Valencia CF Femenino

2017–18 season
Chairman	Anil Murthy
Manager	Jesús Oliva
Stadium	Antoni Puchades Stadium
Primera División	Fifth
Copa de la Reina	Quarterfinalist
Top goalscorer	María Paz Vilas (19)
Highest home attendance	1,600
Lowest home attendance	100
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The Valencia CF Femenino 2017–18 season was the ninth season of the women's football section of Valencia CF. The team ended the championship in 5th position and was eliminated in the national cup's quarterfinals by league champion Atlético Madrid.

The 2016–17 season had seen the team attain its best result in the championship yet, third position, and play for the first time in the club's main venue, the Mestalla Stadium. The ambitious project behind this successful season was reported as a personal initiative of president Lay Hoon Chan,^[1] but she resigned in mid-season due to the disappointing season by the men's team. The departure of manager Cristian Toro after five seasons was reported in May with one game remaining,^[2] and on 20 June, a few days after the team was eliminated in the Copa de la Reina's semifinals by FC Barcelona, his second in command Jesús Oliva was appointed his successor.^[3] Oliva, a coach at Valencia Femenino since the team's establishment in 2009, had been the manager of the club's B team that topped the 2015–16 Segunda División's Group 7.^[4]

Most of the previous season's key signings left the team, as Estefanía Banini and Yanara Aedo returned to Washington Spirit, and Christiane Endler was transferred to Paris Saint-Germain, with the €30,000 fee to Valencia the first paid transfer in Spanish women's football.^[5] Another notable loss was the departure of Claudia Zornoza, who left for Real Sociedad. Jennifer Vreugdenhil, coming from the Eredivisie, replaced Endler as the team's first-choice goalkeeper, and Valencia signed Noelia Bermúdez, Marta Carro, Sandra Hernández and Anair Lomba within the Primera División market. After the championship was underway the team was joined by Nadezhda Karpova, the first Russian to play in the Primera División.

Facing a harsh championship start, the team suffered more defeats in the six first games than in the whole previous campaign against top teams Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid and Barcelona, and wasn't able to dislodge them from the three top positions for the remainder of the season. The team suffered a chain of injuries,^[6] and so in the winter window transfer Mandy van den Berg, who had finished her WSL campaign with Reading, was signed to make up for the long-time absences of Natalia Gaitán and Paula Nicart in the team's defense.

Unlike the previous season, the Valencia derby on 9 December was scheduled for the team's usual ground at the Ciudad Deportiva de Paterna rather than in the Mestalla, and it was reported in the media that the club intended to reserve its main venue for the male team.^[7] All political parties in the Valencian Courts issued an institutional statement demanding the club to allow the team to play in Mestalla.^[8] Hours later the club replied with a statement defending its social policies for gender equality and women's sport, regretting the criticisms as an alleged lack of awareness of its commitment and leaving an open door to eventual future appearances of the women's team in Mestalla.^[9] Months later, the away derby fixture was staged in Levante's main venue, the Ciutat de València Stadium, before a crowd of 14,000.^[10]

By mid-April, a seven games non-winning streak left Valencia in sixth position, with a 4 points advantage to defend in the last four games in order to qualify for the Copa de la Reina.^[11] Valencia won all four games and surpassed Betis in the table, ending fifth. The Cup's draw matched Valencia with league champion Atlético, which resulted in defeats in both games. One week later Jesús Oliva was sacked, but he stayed in the women's team as its academy's coordinator, while Óscar Suárez succeeded him as the team's new manager.^[12]

