Erika Vázquez Morales (born 16 February 1983), known simply as Erika, is a former Spanish

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 played as a

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 ...

, mainly for

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

where she set club records for most appearances and goals. Between 2003 and 2016, she played for the Spain national team and has also played for the Basque Country national team.

Club career

With 240 goals for the club in the

Primera División (women) The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent of the men's La Li ...

and 18 more in three

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

campaigns she is Athletic Bilbao's all-time top scorer and appearance maker, overtaking the mark of 413 in the latter count set by Eli Ibarra in 2022, a few months before retiring on 423 aged 39 (however, Ibarra won five league championships compared to three for Vázquez). Her 17 seasons at

Lezama Lezama is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. It is home to the training headquarters of the football team Athletic Bilbao, and is accessible by bus - Bizka ...

was also the most time with the club for a female player across its 20-year history, notwithstanding the year she spent with

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

in the 2010–11 season in which the Catalan club finished runners-up in both the league and the

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

– Vázquez never won that competition, losing in one earlier final with Lagunak as a teenager in 2000 (by coincidence, one of her opponents that day was

Vanesa Gimbert Vanesa Gimbert Acosta (born 19 April 1980) is a Spanish retired women's soccer, football who played as a Defender (association football), defender or midfielder. She played for clubs including Levante UD (women), Levante, Sevilla FC (women), Sev ...

who retired alongside her as a teammate in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

22 years later) and two subsequent finals with Athletic in 2012 and 2014.

International career

She played for Spain since the

2005 UEFA Women's Championship qualification The qualification for the UEFA Women's Euro 2005 was held between March 26, 2003 & November 27, 2004. The first-placed of the group stage qualified directly. The second-placed and the two best third-placed teams played in two playoff matches for th ...

. In June 2013, national team

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Ignacio Quereda Ignacio Quereda Laviña (born 24 July 1950) is a Spanish football coach who managed the Spain women's national football team between 1988 and 2015. Playing career Born in Madrid, Quereda was raised in Badajoz where his family moved when he was ...

confirmed Erika as a member of his 23-player squad for the

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

finals in Sweden. She was also part of Spain's squad at the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

in Canada.

International goals

Honours

Athletic Bilbao * Primera División: 2004–05, 2006–07, 2015–16 Lagunak *

Primera Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, in English "National B Division", and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 37 tea ...

(second tier): 2002–03El Presidente Sanz recibe al Lagunak tras su ascenso a la máxima competición nacional
Gobierno de Navarra

References

External links

* *
Profile
at

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vazquez, Erika 1983 births Living people Footballers from Pamplona Spanish women's footballers Women's association football forwards SD Lagunak (women) players Athletic Club (women) players RCD Espanyol (women) players Liga F players Spain women's youth international footballers Spain women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Athletic Bilbao non-playing staff