Bárbara Klarissa Olivieri Dávila (born 24 February 2002) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

and

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

club

Houston Dash The Houston Dash is a professional women's soccer team based in Houston, Texas. It joined the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in the 2014 season, and is affiliated with the MLS team Houston Dynamo FC. History Establishment On November ...

. Born and raised in the United States to Venezuelan parents, she

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for the Venezuela women's national team.

Early life and education

Olivieri was born and raised in Katy,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States to Venezuelan parents. She played multiple sports as a child and especially soccer, starting at age 3. In 2014 Olivieri's parents took her to a Houston Dash game that exposed her to women's professional soccer. She attended Tompkins High School where her teams reached the Texas state championship final in 2017 and 2019.

College career

Olivieri attended

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

in College Station, Texas. In 2020 she was named SEC Freshman of the Year, and she was named to all-SEC teams for both the 2020 and 2021. Following her sophomore season and a stunning international debut, Olivieri left the college game to pursue a professional career.

Club career

Olivieri signed with

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

in Mexico in early February 2022. While with the club, the Rayadas finished the Clausura 2022 regular season at the top of the table, but lost in the playoff semi-final. Monterrey was second in the Apertura 2022 regular season and again lost in the playoff semi-final. In February 2023, the

signed Olivieri on a one-year contract with an option for 2024.

International career

Olivieri represented Venezuela at the 2018 South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship and the 2020 & 2022 South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship. At the senior level, Olivieri made her debut on 1 December 2021, in a 2–1 friendly win over

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. She scored the game-winning goal and assisted on the other goal.

References

External links

* * * * 2002 births Living people People with acquired Venezuelan citizenship Venezuelan women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards C.F. Monterrey (women) players Venezuela women's international footballers Venezuelan expatriate women's footballers Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate women's footballers in Mexico Sportspeople from Katy, Texas Soccer players from Texas American women's soccer players Texas A&M Aggies women's soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Mexico American sportspeople of Venezuelan descent Houston Dash players National Women's Soccer League players {{Venezuela-women-footy-bio-stub