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For most players, hours of gruelling training followed by intense games is enough to fill a weekly schedule, but Verónica Boquete dedicates her time to much more than her pitch skills.
Working tirelessly to ensure everyone is given their best chance in football, the Fiorentina forward campaigns for real change both on and off the pitch. We spoke with Vero to hear more…
Who or what inspired you to play football?
I started playing football because my dad was a coach and I also have a brother who is three years older than me. Growing up I wanted to be just like him and do what he was doing, and that was playing football.
When I was five or six years old, I started in my first team. There was a federation rule that said girls could not play with boys, so in my first year I went to every practice and every game, but I was not allowed to play.
That was when I realised that it was going to be a little bit tough to become a footballer.
Was it difficult at the time to be the only woman playing?
I was the only girl playing in my city, so it was a huge surprise for everyone. There wasn’t a women’s team or anything like that.
In the last 10 years women’s football internationally has changed a lot. Now it’s much more common and normal to see girls playing with boys.
You’ve had some great moments in your career, one being the stadium in your home city being named after you (Estadio Vero Boquete de San Lázaro), how did that feel?
I always say that is for sure my biggest achievement and the hugest title of my career. I’m lucky that it’s my name, but really, I think the important thing is that it’s a woman’s name on the football stadium.
I’m really proud of that because the stadium of my city is really historical in men’s football, the team that played there were in the first division and so many big players played there.
I grew up watching football there and now my name is on the on the stadium, that’s really cool.
You’ve campaigned to get women players represented in games like FIFA and EA Sports FC, how does it feel seeing your work pay off?
I’m really proud of that! It was 2013 when I started a campaign to get people to sign so that EA Sports realised how many people want women in the game.
A lot of people said that I just wanted to play as myself in the game, but the reality is that I don’t play FIFA, I just saw it as a great tool for education.
It’s nice just to see that people can now choose women and men in both ways.
You’ve played for a lot of clubs, do any standout as being your favourite?
It’s hard to decide because I have played in eight different countries. I played for Bayern Munich and PSG, I played in the USA too. But the national team is always special and feels bigger than the rest.
Every club and country I’ve played in has helped me to be who I am, and I keep a part of them all in myself.
You’ve spoken openly about Luis Rubiales, what needs to happen to prevent issues like this from occurring?
I think everyone realized that we needed a change, a deeper change in the federation. But this is not just a problem with the Spanish federation.
These issues happen in every industry and every country in the world, this just happened to be in a World Cup when all the cameras were around. We just want to be focused now and the positive thing is everyone realised it wasn’t okay.
It had been okay for a long time, but we needed to change it. I’m positive for the future.
How nice was it to see Aitana Bonmatí win the Ballon d’Or as a fellow Spanish player?
It was fantastic, I’ve known her since she was little, Alexia Putellas too, we all played together in the national team.
We have a great connection, we always text each other and now I get to see her getting the biggest prize and the recognition and I think it is well deserved.
She has been fantastic in the last few years, especially this year. It’s even better because she’s Spanish, she’s from my country and that gives respect to all the Spanish players.
Why did you decide to complete the UEFA MIP programme?
I know that, unfortunately, my football career will be over sooner or later. I wanted to get all the knowledge possible. When you are a player you get the knowledge about the football, training and games but you don’t see how things work away from the pitch.
When I heard about MIP I thought ‘wow, this is my thing’, so I got involved.
My first idea when I retire is to become a coach, but I think it’s really important to have knowledge about everything.
After the course I also got great contacts who I know I can use to improve.
If you were to look at yourself in 10 years, what do you hope to have achieved?
I hope to be able to use all the knowledge that I gained in a position where I can help football to get better. That is one of the goals that every alumni member has, to make our sport better.
We know there are weaknesses, and that football can improve, we want to be there and help.
So, I hope in 10 years, if you ask me the same question, I can say actually I helped it to improve and to develop and to make football a little better.
What changes do you hope to see in the game of football?
I hope that football keeps the connection with the fans. Football has to fight with so many other attractions for younger people, but we have to be smart and good enough to keep the passions of this sport.
We also need to get better with equality because football is for everyone, and we can prove that as football players or ex-players.
It doesn’t matter which country you come from, football gives you the chance to have a life and I think that people deserve that chance, we have the responsibility to keep the chances alive.
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