Girls’s soccer star Deyna Castellanos says faculty within the U.S. modified her life — and she or he’s paying it ahead

Deyna Castellanos often faces the purpose with a targeted gaze, however when she scores a purpose, an expansive smile spreads throughout her face — one identified to so many who consult with her because the “queen” of soccer in her native Venezuela.

Castellanos, 25, made information early this 12 months when she signed with Bay FC, the San Francisco-based ladies’s skilled soccer group, on a four-year contract price $1.8 million {dollars}, making her the highest-paid international participant within the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League.

Earlier than that, Castellanos performed with Atlético de Madrid, Manchester Metropolis and the Venezuelan nationwide group, and she or he holds a number of information, together with as the highest scorer in South America’s under-17 championships in addition to within the U-17 Girls’s World Cup.

“My greatest dream is to qualify with the Venezuelan ladies’s group for the World Cup,” the athlete mentioned in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. “We’re rising, we’re maturing, and we’re evolving in some ways. The objectives might change, however the goals 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 restrictions of the Venezuelan sports activities system, Castellanos was awarded a scholarship when she was 16 to review at Florida State College, the place she broke information by scoring 47 objectives in 77 video games.

“Being a student-athlete in the US modified my life,” she mentioned, including that coming to the U.S. on that scholarship “has been probably the greatest choices I’ve ever made.”

Castellanos says her faculty expertise in Florida, the place she studied journalism, allowed her to study the ideas and self-discipline of the game.

However popping out of Venezuela, her expertise was not widespread. “After I was little, they didn’t assist you apply for an instructional and sports activities scholarship in the US. I don’t suppose there was any group, particularly with feminine soccer gamers. That was virtually inconceivable,” she mentioned.

Impressed by her educational and sports activities profession in the US, Castellanos and her group created the Queen Deyna Program: The Legacy, a basis that seeks to empower women and younger ladies via sports activities and training.

“Clearly, it’s extra targeted on serving to women from Venezuela, however we now have European, African, Latin gamers. … The reality is that it’s a nice delight for me,” she mentioned as she delved into the objectives of this mission.

Though this system began as an concept 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 now have already despatched 50 women to the US. And never simply from Venezuela, however from all around the world, which is loopy,” she mentioned, laughing.

Castellano’s purpose is to broaden the inspiration’s attain to assist much more younger folks. “We now have to maintain searching for funds that may change our purpose of sending 15 to twenty gamers to the US annually, and possibly even 20 to 40. We need to change issues,” she mentioned.

From ‘one thing inconceivable’ to a school profession

Almost 25,000 worldwide college students and athletes compete in varied sports activities in the US, 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. “After I was little, I at all times needed to go to the US and play at a college, however clearly I didn’t know the way to do it. I noticed it as one thing inconceivable till Deyna helped me quite a bit,” the 20-year-old soccer participant mentioned. She now performs and research at Florida State College, following in Castellanos’ footsteps.

Jiménez joined the Florida State group this 12 months, however she beforehand studied at William Carey College, the place she competed in 66 matches and scored 46 objectives. This 12 months, she performed with the Venezuelan nationwide group within the U-20 Girls’s World Cup and made her debut within the senior class.

The sports activities setting and the educational calls for have given Jiménez a brand new perspective on her challenges as an athlete.

“Crucial factor is self-discipline. … You need to practice and proceed together with your research, as a result of right here, with the intention to play, you must research,” Jiménez mentioned.

“I feel folks are actually paying a bit of extra consideration to ladies’s soccer. I really feel prefer it’s already a part of every little thing,” she mentioned excitedly.

Equal pay, secure areas and Venezuela

Although 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 mentioned ladies’s soccer has developed quite a bit and can proceed to develop, and salaries shall be higher yearly. “I don’t know if we are going to ever see that equality in salaries. Let’s hope so. However we additionally know that the numbers which are getting used for sure footballers are absurd,” she mentioned. “In the long run, this can be 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 ladies’s soccer was a secure area. Her reply was a sure. “We now have at all times felt at dwelling, we now have not felt judged, whether or not you’re heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual — I feel ladies’s soccer does that very nicely.”

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 mentioned. That’s mirrored within the unsure state of the nationwide group, she mentioned, not like in different South American international locations, the place skilled soccer has a stable base.

“That’s why I feel this Queen Deyna Program mission additionally focuses a lot on serving to Venezuelan gamers see one thing totally different, to open their minds, study one other language and have the chance to be seen and to go for one thing skilled that Venezuela doesn’t provide us,” she mentioned. “I feel that’s one of the vital particular issues about this basis.”

Castellanos mentioned the present state of affairs in Venezuela impacts everybody; she mentioned her entire household continues to be there.

“Subsequent 12 months is the Copa America, and every little thing is unsure. The coach is unsure. We don’t know what number of coaching camps we could have earlier than this competitors, which is so essential for us as a result of it qualifies us for the 2027 World Cup and the Olympic Video games,” Castellanos mentioned. “The state of affairs within the nation is at all times 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 model of this story was first revealed in Noticias Telemundo.