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Get to know every member of the Colombia Squad that will participate in the Women's World Cup this summer.
Goalkeepers
Catalina Pérez
Date of Birth: 8 November 1994
Club: Avai Kindermann (Brazil)
Born in Colombia, Catalina shifted countries to Florida with her parents when she was four years old and picked up football at primary school. “When I tried to get her into playing tennis or join the cheerleaders, she just pulled a face at me,” reveals her mother Luz María Jaramillo, a Colombian TV presenter in the 1980s. “All she was interested in was playing football.” After tearing the cruciate ligament in her left knee for a second time in 2014, she briefly considered giving up on football and even took a job in a bank. But despite undergoing the surgeon’s knife for a third time with the same injury, she has bounced back again and was the starting goalkeeper for Colombia in last year’s Copa América run to the final. Has an MBA in business studies.
Katherine Tapia
Date of Birth: 7 December 1992
Club: Palmeiras (Brazil)
Became the first goalkeeper to score a goal in the Colombian women’s league when converting a penalty in Atlético Nacional’s 3-0 win over Bucaramanga in October last year, to continue a rich Rene-Higuita-inspired tradition of goal-scoring Colombian number ones. Before turning to professional football, Tapia made ends meet as a nanny while also cleaning houses. Without receiving much support from her parents, the money she made went to helping her play football. Later she would join the Colombian riot police (Esmad), which would see her life take an unexpected twist. While playing in a game for the police, she caught the eye of Medellín giants Atlético Nacional who swooped to snap her up. She had finally made it.
Natalia Giraldo
Date of Birth: 19 May 2003
Club: América de Cali
Born in the city of Manizales, but raised in a nearby small rural town, Giraldo grew up in the heart of Colombia’s coffee region where, among the rolling hills populated by endless plantations, she discovered football through her brother as the passion that would ignite her life. “He gave me my first football. We used to always play, just the two of us, at the [coffee] farm,” she explains. “He started coaching me, showing me how to kick the ball. He was tough on me, but explained what I was doing wrong and what I did well.” After starting out as a midfielder, she eventually became a goalkeeper thanks to the advice of another professional player, Carolina Pineda, who had started her own club, Atlas, in Cali. At 16 years old, she signed for América de Cali where she has since won two Colombian league titles.
Sandra Sepúlveda
Date of Birth: 3 March 1988
Club: Independiente Medellín
The experience and maturity of the side, Colombia’s veteran goalkeeper began her footballing life in the early 2000s at famed football academy, Formas Íntimas, who were pioneers in the development of women’s football, and even represented Colombia at the very first Women’s Copa Libertadores in 2009. “My biggest challenge as a child was that not everyone in my family supported me,” Sepúlveda reflects. “My mum really didn’t like me playing.” After five years training at the Medellín-based club, she joined Israeli club Maccabi Kiryat Gat before returning to Colombia with Atlético Junior in 2018, eager to be part of the Colombian professional league that had been born the year prior. The 35-year-old would later win the league with Deportivo Cali.
Defenders
Ana María Guzmán
Date of Birth: 11 June 2005
Club: Deportivo Pereira
Left her family home at the tender age of 10 years old in order to dedicate her early life to her studies. It was a tough and unsettling change, but the experience served to help the young Guzmán fully understand the necessity of sacrifice in pursuing her dreams. Football had been a big part of her childhood. Growing up surrounded by six football-mad brothers, she honed her skills competing alongside her siblings. Starting out as a central defender, later playing as a full-back, she began to make a name for herself playing in regional tournaments, before joining the biggest team in the area, Deportes Pereira. Last year she was part of the Colombia Under-17s team that lost 1-0 to Spain in the final in India, which is the furthest any Colombian national team has ever made it in a Fifa event.
Carolina Arias
Date of Birth: 2 September 1990
Club: Junior de Barranquilla
Became interested in football through her dad, who took her to the stadium for the first time. She was hooked from the off and there was no looking back. She began playing at the Carlos Sarmiento Lora school in Cali, where the likes of Mario Alberto Yepes and Faustino Asprilla had also once begun their careers. After a spell studying in the United States thanks to a scholarship, Arias returned to Colombia to seek her fortune in football. Blessed with a skilful right foot, the 31-year-old defender has since played across the globe in countries such as Turkey, Switzerland and Spain. In 2021 she won the league with Deportivo Cali and was part of the squad that won the gold medal at the Pan American Games in 2021.
