Laura Ràfols Parellada (born 23 June 1990) is a Spanish former

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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. She served as the captain for

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and also represented the club in the

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. ...

Career

Club

Ràfols started playing football for Atlètic Vilafranca's boys' team at the age of five, since at the time there was no female exclusive team for her age range. After three years she joined their girls team and remained a member of the club until joining

at the age of 14. After a temporary relegation to the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

during 2007–08, Barcelona achieved many trophies with Ràfols as their number one goalkeeper including four consecutive league titles from 2012 until 2015; in each of those years she conceded the fewest goals among the league's goalkeepers.

International

Ràfols was one of the goalkeepers for the Spain under-19 team that participated in 2008 UEFA Championship. She was also captain of the Catalonia's national team.

Education

She has a degree in sports physiotherapy and a master's degree in physical activity, health and training.

Honours

Club

; FC Barcelona * Primera División (4): 2011–12,

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15 *

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 ...

: 2007–08 *

Copa de la Reina de Fútbol The Copa de la Reina (Queen's Cup) is an annual cup competition for Spanish women's association football teams organized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Its full name is ''Campeonato de España - Copa de Su Majestad la Reina'' (''Champ ...

(4):

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. * Copa Catalunya (8): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

References

External links

*
Profile
at

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

* 1990 births Living people Spanish women's footballers Liga F players FC Barcelona Femení players Women's association football goalkeepers People from Vilafranca del Penedès Footballers from the Province of Barcelona FC Barcelona Femení B players Sportswomen from Catalonia Catalonia women's international footballers 21st-century Spanish sportswomen {{Spain-women-footy-bio-stub