Katherine Tapia made headlines this weekend: she was the first goalkeeper to score a goal in the history of the Colombian Women’s League. The Atlético Nacional goalkeeper contributed with a penalty, a penalty, for the 3-0 victory over Bucaramanga.
Immediately, the press looked for her and it was known that she was a member of the National Police and that she was part of the Mobile Anti-riot Squad (Esmad). In that work, many times she escorted the bus of the pursuit men’s professional team and there she began to get excited about being a player for that club and being the starting goalkeeper.
However, in a talk with FUTBOLRED, Luz Katherine told more about her life. “I was born in the village of Las Flores, in Llorica (Córdoba). I graduated from college at 14 years old, because they gave me a couple of courses ahead of me; Then I went to study at the University of Córdoba, but I wanted a degree in mathematics and my parents enrolled me in Systems Engineering, so I left the third semester, because it was not my thing. Then I studied an Accounting Assistant technician, through a scholarship that Gol Star, the team I was with in Bogotá, gave me, ”said Luz, Rosmira and Dairo’s daughter.
Right in the house of his parents, there is a kind of altar with the clippings, his daughter’s goalkeeper bus, and everything related to what these years of career have been, and his three seasons with the Antioquia club. However, Katherine did not have their support when she dreamed of being a soccer player.
“They wanted me to study and not be a footballer. I had to work taking care of children, cleaning the houses to have money for my tickets, because my parents did not sponsor that idea. I even hid my shirts and shorts to go to training; afterwards they found out that I was playing games and they scolded me ”, confessed ‘Kate’, as her companions call her.
Tapia even recalled when, for escaping to play soccer, she was held for several hours by an armed group in the area.
“The day I really scared my parents was once I ran away to play soccer in Caucasia. The lady who was taking care of the child covered me, said she needed me, but it was so that they would not realize that I was leaving. On the way back, in Nechí, they held us for several hours, an illegal group, they were armed and said that at night we couldn’t get through. It was 3 in the morning and they didn’t know about me, ”Katherine mentioned.
An admirer of René Higuita, Katherine does not forget that her idea was to be a central defender, as she always played that way, even earning a call from Ricardo Rozo to a microcycle with the Colombia U-20 National Team. That is why he says that “Mario Alberto Yepes was my reference.”
He thanks Professor Diego Rodríguez Toro, from Gol Star, as it was he who insisted that he try as a goalkeeper. “There are many coaches to whom I owe gratitude, but the ‘teacher’ Diego put me in the goal and there I stayed. I also thank Ricardo (Rozo), and now Diego Bedoya, my coach at Nacional: he brought me, and he was the one who decided that, if there was a penalty, I would kick it so I could enter the history of Colombian women’s football.
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