Welcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s free women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:
Linda Caicedo has four layers on but is still feeling the cold. The 17-year-old Colombian wonderkid is in London for a few days with her mother, Herlinda Alegría, and is enjoying the anonymity while she can because it is unlikely to last.
Currently at Deportivo Cali in her home country, she is likely to join a European club soon, with Barcelona reportedly leading the chase. The Catalan club’s president, Joan Laporta, has confirmed that they have been watching her progress for years but the recent trip to the UK and Germany sparked rumours that Bayern Munich and Chelsea may try to usurp them.
“It was good for me to get to know a bit of European culture,” she says as we meet after the Arsenal v Chelsea game at the Emirates. “Some people are a little stricter, others are more like us Latinos, but I think this trip was really cool. It was good for me to learn and also help me decide what I want to do in the future.”
Before flying back to Colombia, Caicedo and her mother went sightseeing, visiting attractions including the London Eye. They travelled on the tube, bought souvenirs and were able to catch a rare sunny winter day in London. A few days’ break will have been good for the youngest player to be included on the Guardian’s 100 best female footballers list, ranked at No 74, because 2023 promises to be busy.
Colombia have qualified for this year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and, barring injury, Caicedo should make her tournament debut against South Korea on 25 July. Remarkably it will be her third World Cup in a year. In August last year she represented Colombia at the Under-20 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, and in October she played in the Under-17 tournament, taking her country to the final, where they lost 1-0 to Spain. It was a first-ever World Cup final for a Colombian team on the men’s or the women’s side.
“In the Under-17 World Cup we were so close [to winning the whole thing] and I feel we had a great World Cup,” she says. “Now I have a new chance with the senior team. With the national team, I just enjoy it, try to be myself and obviously give my best.” She is now a star player back home and with that comes increased scrutiny. Not that it fazes her. “Apart from the external pressure, it’s something in me, something that I must learn to manage,” she adds. “Not only now but also in the future. It’s not about fulfilling other people’s expectations; I need to think about me and about what I want to achieve.”
The national team is well supported at home with more than 15,000 fans at all the games at last year’s Copa América Femenina, during which Caicedo scored the winner in the semi-final against Argentina to qualify the team for the World Cup as well as the 2024 Olympics, though they were beaten in the final by Brazil. It was a stark contrast to the situation with the domestic league, where no games have been played since June last year.
That drove the players to protest during the Copa América, raising their arms before the games. “I admire my teammates so much because we have fought so much for the women’s league,” Caicedo says. “And the Copa América helped a lot for us to draw attention because then people saw us. In Cali, Bucaramanga and Armenia, where we played, fans were really good to us.”
Caicedo has had to overcome adversity before. When she was 15 during the Covid-19 pandemic, she found out that she had ovarian cancer. The diagnosis was shared only with family and her closest friends and the tumour, which was discovered early, was removed. “It was something we dealt with internally,” she says. “Thankfully I overcame it and I’m well now. It was not easy, but with the help of my loved ones, I was ready to go back to playing once doctors told me I was OK. I feel like this is in the past, and now I can follow my path in football.”
Where that path will lead her remains to be seen but we are likely to know in February, when she turns 18. “I feel that this is the best moment to leave and take advantage of the fact that I’m turning 18”, she says. “Ever since I was a little girl I have dreamed of playing abroad. I don’t just want to grow as a footballer, but also improve myself, like getting to know another culture and learning a new language.”
Recommended viewing
Cristina Martín-Prieto’s classy finish in Sevilla’s Liga F win against Madrid CFF is our pick for the week because … why not? The goalkeeper Paola Ulloa attempts to get it but has no chance to stop the ball. Just a chef’s kiss.
Got a question for our writers – or want to suggest a topic to cover? Get in touch by emailing moving.goalposts@theguardian.com or posting BTL.
