Player Spotlight, Natalia!

Natalia is 18 years old and joined our High School Resilient team this year. Although she doesn’t speak much English, her personality shines through and she is often highlighted by her teammates and coaches as being an energetic and highly competitive player. She comes to every practice with a big smile and excited to put hard work in!

“I started playing soccer in junior high because I liked sports and I use sports to have fun. I played on a soccer team in Columbia and that’s how I gained interest in the sport.

My favorite position is forward because I like the responsibility of scoring goals and I like that the emotion is more intense in this position.

I admire [Lionel] Messi [from Argentina]  because he’s a consistently good player who always gives his maximum effort.

I experienced sexism in Columbia because there were no female teams in my school so I played on the boys team. The school noticed there was a lot of interest from girl athletes so they created a team for just girls so we could feel more comfortable playing soccer.”