Deyna Castellanos normally faces the purpose with a centered gaze, however when she scores a purpose, an expansive smile spreads throughout her face — one recognized to so many who discuss with her because the “queen” of soccer in her native Venezuela.
Castellanos, 25, made news early this year when she signed with Bay FC, the San Francisco-based girls’s skilled soccer staff, on a four-year contract price $1.8 million {dollars}, making her the highest-paid overseas participant within the National Women’s Soccer League.
Before that, Castellanos performed with Atlético de Madrid, Manchester City and the Venezuelan nationwide staff, and he or she holds a number of data, together with as the highest scorer in South America’s under-17 championships in addition to within the U-17 Women’s World Cup.
“My greatest dream is to qualify with the Venezuelan girls’s staff for the World Cup,” the athlete stated in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. “We are rising, we’re maturing, and we’re evolving in some ways. The objectives might change, however the desires stay the identical.”
Castellanos connects her rise within the aggressive soccer world to a key occasion in her life: After distinguishing herself as a younger participant in worldwide championships regardless of the constraints of the Venezuelan sports activities system, Castellanos was awarded a scholarship when she was 16 to check at Florida State University, the place she broke data by scoring 47 objectives in 77 video games.
“Being a student-athlete within the United States modified my life,” she stated, including that coming to the U.S. on that scholarship “has been the most effective choices I’ve ever made.”
Castellanos says her school expertise in Florida, the place she studied journalism, allowed her to be taught the rules and self-discipline of the game.
But popping out of Venezuela, her expertise was not frequent. “When I used to be little, they didn’t enable you apply for a tutorial and sports activities scholarship within the United States. I don’t suppose there was any group, particularly with feminine soccer gamers. That was virtually inconceivable,” she stated.
Inspired by her tutorial and sports activities profession within the United States, Castellanos and her staff created the Queen Deyna Program: The Legacy, a basis that seeks to empower ladies and younger girls by means of sports activities and schooling.
“Obviously, it’s extra centered on serving to ladies from Venezuela, however now we have European, African, Latin gamers. … The fact is that it’s a nice satisfaction for me,” she stated as she delved into the objectives of this undertaking.
Although this system began as an thought in 2020, it wasn’t till early 2022 that it started the method of recruiting athletes, with the assistance of Nike and different sponsors.
“We have already despatched 50 ladies to the United States. And not simply from Venezuela, however from all around the world, which is loopy,” she stated, laughing.
Castellano’s purpose is to broaden the inspiration’s attain to assist much more younger folks. “We should maintain searching for funds that may change our purpose of sending 15 to twenty gamers to the United States annually, and perhaps even 20 to 40. We need to change issues,” she stated.
From ‘one thing inconceivable’ to a school profession
Nearly 25,000 worldwide college students and athletes compete in numerous sports activities within the United States, in line with NCAA figures. Some 900 universities provide scholarships of greater than $10,000 per 12 months.
Marianyela Jiménez, a Venezuelan soccer participant who’s a part of the Queen Deyna Program, is a kind of athletes. “When I used to be little, I all the time needed to go to the United States and play at a college, however clearly I didn’t know do it. I noticed it as one thing inconceivable till Deyna helped me loads,” the 20-year-old soccer participant stated. She now performs and research at Florida State University, following in Castellanos’ footsteps.
Jiménez joined the Florida State staff this 12 months, however she beforehand studied at William Carey University, the place she competed in 66 matches and scored 46 objectives. This 12 months, she performed with the Venezuelan nationwide staff within the U-20 Women’s World Cup and made her debut within the senior class.
The sports activities surroundings and the tutorial calls for have given Jiménez a brand new perspective on her challenges as an athlete.
“The most necessary factor is self-discipline. … You have to coach and proceed together with your research, as a result of right here, in an effort to play, you need to examine,” Jiménez stated.
“I believe folks at the moment are paying a little bit extra consideration to girls’s soccer. I really feel prefer it’s already a part of all the things,” she stated excitedly.
Equal pay, secure areas and Venezuela
Though Castellanos’ signing wage made information, the pay in males’s soccer is way greater. When requested if she thinks there’ll quickly be equal pay within the sport, she stated girls’s soccer has developed loads and can proceed to develop, and salaries will likely be higher yearly. “I don’t know if we are going to ever see that equality in salaries. Let’s hope so. But we additionally know that the numbers which can be getting used for sure footballers are absurd,” she stated. “In the tip, it is a sport that we additionally dedicate ourselves to. It’s our life, and we dwell off of it.”
Castellanos was requested whether or not, as a member of the LGBTQ group, she felt girls’s soccer was a secure area. Her reply was a sure. “We have all the time felt at residence, now we have not felt judged, whether or not you’re heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual — I believe girls’s soccer does that very effectively.”
Castellanos mirrored on what it was like to coach in Venezuela amid the nation’s political, financial and social crises.
“It’s tough, as a result of Venezuela doesn’t have a proper, aggressive skilled league the place I can say, for instance, that I need to retire in Venezuela and that’s it,” she stated. That’s mirrored within the unsure state of the nationwide staff, she stated, not like in different South American international locations, the place skilled soccer has a stable base.
“That’s why I believe this Queen Deyna Program undertaking additionally focuses a lot on serving to Venezuelan gamers see one thing completely different, to open their minds, be taught one other language and have the chance to be seen and to go for one thing skilled that Venezuela doesn’t provide us,” she stated. “I believe that’s one of the vital particular issues about this basis.”
Castellanos stated the present state of affairs in Venezuela impacts everybody; she stated her complete household remains to be there.
“Next 12 months is the Copa America, and all the things is unsure. The coach is unsure. We don’t know what number of coaching camps we may have earlier than this competitors, which is so necessary for us as a result of it qualifies us for the 2027 World Cup and the Olympic Games,” Castellanos stated. “The state of affairs within the nation is all the time tough for all of us as Venezuelans, it doesn’t matter what place you’re in, as a result of all of us love our nation.”
An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.
