Nuria Rábano Blanco (born 15 June 1999) 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 lea ...

who plays as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for the Utah Royals in the

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 ...

(NWSL) and the Spain national team.

Early life

Rábano started her career at Atlético Arousana.

Club career

Deportivo la Coruña (2016–20)

While at

Deportivo la Coruña ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable) Mexicable is an aerial lift line in Ecatepec de ...

, Rábano was a starter in their undefeated 2018–19 Reto Iberdrola campaign that saw them get promoted to the Primera División for the first time in their history. In Depor's first Primera División season, Rábano helped the team reach 4th place before the league season was cut short due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. She made the decision to leave Depor at the end of the season because she felt it was time to play a higher level of football.

Real Sociedad (2020–22)

At the end of the 2019–20 season, Rábano departed Deportivo la Coruña to sign a two-year contract with

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, ...

. In the 2021–22 season, Rábano was an essential piece of Real Sociedad's defense as they 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. ...

for the first time in their history.

Barcelona (2022–2023)

On 17 June 2022,

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 ...

announced the signing of Rábano on a two-year contract. On 4 July 2023, Rábano and Barcelona agreed to terminate her contract after she appeared sporadically throughout the season.

VfL Wolfsburg (2023–2025)

Rábano signed with

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

on 9 August 2023, joining the German club on a free transfer.

Utah Royals (2025–)

On 29 January 2025, Rábano transferred to

club Utah Royals in exchange for an undisclosed fee. She signed a three-year contract with a mutual option.

International career

Rábano was called up to represent Spain at the 2017 Under-19 Championship. In Spain's second group stage match against Germany, she suffered a sprain in the ligament of her right ankle and was ruled out for the remainder of the competition. Spain went on to win the competition against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

to advance to the 2018 U20 World Cup. Rábano was included in the squad for that tournament as well, and was a substitute throughout the tournament as Spain finished as runners-up.

Honours

; FC Barcelona *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

* Primera División:

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

References

External links

Nuria Rábano
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 ...

Nuria Rábano
at

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rábano, Nuria 1999 births Living people Women's association football defenders Spanish women's footballers Footballers from Santiago de Compostela Deportivo de La Coruña (women) players Real Sociedad Femenino players FC Barcelona Femení players VfL Wolfsburg (women) players Utah Royals players Liga F players Frauen-Bundesliga players National Women's Soccer League players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen Spain women's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Spanish expatriate women's footballers UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players