Maite Zubieta

Maite Zubieta Aranbarri (born 28 May 2004) is a Spanish footballer who plays as a midfielder or central defender for Athletic Club.

Club career
Zubieta joined Athletic Club's academy aged 14. After progressing through the ranks (one season in the 'cadet' youth team, half a season with the newly-formed C-team before being assigned to the B-team, two further seasons there), she made her professional debut as a late substitute in a Liga F fixture against Madrid CFF in December 2022, aged 18, and her first start six weeks later in a defeat away to Alhama CF. On the back of her performances she was officially promoted from the reserves to the senior squad in May 2023, and signed a contract extension running to 2025. During her debut campaign she was mostly used in her preferred role of central midfield, but at the beginning of the 2023–24 Liga F season she became a regular starter as a central defender, with Athletic enduring an ongoing injury crisis in that position.

International career
Having had minimal opportunities to play for younger age groups due to restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zubieta made her debut for Spain at under-19 level in October 2021 against Portugal. She became a regular in the team and was a member of the squads which won the 2022 Euros in the Czech Republic followed by the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica (alongside clubmates Ane Elexpuru and Clara Pinedo). She was still young enough to take part in the 2023 U-19 Euros in Belgium and again returned home with a gold medal, this time accompanied by fellow Athletic players Jone Amezaga and Sara Ortega.

She has also been selected for the unofficial Basque Country women's national team which plays only occasionally, making her first appearance in December 2022 against Chile.

Honours
Spain U19
 * UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship: 2022, 2023

Spain U20
 * FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup: 2022