Laura del Río García (born 5 February 1982) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former player who played as a forward. She last managed men's club Flat Earth FC. She used to play for Bristol Academy in England's

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

. Prior to that, she played for

AD Torrejón Agrupación Deportiva Torrejón was a football club based in Torrejón de Ardoz, Community of Madrid. The club came to play 6 seasons in Segunda División B. AD Torrejón disappears in 2002 when merges with Torrejón CF to form the current AD Tor ...

CE Sabadell Centre d'Esports Sabadell Futbol Club, S.A.D. () is a historical Spanish football team based in Sabadell ( Catalonia) Founded in 1903, its first men's team plays in the . Its first women's team is active in the Primera Divisió catalana, the si ...

and

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

in the Spanish Superleague,

FC Indiana F.C. Indiana, also known as F.C. Indiana Lionesses, is an American women's soccer team based in Indiana. Founded in 2003, the team is currently a member of the United Women's Soccer league. They play their home games at Newton Park in Lakevill ...

in the W-League, 1. FFC Frankfurt in the German Bundesliga, and

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional women's soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defu ...

and

Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional association football, soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played ...

in the WPS. Del Río scored 14 for the senior

Spain women's national football team The Spain women's national football team, officially known as the Spain national football team (), has represented Spain in international Women's association football, women's football competitions since 1980. It is governed by the Royal Spanis ...

, before a dispute with the coach caused her to quit the national team.

Club career

Del Río began her career at

in 1999 before moving to

the following year. In her two seasons in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

she won two doubles as Levante cruised through the Superliga Femenina and the

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. Del Río subsequently spent two seasons at

and then returned to Levante, where she remained for the next four years, winning an additional League in 2008 and two more Cups. In 2008, she left Levante to play abroad for the first time, playing in the W-League for

. She scored 33 goals in her two years in the W-League, making it into the All-League team. In summer 2009 she signed for European powerhouse 1. FFC Frankfurt. Starting the season as a reserve, she made herself a place in the starting eleven for a few weeks after scoring in three consecutive games coming from the bench. Overall, she scored six goals in just ten matches in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, as she left Frankfurt in December to sign for

, marking her

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

debut. For the 2011 season she transferred to

, with whom she reached the championship play-offs. In the final she missed the team's final penalty to finish runners-up. Del Río joined English

club Bristol Academy in 2012. Under coach

Mark Sampson Mark Geraint Sampson (born 18 October 1982) is a Welsh football coach who was most recently a first team coach at Stevenage F.C., Stevenage. Born in Creigiau, Wales, Sampson played amateur football for Cardiff Corinthians F.C., Cardiff Corinthi ...

the club finished second in the 2013 FA WSL and were losing finalists in the

2012–13 FA Women's Cup The 2012–13 FA Women's Cup was the 43rd season of the FA Women's Cup, the main domestic knockout Cup competition in English women's football. It lacked a sponsor for the second consecutive season. 283 clubs were accepted into the competition. ...

. In January 2015 Bristol confirmed that del Rio had left the club after scoring 14 goals in 47 games. She returned to the United States, signing for

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

club

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the USL W-League (1995� ...

. She served two assists in 11 appearances in 2015, before her season was ended by injury. She also missed the entire 2016 season following surgery on her ankle. She continued her career in Spain, with ambitious

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

club CD Tacón, signing for Madrid CFF a year later.

International career

Del Río was the top scorer of the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Under-18 Euro, where

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

made it to the final for the first time. For many years Del Río was a key player of Spain's national team, scoring 14 goals. Despite this she has not been called for the past few years following a clash with manager Ignacio Quereda.

International goals

Managerial career

After her retirement, in August 2019 Del Río signed as head coach of Flat Earth FC becoming the first woman at the helm of a team in the Spanish fourth division. However, she was sacked in October, but she continued in the club's structure with the aim to develop a women's team.

Honours

FC Indiana * 2008 W-League Central Conference Championship * 2009 W-League top scorer * 2009 W-League All-League Team * 2009 All-Central Conference Team

References

External links

*
Boston Breakers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio, Laura del 1982 births Living people Spanish women's footballers Spain women's international footballers Spanish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Eintracht Frankfurt (women) players Boston Breakers players Philadelphia Independence players Bristol Academy W.F.C. players Spanish LGBTQ footballers Spanish lesbian sportswomen Footballers from Madrid Women's Super League players Liga F players Levante UD Femenino players Washington Spirit players National Women's Soccer League players Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Madrid CFF players Women's association football forwards F.C. Indiana players Real Madrid Femenino players Spanish football managers Female association football managers AD Torrejón CF Femenino players Women's Professional Soccer players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen