The face of the Colombia Women’s U-20 National Team is the same as the situation experienced by the Copa América runners-up in Colombian territory. The senior national team was faced with a big problem and enormous uncertainty that surrounds them every year.
They dream, and when they wake up, they return to reality in which they are held by an entity that is not interested in the achievements they have made. The Copa Libertadores of Atlético Huila, the Pan American Games in 2019, the runner-up in the Copa América facing the owners of the contest such as Brazil, and now, the victory by the minimum difference against Germany, who dominate the U-20 World Cup It should give people something to talk about and put things in their place. What do they ask for? It’s simple: that what they do with a worthy league be valued.
However, the dreams of each player end when they return to a country that has no interest in giving them what each of them deserves. It’s a decent job, and it doesn’t seem like it from the amount of setbacks that dominate the leagues. A tournament just to get on with the players that lasts less than two months just to keep them happy is complete clowning. And when they tried to make a long, they returned to the same excuse as always: that there are no guarantees because the Copa Libertadores is approaching.
Only América de Cali and Deportivo Cali will play a leading role at the end of 2022 when, for the first time, two teams from Valle del Cauca will represent Colombia in the Copa Conmebol Libertadores. And it is very sad to know that when the possibility of holding two tournaments this year was looming, they put an end to that idea. Now Fernando Jaramillo maintains a foot and a half outside the Dimayor that they are going to do two contests in 2023, but they have always been on duty with false promises.
The president-elect, Gustavo Petro also expressed his desire that the players in Colombia have a decent and fair league. Who knows if they will let him work with the Ministry of Sports at the head of María Isabel Urrutia appointed a few days ago, and with the Dimayor and the Colombian Football Federation, the ‘parents’ of the players, but when it comes to giving A hug with Linda Caicedo demonstrates the great affection that Ramón Jessurún has for the selected women.
This being the case, it is very sad to know that the Colombia Sub-20 National Team, in which there are 18 players out of the 21 summoned who play in the BetPlay Women’s League, and once they return from Costa Rica, they will face the harsh reality that there will be no tournament. How to explain to the other countries that Colombia hosted a Copa América, was runner-up and will not have a contest? How to explain that the youth who beat Germany in the debut of the U-20 World Cup will not be able to perform to strengthen their sporting growth?
Now the U-17 World Cup is coming up with Linda Caicedo and Gabriela Rodríguez who will give arguments for it to be respected. But neither passing the phase in Costa Rica, nor overcoming what was done 12 years ago when they finished fourth, will manage to change the opinion of the entities that govern Colombian soccer, which, despite the achievements, respond with more setbacks than progress. And when benefits are heard, they end them completely.
18 players will return to the country once their participation in the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica ends, and they will have to study their futures in a nation that will not have the BetPlay Women’s League. Gisela Robledo, Ángela Barón and Ilana Izquierdo have the beautiful fortune of playing in Spain and the United States respectively, but they are part of that Colombia that ends the dreams of soccer players.
