The second-youngest woman to score in the tournament, Colombia’s Linda Caicedo, has had an impressive start to her nation’s Women’s World Cup campaign. She has also won the official player of the match award for the last two games.
In the 52nd minute of Sunday night’s match against Germany, Caicedo swung the ball into the top corner. Manuela Vanegas’ header in stoppage time gave Colombia a stunning 2-1 victory.
But three years ago, when Caicedo, then 18 years old, received the news that she had ovarian cancer, she believed her football career would never take off. Here is the amazing tale of how she attracted the attention of the globe.
2005 saw the birth of Caicedo in the town of Candelaria, Colombia. It’s in a struggling neighborhood, and the football player just returned there to provide 100 grocery bags without the help of the media.
Despite no one else in her family playing, she began playing football at the age of five.
She was handed her senior debut for club América de Cali at the age of just 14 since she was so good as a youngster.
She resumed playing for the Colombian national team a year later, but around that time she started experiencing abdominal pain and underwent scans.
Just as her football career was ready to take off, she was finally diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given strong chemotherapy.
She claims that Nelson Abadia, who has served as the national coach of Colombia since 2017, provided her with essential assistance.
She told FIFA, “It was a challenging procedure, but thank God I was able to go through it.
“My family was constantly at my side, and my coach was by my side all the time.
He called me frequently. He told me to relax; I’ll be back when I was about to have surgery and I felt awful, like I would never be able to play top-level football again. I would so want to thank my coach.
She returned to football after undergoing surgery and missing six months, and in 2020, she joined with Deportivo Cali.
By 2022, Caicedo was in high demand to begin games for both the Under-17s and Under-20s teams in addition to Colombia’s senior team.
Incredibly, she participated in four competitions that year. At the Copa América Femenina, when Colombia finished second after losing to Brazil in the final, she was named player of the competition.
A few days after turning 18 in February 2023, she committed to Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid.
“Because I’m still developing, the pressure might be challenging at times, but you need to strike a balance between your physical and emotional well-being. Because playing football is my passion, I try to consider everything that has occurred to me as a positive experience and to have fun.
Preparations for the Women’s World Cup were picking up steam after the player scored four goals in roughly the same amount of time with the club.
For her to leave her mark, it only took 39 minutes. In Colombia’s 2-0 victory over South Korea, Caicedo—who entered from the middle and curled a shot in from the outside of the box—became the man with the youngest World Cup goal.
The youngster was characterized as “from another planet” by assistant coach and Abadia’s son Mario.
