Fútbol, Las Rozas de Madrid 1–0 3–0 34 2–0 35 15 September 2016 La Ciudad del Fútbol, Las Rozas de Madrid 1–0 13–0 36 2–0 37 8–0 38 9–0 Correct as of 15 September 2016

In popular culture In June 2013 Boquete became the first Spanish female footballer whose biography has been published. Titled Vero Boquete, la princesa del deporte rey (Vero Boquete, the princess of the king's sport), it was written 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 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 Verónica Boquete On 8 November 2018, the city hall of Santiago de Compostela agreed to rename their main stadium to Estadio Verónica Boquete de San Lázaro, in recognition of Boquete.

Personal life Boquete speaks Spanish, Portuguese, English,

Her signature celebration is putting her outspread palm over her face, which mimics the shape of an octopus. It is a gesture of connection to her friends and family of Galicia, where octopus is a culinary staple.

Since October 2017, Boquete has been a member of Common Goal, an organization of footballers who pledge to donate at least 1% of their yearly salary to football charities. Specifically, she supports a charity based in Saint Lucia, which aims to help women achieve social and economic advancement through sport. Artificial turf is known to be more dangerous to players, as it is more likely lead to more frequent injuries with longer recovery periods compared to grass pitches, and the rubber pellets in the turf itself can cause burns (often called turf burn) which can lead to skin infections.

The lawsuit gained support from prominent athletes like the NBA's Kobe Bryant and USMNT goalkeeper Tim Howard. Despite support from fans and fellow athletes, the lawsuit failed and the tournament went ahead as planned on artificial turf pitches.

Honours RCD Espanyol Copa de la Reina de Fútbol: 2009, 2010 Buffalo Flash USL W-League Championship: 2010 Tyresö FF Damallsvenskan: 2012

1. FFC Frankfurt UEFA Women's Champions League: 2014–15

Bayern München Bundesliga: 2015–16 Spain UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship: 2004 Algarve Cup: 2017 Individual

Bronze Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit: 2015 FIFA FIFPro Women's World11: 2020 WPS Michelle Akers Player of the Year: 2011 Primera División Golden Boot: 2010–11 UEFA Women's Championship Team of the Tournament: 2013 NWSL Best XI: 2014 Damallsvenskan Best XI: 2013 USL W-League MVP: 2010 Damallsvenskan Midfielder of the Season: 2012 WPS Best XI: 2011