Early career in Spain

Born and raised in Spain, Bado spent the majority of his career playing in the lower divisions of Spanish football, beginning his career at UD Tesorillo. Spending the majority of his time at amateur clubs on the border between Spain and Gibraltar such as Atlético Zabal in 2008, he most notably spent time at Xerez's B team along with two spells with UD Los Barrios, once on loan from his first club UD Tesorillo in 2005, and again returning to them in 2009 as they finished third in the 2009–10 Tercera División, scoring twice in 29 games as they narrowly missed out on promotion to the third tier of Spanish football. After leaving Los Barrios at the end of the season, he spent a few months out of football before returning for UD Castellar towards the end of the 2010–11 season. He ended his journeyman career in Spain after playing for 8 clubs in 6 years, moving to Gibraltar, where his family came from, to work as a store clerk and revive his football career.

Lynx

In 2011, he moved to Lynx, at the time in the Gibraltar Second Division, helping them gain promotion to the Gibraltar Premier Division in his first season. Once in the Gibraltar top flight, he remained a key figure as Lynx finished 4th in Gibraltar's final season as a 6 team league before expanding to 8 teams, in order to match requirements for the territory's UEFA entry in 2013 and subsequent qualification to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Even with Lynx's continued rebuilding and improvements on the field, he stayed in the first team as they finished 3rd in the 2013–14 season, narrowly missing out on Europa League qualification but impressing enough to earn a callup to the Gibraltar national football team in September 2015. His final season at Lynx saw another 3rd-place finish, before he entered talks with the ambitious Lions Gibraltar, who at the time had just been taken over by Hercules Sports Promotion.

Lions Gibraltar

Like his time at Lynx, Bado was a regular in the Lions midfield, helping his new team finish 4th at the end of the 2015–16 season, a significant improvement on their previous last place under Jeff Wood (only surviving relegation due to the league's expansion). In April 2016, after the departure of their previous manager, Bado took joint-caretaker charge of the club along with former national team coach David Wilson. While Bado was a candidate for the job on a permanent basis in the summer, Wilson was given the job. However, Wilson resigned from the post in September 2016 after Lions' ownership entered financial difficulties, joining Bruno's Magpies instead, and Rafael Bado was eventually given the job instead. He retired as a player at this time in order to focus on club management. However, in January 2017 he re-registered as a player, making his first appearance off the bench in Lions' 2–0 defeat to Gibraltar Phoenix in the 2017 Rock Cup. He went on to play 3 more games in the season, all as a substitute. He remained a registered player the next season. After leaving the club in the summer, he joined Mons Calpe in July 2018. However, after only 3 games for the Calpeans, on 18 January 2019 he rejoined Lions,^[1] starting the game against his former club that same day.^[2] He scored his first goal since the 2014–15 season on 23 February 2019, converting a penalty in a 3–1 defeat to St Joseph's.^[3] On 28 March 2019, it was announced that Bado had received an 8-month suspension from the Gibraltar Football Association for violating betting rules, effectively ending his spell at Lions.^[4] Following his ban, he returned to Spain, playing for UD Castellar.

International statistics

As of 7 September 2014.