Verónica Boquete

Verónica Boquete Giadáns (born 9 April 1987) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a forward or midfielder for Italian Serie A club Fiorentina. Boquete has played professional club football for fifteen different clubs in eight different countries– her native Spain, the United States, Russia, Sweden, France, Germany, China, and most recently, Italy. She also formerly captained the Spain national team between 2013 and 2017, where she was a major part of their successful qualifications to the 2013 UEFA Women's Euro and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. Boquete has additionally captained the Galicia national team for the team's entire history.

Boquete is widely regarded as one of the greatest Spanish footballers of all time and one of the best footballers of her generation. She stood out with RCD Espanyol in her early career, winning two Copas de la Reina with the club between 2008 and 2011, additionally earning a Pichichi Trophy for her 39 goals scored in the 2010–11 Superliga Femenina campaign, which remains a Spanish first division record. After departing Spain, Boquete's next long-term move came in 2012, where she joined Swedish side Tyresö FF. In 2014, she became the first Spanish player to appear in a UEFA Women's Champions League final, and later in the year became the first Spanish footballer to be nominated for the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Award. Boquete finally reached Champions League success in 2015 and become the first Spanish player to win the UEFA Women's Champions League, which she accomplished with FFC Frankfurt. Since departing Frankfurt, Boquete has played for teams in France, China, the United States, and Italy, and has most recently spent four years in the latter country between AC Milan and Fiorentina.

She represented the Spanish national team for 12 years, debuting in February 2005 when she was 17 years old. As captain of the Spanish national team between 2013 and 2017, Boquete played a crucial role in qualifying them to the 2013 Euros, Spain's first Women's Euro appearance since 1997, as well as their first ever Women's World Cup appearance in 2015. Following their group stage elimination from the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Boquete famously led the players of the Spain national team in protest against the continued employment of Ignacio Quereda, who they alleged was verbally and physically abusive. Following Quereda's resignation and Jorge Vilda's subsequent hiring, her role in the team gradually lessened until she was controversially omitted from Spain's 2017 UEFA Women's Euro squad. Her national team career effectively ended in 2017, and she retired with 62 appearances and then-team record 38 goals scored.

Boquete has long been outspoken against the unfair and unequal treatment of female footballers, especially within her home country of Spain. In 2013, Boquete petitioned Electronic Arts to include women in their popular game series FIFA, which was eventually successful with women being implemented into the game for the first time in FIFA 16. Prior to the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, Boquete joined other prominent female footballers in filing a lawsuit against FIFA for gender discrimination for the use of artificial turf in Canada's World Cup venues. In 2023, she was vocal in her support of Jenni Hermoso, who was forcibly kissed on the lips by RFEF President Luis Rubiales in trophy celebrations at the 2023 Women's World Cup final, an event that was later dubbed the Rubiales affair.