Since 1991, FIFA has officially recognized and organized the Women’s Soccer World Cup. In this ninth edition, the teams went from 24 to 32 to equal until now in the number of participants in the men’s World Cup. Behind each National Team there are dreams, records and new goals. Here are four players from Australia/New Zealand 2023 who have already made their mark on the sport.
World Cup with 16 years
Casey Phair became the youngest to play in a World Cup at 16 years and 26 days. The South Korean soccer player entered the pitch in the second half of the match in which South Korea lost 2-0 to Colombia and that is how she beat Nigerian Ifeanyi Chiejjine, who had debuted in the 1999 World Cup at 16 years and 34 days .
Phair plays forward, her father is American and her mother South Korean. When she was one month old, her family moved to the United States, specifically to New Jersey, the city where she plays at the Pingry school. Her goals in the U-17 Asian Cup qualifiers earned her consideration in the Senior Team. Her coach, Colin Bell, had declared before the World Cup that they were going to protect the player from the media and publicity due to her young age and what he could do to her.
Banda, the figure of Zambia
Barbra Banda is the goalscorer and captain of Zambia, one of the eight rookie teams at Australia/New Zealand 2023. The striker had been left out of the 2022 African Cup squad, in which Zambia finished third, due to to the fact that she was subjected to a gender test in which they detected a high level of testosterone. For the World Cup, FIFA delegated the responsibility of the test to the national federations, for which Banda was authorized to play the first World Cup event for her.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Zambian had been the second goalscorer of the tournament with six goals after hat-tricks against China and the Netherlands. Banda currently plays for Chinese Shanghai Shengli, where she was the top scorer in 2020 with 18 goals. In June 2022, she was close to being signed by Real Madrid, but the Spanish club stopped her signing after a medical review. Banda is a fan of boxing and during the Olympic Games she had declared to FIFA that she aspires to become the best soccer player in the world.
Caicedo, the Colombian superstar
Linda Caicedo was the best player in the 2022 Copa América in which Colombia lost the final 1-0 to Brazil after beating Argentina in the semifinals with a goal from the Real Madrid player. At just 18 years old, the Colombian made her debut in the World Cup and scored in the two matches that her team has played so far, one against South Korea in a 2-0 victory and another great goal against Las Cafeteras’ historic victory against Germany by 2 to 1. In the youth teams they played the Sub 17 World Cup in which Colombia came runner-up and the Sub 20 World Cup where they fell in the quarterfinals.
At the age of 14, she made her debut for América de Cali and was the tournament’s top scorer with seven goals in seven games, but she was unable to play in the Libertadores due to her age. In 2020 she went to Deportivo Cali and in 2021 she was able to play the Cup, in which she scored four goals. In February of this year she was signed by Real Madrid and in March she scored her first goal against Villarreal in the Copa de la Reina.
Dalila Ippolito, 21 years old and two World Cups
Dalila Ippolito was born in Lugano on March 24, 2002 and at the age of 21 she already has two World Cups in her career. She currently plays for Parma in Italy, after a season at Juventus and another at Pomigliano. In Argentina, she made her River debut at the age of 13 and in 2019 she moved to UAI Urquiza in what was the first (semi) professional tournament in the country, which allowed her to play the Copa Libertadores with the club. Ippolito jumped directly to the Senior Team without taking the previous steps through the youth teams and made his debut in May 2019 in a friendly in which Argentina defeated Uruguay 3-1.
In France 2019, she entered the historic match in which Argentina drew against Scotland after losing 3-0 and thus became the youngest national player to play in a World Cup at the age of 17. The midfielder gives her name to the stadium of the Lugano Young Athletes club where she took her first steps and in 2021 they made a mural of her in her lifelong neighborhood.
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2023-08-01 18:47:53
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