Daniela Arias
Date of Birth: 31 August 1994
Club: América de Cali
“My dad has always loved football and I used to go and watch every game with him. But at the end of the first half, I used to immediately shoot off to play football with all the other boys,” Arias recalls. “Football has always been in my life and I was always crazy about it.” Despite her dad’s footballing influence, however, Arias didn’t receive her father’s support in her life-long battle to be a professional footballer until deep into her career. Having started her career at Atlético Bucaramanga, the 28-year-old centre-back has spent the majority of her career in Colombia. She underlined her importance to the national team by playing every minute of the 2022 Copa América, where Colombia made it to the final before losing to Brazil in Arias’s home city of Bucaramanga.
Nancy Viviana Acosta
Date of Birth: 11 December 1998
Club: Deportivo Cali
A diminutive left-back who runs the line tirelessly for ninety minutes, Acosta won the first ever Colombian league with Santa Fe back in 2017. Later joined Bogotá city rivals Millonarios before playing for América de Cali and returned to Santa Fe where she again won the league title in 2020. Dropped from manager Nelson Abadia’s Copa América squad last year and was an outside shout for the World Cup, but has made it. A keen cyclist.
Daniela Caracas
Date of Birth: 25 April 1997
Club: RCD Espanyol (Spain)
The western Colombian department of Valle del Cauca is one of the hotbeds for Colombian players in both the men and women’s game, and full-back Caracas is an example of the rich pool of talent this region provides. Growing up in Jamundí, a small town blighted by the Colombian armed conflict, Caracas did not have the resources to buy a ball or football top as a young girl in order to play with her friends from the neighbourhood. She made her debut for Atlético Huila with whom she won the Colombian league in 2018 and the Copa Libertadores the same year.
Jorelyn Carabalí
Date of Birth: 18 May 1997
Club: Atlético Mineiro (Brazil)
Like Daniela Caracas, Carabalí also grew up in Jamundí before joining Colombia teammate Carolina Arias at the Carlos Sarmiento Lora school in Colombia’s salsa-dancing capital Cali. Playing five-a-side football at school with the girls and then 11-a-side with the boys at night, she became a professional player at Orsomarso, earning a call-up to the Colombia Under-20 team, before moving on to Atlético Huila, who would go on to win the Colombian league and Copa Libertadores in 2018. But tragedy would soon blow a hole in what seemed a dream start to her career. A serious injury and a subsequent botched operation left her unable to walk for eight months and her fledgling career was in tatters. Around the same time, her brother Juan was murdered. But through sheer determination Carabalí bounced back to win her first Colombia cap in 2021 before securing the league title with Deportivo Cali the same year.
Manuela Vanegas
Date of Birth: 9 November 2000
Club: Real Sociedad (Spain)
Vanegas’s inspiration to become a footballer came from her family who supported her career right from the start. Her father had wanted to become a player himself, but had to abandon his dream because of injury. Instead, he channelled those frustrations into helping his daughter. A passionate film buff, Vanegas began playing football aged five in her local town’s academy and, like many of Colombia’s top female footballers, ended up at the Medellín club Formas Intimas. In 2020 Manu, as she is affectionately known, moved to Spain. Known for her versatility and confidence on the ball, she was Colombia’s left-back during the 2022 Copa América run to the final. Played in the Copa Libertadores aged 13.
Mónica Ramos
Date of Birth: 14 October 1998
Gremio (Brazil)
From Colombia’s Caribbean coast, Ramos made her debut for Union Magdalena in 2017 before playing for Junior and Santa Fe, where she won the league in 2021. Quick and skilful, the right back joined Gremio in 2022, the same year that she made her Colombia debut. After Catalina Arias came down with Covid-19 before last year’s Copa América, Ramos stepped up and made the first-team position her own. Lost her father during the pandemic, to whom she dedicated Gremio’s Brazilian title win last year.
