Rafaelle Souza

Rafaelle Leone Carvalho de Souza (born 18 June 1991), known as Rafaelle, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a defender or midfielder for Changchun Zhuoyue in the Chinese Women's Super League and the Brazil national team. Rafaelle played for the University of Mississippi during her college soccer career in the United States and spent the 2014 season playing for Houston Dash of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).

Rafaelle Souza
Rafaelle at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Full name Rafaelle Leone Carvalho de Souza[1]
Date of birth (1991-06-18) 18 June 1991
Place of birth Cipó, Bahia, Brazil
Height 176 cm (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Position(s) Defender / Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Changchun Zhuoyue
College career
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2011–2013 Ole Miss Rebels 61 (44)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014 Houston Dash 16 (0)
2014–2016 São Francisco EC 1 (3)
2016– Changchun Zhuoyue
National team‡
2012– Brazil[2] 33 (5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 July 2017
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16 July 2018
This name uses Portuguese naming customs: the first or maternal family name is Carvalho and the second or paternal family name is de Souza.

Club career

In January 2014 Rafaelle was picked in the second round of the 2014 NWSL College Draft by expansion team Houston Dash. After playing one season she was waived by Houston Dash, but FC Kansas City acquired her rights the following week.[3] In March 2015 Kansas City announced that Rafaelle would not play in the 2015 National Women's Soccer League season as she was in training with her national team Brazil.[4]

Rafaelle signed with Changchun Zhuoyue of the Chinese Women's Super League in 2016, one of three Brazilian players to do so with Raquel and Darlene. Terms of the deals were not released, but in an interview with Globo Esporte, Rafaelle said the pay was considerably more than she could make in Brazil.[5] In 2017, fellow Brazilian national team player Cristiane would join her at Changchun Zhuoyue.[6]

International career

Rafaelle played for Brazil's youth teams at the inaugural 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand and the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup held in Germany. Her senior debut came in December 2011, as a substitute in a 4–0 win over Chile at the 2011 Torneio Internacional Cidade de São Paulo de Futebol Feminino.[7] She started her first match for Brazil's senior team in March 2012, against Canada.[8]

In February 2015 Rafaelle was included in an 18-month residency programme intended to prepare Brazil's national team for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada and the 2016 Rio Olympics.[9]

At the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Rafaelle formed a makeshift center-back partnership with Mônica.[10] They kept clean sheets in all three matches as Brazil qualified from their group without conceding a goal. In the second round match against Australia, Brazil exited the competition after losing 1–0. Rafaelle remained in Canada as part of the Brazilian selection for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

International goals

Goal		 Date Location Opponent # Score Result Competition
1 2015-07-22 Toronto, Canada  Mexico 1.2

5250.02005 2–1

5550.05005 4–2

2015 Pan American Games
2 2.2

5350.03005 4–2

3 2017-06-10 Fuenlabrada, Spain  Spain 1.1

5250.02005 1–2

5450.04005 1–2

Friendly game

References
  1. "List of Players - Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 6 July 2015. p. 2. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  2. "Profile". FIFA.com. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  3. "FC Kansas City Lands Rafaelle Souza". National Women's Soccer League. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  4. Moreno, Daniel (11 March 2015). "Katrina Gorry and Rafaelle Souza to stay with their national teams this season". FC Kansas City. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  5. Cíntia Barlem (28 January 2016). "Dinheiro também encanta no feminino, e brasileiras se rendem à China". Globo Esporte. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  6. "Cristiane to move to Chinese club Changchun Zhuoyue in June". Associated Press. 13 February 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  7. Leme de Arruda, Marcelo (5 March 2014). "Seleção Brasileira Feminina (Brazilian National Women's Team) 2011-2013" (in Portuguese). Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  8. "Souza makes first start with Brazilian National Team". Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  9. Kennedy, Paul (26 May 2015). "Road to Vancouver: Brazil's Formiga picked for sixth time". Soccer America. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  10. Cullen, Ray; Lauletta, Dan (9 June 2015). "Women's World Cup Day 4 – Vero, Spain Debut". The Equalizer. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
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