Rafaelle 'Rafa' Souza is a native of Brazil and attended Centro Federal de Educação Tecnologica da Bahia for high school. She then attended Universidade Do Estado Da Bahia in Salvador, Brazil but did not play soccer there. She played club soccer for São Francisco do Conde Futebol Clube.
Souza moved to the United States to attend the University of Mississippi. She played as a forward in 16 games and started 14 of them during the 2011 season. She scored nine goals, seven assists and 25 points and ended one point away from each goal, assist and point record at the school. She took 54 shots with 28 shots on goal. Souza had three two goal games against Southern Miss, Jackson State and Alabama. In the match against Southern Miss she had a perfect 100 percent with six shots and six shots on goal. In her second season at Ole Miss she started all 22 games she played in and took 72 shots with 40 of them on goal.
Souza scored 13 goals and seven assists with had a brace in the games against UAB and Arkansas. She had game winning goals in games against Louisiana-Lafayette, UALR, Arkansas and LSU. Souza also scored on the only penalty kick she took on the season which during a win over UAB. At the end of the season Souza was named a first team All-South selection by the NSCAA and named an All-SEC second team selection by the league's coaches. She was also the SEC Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year voted on by the league's coaches.
In her final season with the Rebels in 2013 she started and played in 23 games scoring 22 goals and six assists. She took an amazing 202 shots placing 109 of them on goal. She had game winning goals against Northwestern State, Arkansas, UALR, LSU, Alabama and Mississippi State. She had a hat trick against Jackson State during the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Souza was a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Player of the Year award. She was an All-SEC first team selection as well as the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year. She was ranked #2 in the SEC and #24 in the nation by TopDrawerSoccer.com.
Souza was taken in the second round, #10 overall, by the Houston Dash during the 2014 NWSL College Draft.
She made her first appearance for Brazil's Women's National team in 2012 in a March 24 loss to Canada. She played in the FIFA U17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand in 2008 and the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Germany in 2010 for Brazil. She was apart of the second place team that competed in the U17 Chile South American championship in 2008. Souza was on the squad that finished first in the U20 Colombia South American Championship 2010 and finished first in the State Championship Bahia in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010.
Rafaelle Souza is a very gifted forward with a nose for goal. She has the stats you want to see with over half of her shots being shots on goal. Souza averaged 0.72 goals per game through her time in college. She has a gift for getting past defenders and getting the ball past goal keepers.