Midfielders
Diana Ospina
Date of Birth: 3 March 1989
Club: América de Cali
One of the veterans of the team, Ospina will be appearing in her third World Cup after representing Colombia in Germany 2011 and Canada 2015. Another player who started her career at prestigious Medellin club Formas Intimas in 2007, the experienced midfielder has played in two Pan American Games, three Copa Américas, two Central American Games and the South American championships.
Daniela Montoya
Date of Birth: 22 August 1990
Club: Atlético Nacional
Passionate, brave and brimming with experience, captain Montoya is one of the team’s main stars. Among other Colombian players, she claims to have been “blacklisted” by the Colombian Football Federation in 2015 for publicly calling out injustices in the women’s game. Born in Sabaneta, a town better known for producing cyclists than footballers, Montoya grew up in Colombia’s western region of Antioquia playing five-a-side football before joining Medellín club Formas Intimas. Has spent most of her career in Colombia aside from brief spells in Spain (Levante) and Bahrain (Riffa Club). Scored Colombia’s first ever goal at a Women’s World Cup finals when she crashed one in off the bar from outside the area against Mexico in 2015.
Lorena Bedoya
Date: 6 October 1997
Club: Real Brasilia (Brazil)
A polyfunctional player who began as a centre-back, but is equally adept at filling in as a tough-tackling midfielder, a role she fulfilled for Colombia at the 2022 Copa America. Made her debut for Atlético Nacional in 2017, before playing in Spain and Cyprus. Currently based in the Brazilian capital playing for Real Brasilia.
María Camila Reyes
Date of Birth: 11 May 2002
Club: Santa Fe
Made her Colombian league debut aged 14 for Bogotá side La Equidad in 2017, before going on to captain the Colombia Under-20s side. “The idea of being a footballer came from my family, mainly from my cousins, who I used to play with when we were younger,” Reyes recalls. Blessed with excellent vision and a fierce right-foot shot, the 21-year-old Santa Fe creative midfielder is one of Colombia’s most exciting young talents.
Catalina Usme
Date of Birth: 25 December 1989
Club: América de Cali
The leader and cover girl for Colombian women’s football, Usme is the country’s all-time top scorer with 37 goals. Having overcome her fair share of serious injuries – two torn cruciate ligaments among others – and having battled against life’s adversities she also became the all-time leading scorer in the Women’s Copa Libertadores after converting her 30th goal in the competition last year. She’s also the top markswomen in the seven-year history of the Colombian league. The example that all others in the Colombia team follow, Catalina balanced work as waitress alongside her studies and football training in her early years, to achieve her dream. “Throughout my career I have learnt that the best way to lead is by example,” the left-footed player says. “You can have good days, bad days, normal days, spectacular days; you can be hailed as a hero or underestimated and it can hit you hard, but I shall never give up working hard.”
Ana Gabriela Huertas
Date of Birth: 17 June 1991
Club: Universidad de Chile (Chile)
Born in Boyacá, one of Colombia’s regions where cycling instead of football rules supreme, Huertas had to leave her home town in order to make it as a footballer. “My dad didn’t like me playing football because he said it was a sport for boys, so I had to get out [of Boyacá].” Huertas would go on to debut in the first Colombian professional league back in 2017, helping Independiente Santa Fe win the title, and for years was the only representative from the Boyacá region in the national team. Known for her resilient battling qualities as a feisty midfielder, Huertas played for Universidad de Chile in 2022 before returning to Colombia with Santa Fe this year.
María Morales
Date of Birth: 22 February 1996
Club: Deportivo Cali
Colombian league champion with Santa Fe in 2017 and then with Deportivo Cali in 2021, she has a degree in sports science after spending the Covid-19 pandemic with her head buried in her books studying. One day she would like to use her empirical and theoretical knowledge to become a football manager, but isn’t yet thinking of hanging her boots up. Most capped female Colombian player of all time with 98 appearances at the time of writing. Grew up playing football with her brother in the Colombian capital, where it was a constant struggle to battle through the static Bogotá traffic to find a pitch to play on in one of the world’s most congested cities.