In					Out
Date	Pos.	Player	Origin		Date	Pos.	Player	Destination
2017–07–04 [13]	MF	Sandra Hernández	Barcelona		2017–06–19 [14]	MF	Estefanía Banini	Washington Spirit
2017–07–06 [15]	GK	Noelia Bermúdez	Levante		2017–06–22 [16]	MF	Esther Romero	Retirement
2017–07–06 [17]	GK	Andrea Esteban	Levante		2017–06–27 [18]	FW	Yanara Aedo	Washington Spirit
2017–07–11 [19]	DF	Marta Carro	Madrid		2017–06–29 [20]	GK	Esther Sullastres	Zaragoza
2017–07–14 [21]	MF	Anair Lomba	Espanyol		2017–07–03 [22]	DF	Sara Micó	Sporting Plaza de Argel
2017–07–18 [23]	GK	Jennifer Vreugdenhil	ADO Den Haag		2017–07–05 [24]	GK	Christiane Endler	Paris Saint-Germain
2017–09–22 [25]	FW	Nadezhda Karpova	Chertanovo		2017–07–05 [26]	MF	Claudia Florentino	Albacete
2018–01–08 [27]	DF	Mandy van den Berg	Reading		2017–07–10 [28]	MF	Claudia Zornoza	Real Sociedad
					2017–07–28 [29]	MF	Maya Yamamoto	Zaragoza

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Final table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Qualification or relegation
3	Athletic Bilbao	30	18	2	10	51	41	56	Qualification for the Copa de la Reina
4	Granadilla	30	16	6	8	48	33	54
5	Valencia	30	14	8	8	49	32	50
6	Betis	30	14	4	12	40	37	46
7	Real Sociedad	30	10	8	12	42	37	38

No.	Pos.	Born	Since	FIFA		Player	Games	Goals	Disciplinary record
				Nationality	FC
1	GK	1994	2017–18	Costa Rica	2014	Noelia Bermúdez	2	0	0	0
2	DF	1990	2017–18	Netherlands	2010	Mandy van den Berg	14	0	0	0
3	DF	1994	2014–15	Spain	2015	Paula Nicart	11	0	0	0
4	DF	1992	2010–11	Spain		Salomé Navalón	13	0	2	0
5	DF	1994	2009–10	Spain	2015	Ivana Andrés	29	0	5	0
6	MF	1997	2017–18	Spain	2018	Sandra Hernández	28	3	3	0
7	MF	1988	2015–16	Brazil	2017	Joyce Borini	26	1	6	0
8	MF	1998	2016–17	Spain		Ángeles Carrión	7	0	1	0
9	FW	1998	2016–17	Spain		Marta Peiró	23	6	1	0
10	FW	1988	2013–14	Spain	2008	María Paz Vilas	28	19	4	0
11	FW	1990	2016–17	Argentina	2014	Marianela Szymanowski	27	7	1	0
13	GK	1995	2017–18	Netherlands	2018	Jennifer Vreugdenhil	28	0	0	0
14	MF	1991	2014–15	Spain	2015	Carol Férez	21	3	1	0
15	DF	1991	2017–18	Spain	2018	Marta Carro	29	1	3	0
16	MF	1989	2017–18	Spain		Anair Lomba	21	4	3	0
17	MF	1989	2016–17	Spain	2012	Débora García	20	1	1	0
18	DF	1991	2015–16	Colombia	2011	Natalia Gaitán	5	0	0	0
19	FW	1995	2017–18	Russia	2016	Nadezhda Karpova	22	3	5	0
20	MF	1989	2013–14	Spain		Georgina Carreras	25	0	2	0
21	FW	1996	2017–18	Spain		Andrea Esteban	4	0	0	0
26	DF	1998	2013–14	Spain		Cintia Montagut	8	0	0	0
27	DF	1997	2016–17	Spain		Neus Llinares	1	0	0	0
29	MF	1998	2017–18	Spain		Paula Sancho	19	0	0	0
30	DF	1999	2017–18	Spain		Cristina Cubedo	19	0	2	0
	DF	1997	2017–18	Spain		Lidia Navarro	1	0	0	0
	MF	2000	2017–18	Spain		Alejandra Serrano	10	0	0	0
	MF		2017–18	Spain		Julia Aguado	1	0	0	0