Meet Spain’s only deaf female pro footballer

Today Eunate Arraiza is supporting the celebration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a day which raises awareness of the challenges faced by so many but also celebrating their amazing abilities and achievements.

Despite having a hearing impairment, she has not let this stop her from reaching the top of the game. It is a great example of overcoming adversities and the importance of inclusion and accessibility in sport. 

The Athletic Club footballer, who has complete deafness in her left ear from birth, attends one of her weekly appointments with sign language classes. In Euskal Gorrak, the Basque Federation of Associations of Deaf People, the defender of Athletic Club is learning how to communicate in this language along with other students. In class you only hear laughter, nobody speaks.

With more than 200 games as a lioness, Eunate has become one of the best left-backs in the Primera Iberdrola, making her international debut with Spain in 2017. A player with a fierce strike, she signed for Athletic Club from Lagunak de Barañain in the summer of 2012 and made her debut against her former club on September 2 of the same year. 

The footballer from Navarre does not know how her hearing impairment will evolve and if there will come a day when she can stop hearing sounds or is unable to articulate a word.

As Eunate points out,

“we are normal people and we are capable of doing absolutely everything, those who believe that they are not are mistaken“. 

Eunate represents one of the greatest examples of overcoming challenge at Athletic Club.