Tatiana Ariza
Date of Birth: 21 February 1991
Club: Deportes Antofagasta (Chile)
“When I was told I had a heart murmur, it was the hardest moment of my career,” admits Tatiana Ariza. “I knew then that I had to undergo an operation. Several doctors also told me that I should stop playing, and that even after the surgery I would no longer be able to play.” Yet despite the avalanche of medical advice that weighed against her, play on she did. Just a few years later she scored six goals at the Under-17s South American qualifiers as Colombia qualified for their first ever Fifa tournament as continental champions. At the finals in 2008, she took just 20 mins to become Colombia’s first ever finals scorer with a goal against Denmark. A midfielder with a sharp goal-scoring instinct, Arias has played a large part of her career with her sister, Natalia, who is now a coach in the United States. Australia/New Zealand 2023 will be her third World Cup.
Liana Salazar
Date of Birth: 16 September 1992
Club: Santa Fe
Salazar was often stopped form playing football as a child by her grandma who argued she should not be playing “a boys’ game,” while also scolding her mother for letting the young girl play. But her parents won out and eventually Liliana’s grandma conceded when it was football that helped the midfielder pay for her studies in international business. After many years playing in the United States, she returned home in 2017 to play in the first ever Colombian league where her team, Santa Fe, were crowned champions. After a spell playing for Corinthians, one of the biggest women’s teams in Latin America, she returned to Santa Fe earlier this year.
Forwards
Elexa Bahr
Date of Birth: 26 May 1998
Club: América de Cali
Born in Georgia (United States) to a Colombian mother and Honduran father, Alex, who himself was a footballer, Elexa began playing football aged five and has spent the majority of her playing time in the United States at the South Carolina Gamecocks. But her career took off when she was called up to the Honduras Under-20s in 2015 where she scored two goals on her debut. “That tournament was very important for her and for us as a family,” Alex says. “The doors were flung open to international football.” Thus, then came a call from the United States national team, but Elexa turned her birth country down. Ever since she was a little girl she had one dream – to play for Colombia. After two years playing in Spain, she’s now playing in the country she represents at América de Cali.
Linda Caicedo
Date of Birth: 22 February 2005
Club: Real Madrid (Spain)
The player everyone is talking about. Ever since rejecting a doll as a Christmas present from her dad, insisting instead on a football and some boots, Caicedo has been clear about her footballing future. She began playing at the age of four in the small Pacific town of Candelaria, before making her professional debut in the Colombian league in her early teens. At the age of 14 she incredibly finished joint top goal-scorer in the league before discovering she had ovarian cancer shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. “Thankfully I overcame it and I’m well now,” Caicedo told The Guardian upon signing for Real Madrid on her 18th birthday earlier this year. “But it was not easy.” The biggest talent in Colombian women’s football, she was the only Colombian to appear on The Guardian’s 100 best female footballers list in 2023, ranked 74th.
Mayra Ramírez
Date of Birth: 25 March 1999
Club: Levante (Spain)
Born in Sibaté, located a short ride south of Colombian capital Bogotá, Ramírez began playing 5-a-side football as a girl, before leaving her small town to chase her fortune. Her time spent on the smaller pitch, preferring to play mostly with the boys from her town, helped her hone her technique with the ball. After a short spell playing in Colombia, she left for Spain in 2020 and currently wears the Levante shirt. Strong and powerful with a keen eye for goal, she started four of Colombia’s six games at last year’s Copa America. Will compete for the number 9 shirt at this summer’s World Cup.
Leicy Santos
Date of Birth: 16 May 1996
Club: Atlético Madrid (Spain)
"If I could go back and bump into the girl who used to run everywhere with a ball at her feet through the streets of my town, San Sebastián, I would tell her: ‘You did it, you made it,'" Santos reflected last year during the Women’s Copa América when Colombia finished as runners-up behind Brazil. Santos was one of the stars of that team, but while preparing for the final against Brazil, she had to sit back helpless as her family house in Colombia’s northern coast was almost destroyed in flooding. The star of the Santa Fe team that won Colombia’s first ever league title in 2017, she then left for Atlético Madrid with whom she won the Spanish Cup this year. A classic No 10 with an eye for goal and deft technique, she is one of the players to look out for in this team. Co-founded her own nut and fruit-spread company in 2016.
