Linda Caicedo

Linda Lizeth Caicedo Alegría (born 25 February 2005) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Liga F club Real Madrid and the Colombia women's national team.

From 2017 to 2019, Caicedo won three Torneos Nacionales (national tournaments for regional youth clubs) at the U13 level with Atlas.

These accomplishments with her youth teams started attracting the attention of Colombia's biggest women's clubs.

Caicedo has been playing at the senior club level since 2019, when she debuted for Colombian club América de Cali at the age of 14.

In 2019, Carolina Pineda convinced Marcela Gómez, the president of América de Cali's women's team, to sign Caicedo.

On 15 July 2019, at the age of 14, she made her professional debut with América against Cortuluá.

She scored her first goal for the club on her debut, which ended up being the match winner for the team.

Caicedo finished the 2019 Colombian Women's Football League as the league's top scorer with 7 goals in 7 matches.

On 30 September 2019, in the second leg of the 2019 league finals, Caicedo scored the tie-winning goal against Independiente Medellín to bring the final aggregate score to 3-2 and win América their first ever league title.

América qualified for the 2019 Copa Libertadores Femenina by featuring in the league finals, but 14-year-old Caicedo was unable to participate, as the minimum age for participation is 16 years of age.

At the end of Caicedo's contract with América, they were unable to come to an agreement due to Caicedo's salary demands.

After being instrumental in América winning their first league title, she moved to Deportivo Cali in early 2020.

With Cali, Caicedo won an additional Colombian league title in 2021, which qualified Cali for the 2021 Copa Libertadores Femenina.

Despite only making the quarterfinals, Caicedo finished the tournament as joint-top scorer and made the tournament's Best XI.

In 2023, after years of speculation about her next club move, she signed for Real Madrid in Spain's Liga F. In her first season at the club, she helped Madrid reach their first major cup final at the 2022–23 Copa de la Reina.

In addition to her accomplishments at the club level, Caicedo has also found international success at both the youth and senior levels.

In July 2022, Caicedo featured in her first Copa America Femenina tournament with Colombia's senior team, where she scored the game-winning goal against Argentina in the semi-finals to help her team qualify for the Copa America final.

After finishing as runner-up with Colombia's senior team in the Copa America, Caicedo competed with Colombia's U-20s at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in August, where they reached the quarterfinals.

In October of the same year, Caicedo helped Colombia's U-17 side to a second-place finish at the U-17 Women's World Cup.

She scored 4 goals and was Colombia's top scorer as they finished as runners-up behind Spain.

She later competed in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, and scored two goals in the group stage—one against South Korea, and the opener against Germany, a match that Colombia won to pull off one of the greatest upsets in Women's World Cup history.

Often regarded as one of the world's best young players, Caicedo has won multiple individual awards throughout her career, including the Golden Ball at the 2022 Copa America Femenina, and Bronze Boot and Silver Ball at the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Caicedo was born in Candelaria, Valle del Cauca, Colombia to parents Herlinda Alegría and Mauricio Caicedo.

At the age of five, she enrolled in Real Juanchito FC, a boys-only youth football academy.

At an early age, she was singled out for her excellent dribbling and shooting abilities.

Caicedo's mother Herlinda recounts when Caicedo was a young girl, where she would kick kitchen utensils and dolls around the house because she was only interested in playing football.

As she advanced to the higher levels of Real Juanchito, Caicedo met the man that would later become her mentor, club president Rafael Murillo.

At the age of 10, Caicedo entered her first women's club, Generaciones Palmiranas.

Here, she met Felipe Taborda, the coach of Colombia's senior women's team.

A year later, Caicedo began playing for CD Atlas C.P., a team based in Cali and created by Colombian international Carolina Pineda that is known to foster the talents of young Colombian footballers.

The club confirmed her departure on 30 January 2020, making her a free agent.

On 4 February 2020, Caicedo's move to América's cross-city rivals Deportivo Cali was made official with a year-long contract.

Due to complications of ovarian cancer, Caicedo was unable to play football for six months.

She resumed training days after she finished her last round of chemotherapy treatment.

Caicedo made her debut with Cali on 20 October 2020, against Junior in their first match of the 2020 Colombian Women's Football League.

Her first goal for her new club was also the only goal she scored in the group stages, in a 3–0 win against her former club, América.

Deportivo Cali finished first in their group and advanced to the knockout round, where they faced Millonarios in the quarterfinals.

She scored the game-winning goal of the first leg that finished 2-1 in Cali's favor, and then scored Cali's only goal in the second leg of the tie.

However, Millonarios scored 3 goals in the second leg to defeat Cali with an aggregate score of 4–3, knocking them out of the tournament.

In the 2021 league tournament, Caicedo opened up her scoring with a brace against Atletico Bucamaranga in the group stage of the tournament.