Maitane López Millán (born 13 March 1995) is a Spanish 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 a

midfielder A midfielder is an 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 central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for American

National Women's Soccer League 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

NJ/NY Gotham FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

and the Spain women's national team.

Club career

In June 2015, Levante announced the signing of López from Collerense. She would spend five seasons at Levante, after which, she would sign for

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

. In July 2021, after one year at Real Sociedad, López transferred to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

, where she signed a two-year professional contract. Before her Atlético expired during the 2023 summer

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

, López was linked with interest from

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. However, on 6 July 2023 she signed a two-year contract with an option for an additional year with American club NJ/NY Gotham FC.

International career

After injuries to

Virginia Torrecilla Virginia Torrecilla Reyes (born 4 September 1994), simply known as Virginia, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Atlético Madrid in the Spanish Primera División, having also previously played for FC Barcelona and French Divis ...

and

Amanda Sampedro Amanda Sampedro Bustos (born 26 June 1993) is a Spanish football forward who plays for Atlético Madrid of Spain's Primera División and the Spain national team. International career A skillful forward noted for her creativity and vision, ...

, López was called up to the Spain national team to face the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

in October 2019. She did not play in the fixture. Two years later, she made her debut for Spain in a friendly match against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

Personal life

López is of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

descent through her father. Two of López's uncles,

Aitor Aitor is a Basque masculine given name, created by Agosti Xaho for a Basque ancestral patriarch descending from the Biblical Tubal in his work "The Legend of Aitor" (published in French in the journal ''Ariel'', 1845). Koldo Mitxelena believes th ...

and

Luis López Rekarte Luis María López Rekarte (born 26 March 1962) is a Spanish former footballer who played mainly as a right back. He amassed La Liga totals of 300 games and seven goals over 11 seasons, representing in the competition Deportivo (five years), R ...

, were professional footballers. Encouraged by Aitor's performances for

, Maitane López signed up for her first football team at the age of five. At that same age, she had moved to

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

from

Águilas Águilas () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality and seaport of southeastern Spain, in the province of Region of Murcia, Murcia. It is situated at the southern end of Murcia's Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coastline, otherwise known as the ...

. Outside of football, she sings and plays guitar; she has posted videos on social media of various cover songs that she has performed.

Notes

References

External links

* 1995 births Living people Women's association football midfielders Spanish women's footballers People from Águilas UD Collerense (women) players Levante UD Femenino players Real Sociedad Femenino players Atlético Madrid Femenino players Liga F players Spanish people of Basque descent Spain women's international footballers Footballers from the Region of Murcia Spain women's youth international footballers 21st-century Spanish women NJ/NY Gotham FC players National Women's Soccer League players Spanish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States {{Spain-women-footy-bio-stub