Amaia Peña de las Heras (born 22 November 1998) 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 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 ...

for

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

, on loan from Athletic Club.

Club career

Born in

Getxo Getxo () (Spanish: ''Guecho'') is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, in Spain. It is part of Greater Bilbao, and has 75,430 inhabitants (2023). Getxo ...

and raised in

Portugalete Portugalete is a town lying to the west of Bilbao in the province of Biscay in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, northern Spain. The town has 45,294 inhabitants as of 2021 and is part of Bilbao's metropolitan area. It is located ...

, Peña started her career at Pauldarrak. She joined Athletic Club in 2014, appearing for their reserve team for two seasons. She then moved to the United States to study at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, where she played for their

NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, sometimes known as the Women's College Cup, is an American college soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I women's natio ...

team, the Panthers. Upon completing her four-year degree course (in

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

and

supply chain management In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement (purchasing raw materials/components), operations management, logistics and marketing channels, through which raw materials can be developed into finished produc ...

) and returning to Spain in 2020, she again signed for Athletic, this time to compete for a place in the senior team with

Andrea de la Nava Andrea de la Nava Manzano (born 11 February 1994) is a Spanish footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Logroño Logroño ( , , ) is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja (Spain), La Rioja, Spain. Located in the north of the I ...

(a former teammate at Pauldarrak), making six Primera División appearances in the

2020–21 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 ...

season. With the arrival of Mariasun Quiñones that summer to be the first choice at

Lezama Lezama is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. It is home to the training headquarters of the football team Athletic Bilbao, and is accessible by bus - Bizka ...

, Peña joined

on a one-year loan deal, where she was a back-up option behind Malena Mieres and Noelia García. Having signed a new contract tying her to Athletic until the summer of 2025, Peña was loaned to Eibar again for the 2023–24 season; however, as in her first spell there she was unable to establish herself in the side, with María Miralles and Noelia selected ahead of her when available.

International career

Peña was a member of the Spain under-17 squad that qualified for the

UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, is an annual European championship football tournament, organized by UEFA, for national teams of women under age seventeen. The tournament was first play ...

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 ...

(Iceland), being named in the 'Team of the Tournament' as her team won the competition. She also played at the

2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The 2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship (19th edition if the Under-18 era is included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the women's under- ...

(Slovakia) in which Spain were the runners-up, and was in the squad for the

2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 8th edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international Women's association football, women's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-20 national te ...

(Papua New Guinea), although she did not make an appearance with Mariasun Quiñones chosen as the starting goalkeeper. She has also been selected for the unofficial Basque Country women's national football team which plays only occasionally, making her first appearance in December 2022 against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peña, Amaia 1998 births Living people Women's association football goalkeepers Spanish women's footballers Footballers from Getxo Athletic Club (women) B players Athletic Club (women) players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen SD Eibar Femenino players Liga F players Spanish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Pittsburgh Panthers women's soccer players Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Spain women's youth international footballers