Leicy Santos: Colombia’s history-maker aiming for the FIFA World Cup 2023 podium
Atletico Madrid and Colombian superstar Leicy Santos features in Olympics.com's 'World at Their Feet' series: let's relive the journey that brought her to the world stage.
Football
For many parents, there is nothing greater than watching their children fulfill their biggest dreams.
That's why many make the sacrifices they do – and Leicy Santos’s parents, Elizaith and Diana, are no different.
It all began with a trial at Besser FC, when Leicy was just 12 years old. She convinced her father to allow her to go to the capital to pursue the opportunity.
“We didn’t want to,” Elizaith told Olympics.com. “But we sent her anyway.
“I sold some of the pigs I had because I didn’t have any cash at the time.”
From the minute she arrived, Leicy was in awe.
“I remember seeing the green grass and I was like: ‘Wow’.
“The whole field was like a carpet and I was like ‘I want to play’ and that was the only thing that mattered to me.”
After just three days, it was clear that if Leicy wanted to become a professional footballer, Bogotá was the place she needed to be.
After an 18-hour bus ride from their beloved hometown village in the middle of Colombia, Santos’s parents packed up and took her to the place where she had the chance to realise her dreams.
“We decided to leave everything beyond and go after her dream,” Diana said. “People treated us as if we were crazy [and told us] this won’t go anywhere.”
But the pair refused to listen and instead helped Leicy pursue the thing that she loved most in life: football.
And it would be a sacrifice that paid off in the end, as the 27-year-old went on to break new ground.
From a national team call up in time for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, to becoming the first-ever Colombian to be bought by a women’s European team, first Colombian to score in the Champions League, and now set to represent her nation at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
Leicy is no stranger to making history, and she is aiming to continue her trend of doing so at Australia & New Zealand 2023.
“The hope I have for the Colombian national team is that we get on the podium at the World Cup.”
Santos and her team-mates kick off their campaign against South Korea on Monday (24 July), Tuesday (25 July) for those in Europe, given it's 03:00 GMT, 04:00 CET start time.