Leire Baños Indakoetxea (born 29 November 1996) is a 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 lea ...

who plays for Athletic Club in

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

, mainly as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. She previously played for

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

and Levante.

Club career

Baños began her senior career at

Oiartzun Oiartzun (, ) is a town and municipality located in the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa lying at the foot of the massif Aiako Harria (Peñas de Aya in Spanish). Etymology The name traces back to ''Oiasso'' or ''Oiarso'', a Roman to ...

aged 15, soon being signed by

who added her to their squad immediately – although she was often introduced as a substitute, which occurred in around a quarter of the 200 or so Primera División fixtures she played for the

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

side across eight seasons. She played the entirety of the final and claimed an assist for the winning goal as ''Erreala'' claimed their first major honour, the

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

in 2018–19, beating

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

, and played an important role in two regional Copa Euskal Herria wins over local rivals Athletic Club in 2019 and 2020. Having agreed a new contract with Real Sociedad in 2019 to run until 2021, Baños left upon the expiry of that deal and signed for fellow top tier club Levante. In the 2022–23 season, the

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 ...

-based side finished third and qualified for 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. ...

(they were eliminated in its

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

); in 2023–24 they missed out on the same Liga F placing by a margin of one point behind Atlético. In June 2024 she joined Athletic Club on a three-year contract.

International career

At international level, Baños was a member of the Spain under-19 squads that finished runners-up in consecutive editions of the

UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, is an annual competition in women's football for European national teams of players under 19 years of age. National under-19 teams whose countries belon ...

(

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 ...

in Norway and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

in Israel), featuring in both finals. She has also been selected for the unofficial Basque Country women's national football team which plays only occasionally.

Honors

Real Sociedad *

: 2018–19 Spain U19 *

runner-up:

References

External links

*
Baños
at BDFutbol {{DEFAULTSORT:Banos, Leire 1996 births Living people Footballers from Irun Spanish women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Liga F players Levante UD Femenino players Real Sociedad Femenino players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen Athletic Club (women) players Oiartzun KE players Spain women's youth international footballers