Spain’s record scorer on revolutionising football in her home city and her petition to get female players on computer games

Towards the end of 2018 Vero Boquete, Spain’s all-time leading goalscorer who has won a Champions League and domestic titles in three countries, received “the biggest prize” of her career.

In her home city of Santiago de Compostela – in Galicia in the north-west of Spain and famous for being the climax of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route – the main stadium was renamed the Estadio Vero Boquete de San Lázaro.

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“It’s so difficult to describe and explain what I feel because it’s a historic emblematic stadium – it was a first division stadium,” says Boquete, of the ground she spent almost every weekend at as a child.

“It’s the biggest show of love from my city, from my people – they are my neighbours. But it’s not about my name, it’s a woman’s name in a main stadium, in football; that is just fantastic.”

What is also remarkable is that where most are long retired before tributes of this magnitude are paid, the 31-year-old Boquete is still playing at the top level.

The decorated Galician could legitimately be described as Spain’s First Lady of football. Having spent a not wholly satisfying year in China with Beijing BG Phoenix, she is preparing for a return to arguably the world’s best league, the NWSL, with Utah Royals. There she will be reunited with players such as Christen Press, Becca Moros, Amy Rodriguez and others she has lined up alongside during spells across Europe and the US which included time at Sweden’s Tyresö FF, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.

By her moved to Asia it could have been considered that her career was on the wane but Utah Royals’ manager, Laura Harvey, thought otherwise and the opportunity to work with the former Birmingham and Arsenal manager was a big pull.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Veronica Boquete at the Estadio Veronica Boquete. Photograph: Fernando Blanco/El Correo Gallego

“I lost the [play-off] final a few years ago, so there was something inside of me that made me want to come back and fight for the title again,” Boquete says. “Another reason was Laura Harvey. I’ve followed her career for many years and I was really interested in working with her.

“She was really specific about why she wanted me there and what she expected from me. That, for a player, is really important.”

Boquete, far from feeling past her peak, believes she can get better. “I’ve enjoyed every country I’ve played in, I’m a better player for playing in different leagues with different styles. Now, in the US, I just want to put everything together and take my game to another level.

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“I want to keep going until my body says it’s over. At the moment I feel great, I think I’m in one of the best moments of my career in how I feel and also how I understand the game. That experience helps you a lot.”

She may be an idol in her region, and country but growing up playing football wasn’t easy. “I started to play when I started to walk,” she says. “My dad was a coach and my brother played so I just wanted to do the same. I was all the time with them, playing at home, in the street.

“Then, when I was five or six years old, I joined my first team. For the first year I couldn’t play, because there was a rule that said girls can’t play with boys. So for one year I was just training and I went to the games but couldn’t play. But the love of the game was already inside of me.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vero Boquete celebrates winning the Women’s Champions League with Frankfurt in 2015. Photograph: Dennis Grombkowski/Bongarts/Getty Images

She was the only girl playing football in the city and she was the reason that rule was changed. “For me, for so many years, because I played football with boys until I was 15, football was almost an individual sport because I didn’t have a life in the locker room or things that make it a team sport.

“And I grew up without knowing what was possible. I didn’t have any woman reference because there was no information about it.

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“My first role model in football was Marta and she’s not much older than me. After a few years we were playing together in Sweden. So I think that is really important, especially here in my country, that girls grow up supporting football, supporting women’s football and they have a familiar reference.”

Being a role model herself doesn’t faze her; “it’s a motivation,” she says. “I get more than I give. To know that people, girls, are watching me, following me and want to be like me, that makes me work harder, makes me more ambitious and makes me want to fight for our rights and better conditions for the girls that are coming in behind.”

In 2013 a small act of frustration snowballed in a way she never expected. Boquete set up a petition calling on EA Sports to include female footballers in the Fifa computer games, and tens of thousands signed. “Many said I wanted it just so I could play as myself. But it was never about that. I didn’t play it, I didn’t like video games but I saw it could be a fantastic tool and there was an opportunity for it to demonstrate equality.” Two years later women were in the game.

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A belief in giving back is what made Boquete sign up to her compatriot Juan Mata’s Common Goal initiative. “It is a movement, it comes from football, the leaders are football players – already that makes you feel something,” she says. “I’m really interested in social justice and, when I knew about Common Goal and I knew Juan Mata was there, I called him saying: ‘OK, I want to be inside this.’

“Football gave us and is giving us so many things and has changed our lives. I think that makes us more socially grounded, so for me we have to give something back. One per cent of our salaries, 1% of all the money that this industry moves is nothing. The power of football is just crazy.”

Talking points

• The BBC has announced it will broadcast live coverage of all England’s pre-World Cup friendlies, including the threeSheBelieves Cup matches.



• Manchester City’s midfielder Jill Scott has pulled out of the England squad in order “to manage her return to full fitness ahead of the World Cup”. Scott played 120 minutes of City’s Continental Cup final victory over Arsenal on Saturday. Orlando Pride’s Chioma Ubogagu has been called up.

• German international Melanie Behringer has announced her plans to retire at the end of the season. The 33-year-old won the World Cup in 2007, two European Championships and the 2016 Olympics.

• Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Finland and the Faroe Islands are preparing a joint bid to host the 2027 World Cup. The 2023 tournament hosts will be announced next year.

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