Gisela Robledo
Date of Birth: 13 May 2003
Club: Tenerife
“He is my other half. He was the one who noticed my talent, the one who trusted me, the one who told me: 'Gisela, football’s your life.’ Without those words, I wouldn’t be the woman I am now,” beamed Gisela Robledo when asked about her brother, James David Garcia, a five-a-side football coach in her local area, who convinced her to take the step up to playing full-size football as a young girl, such was her ability with the ball. Last October disaster struck when she tore the cruciate ligament in her right knee while playing for Colombia in a friendly and she faced an uphill struggle to recover in time for the biggest moment of her life. A fast and daring forward with excellent dribbling skills, her family used the money they made selling one of Colombia’s favourite dishes, the sancocho meat soup, to support their young daughter’s early career.
Manuela Pavi
Date of Birth: 23 December 2000
Club: Atlético Mineiro (Brazil)
A diminutive number 10, she plays back-up to Leidy Santos in the national team having led Deportivo Cali to the title in 2021 before doing her cruciate ligament a year later. Agile with both legs and mind, the 22-year-old is a player full of ideas and an excellent dribbler. Alongside Ingrid Guerra and Jorelyn Carabalí, she makes up a trident of Colombian players currently playing at Atlético Mineiro. Pavi kicked off her budding career like most others in this Colombia squad: playing almost exclusively with other boys from her local area. Supported by her father, she progressed through various football academies before landing at the gates of the Carlos Sarmiento Lora football school where many other future Colombia stars would also start their trade.
Ivonne Chacón
Date of Birth: 12 October 1997
Valencia (Spain)
“This is a blessing and a privilege,” confessed Ivonne Chacón when she signed for Valencia last year. Her physical power and speed had caught the eye of the Spanish team and convinced them to sign the 24-year-old striker who made her professional debut playing for La Equidad in her home city of Bogotá before winning the league with capital city rivals Santa Fe in 2020. The national team manager, Nelson Abadía, mainly unleashes her from the bench, knowing that her unpredictability, technique and physical capacity are useful tools for terrorising tiring defenders’ legs late in difficult games.
Yisela Cuesta
Date of Birth: 27 September 1991
Club: Ferroviaria (Brazil)
Truman Capote once said that: ‘When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip.’ Such is the case with Cuesta whose speed and agility have often turned into a poisoned chalice of nerves and anxiety when presented with good goalscoring opportunities. The 31-year-old striker has had to work hard throughout her years to manage the psychological battle in her own head in order to put away her chances with an ice-cool mental sharpness. Born in Colombia’s poorest region, Chocó, she credits and admires Liliana Zapata, a pioneer in women’s football, “as a symbol of struggle and persistence” for guiding her early career at Medellín club Formas Íntimas. Now at her seventh club, Ferroviaria, in Brazil after also having played in Colombia.
Lady Andrade
Date of Birth: 10 January 1992
Club: Real Brasilia (Brazil)
Began playing for fun in her neighbourhood team aged 10, which led to a call-up from the five-a-side representing the Colombian capital Bogotá. Upon graduating to the 11-a-side game at the age of 16, she went on to win the Colombian championship with Santa Fe in 2017, the Panama league with Tauro FC in 2021 and has gained experience playing in countries such as Finland, Spain, the United States, Italy with Milan, Turkey and is currently in Brazil. While at Atlético Nacional in 2021, she was banned for seven league games after planting a punch in the face of rival Catalina Poneda who ended up in hospital having to undergo surgery. “I’ve now learnt to not react while hot headed,” she later confessed. Australia/New Zealand will be her third World Cup following appearances at the 2011 and 2015 events, the latter of which she finished as Colombia’s top scorer with two goals that included an injury-time consolation strike against England.
Written by Andrés Osorio Guillot (El Espectador) for The Guardian.
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