Wed. Feb 19th, 2025

Linda Caicedo Biography, Age, Family, Career, Honors, Cancer survival.

Linda Caicedo
Linda Caicedo

Linda Lizeth Caicedo Alegria is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward. She plays for Spanish club Real Madrid in the Liga F as well as the Colombia women’s national team.

Nicknamed the “Colombian Neymar”, Caicedo is famous for her speed, dribbling technique, skillfulness to take on defenders head on and exceptional shooting. Linda is as well renown for her versality, she can operate as a winger, attacking midfielder or a striker.

Regardless of her young age, Linda demonstrates a high level of maturity, strong character and excellent leadership skills. She is one of the world’s best young players in the women’s football. Linda has won several individual awards for her exceptional talent so far. This includes Copa America Femenina Golden Ball and FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup Silver Ball and Bronze Boot.

She is the first woman to play in three (the U-17, the U-20 and the Senior) FIFA World Cup tournaments inside a year.

In February 2023, Linda was appointed an ambassador of Resilient Youth by USAID, as a recognition for her support to vulnerable youth across Colombia. She is as well an ambassador for Fundacion Mi Sangre, a youth empowerment charity founded by Catalina Cock Duque, a civil leader and a Colombian singer, Juanes.

Age and Birthday

Linda was born on 22 February 2005 in Candelaria, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. She is 19 years old as at 2024. Her zodiac sign is a Pisces.

Height

The Colombian star is approximately 1.61 meters (5 feet 3 inches) tall.

Preferred foot

Linda Caicedo is right-footed although she prefers to play on the left.

Religion

Caicedo is a Catholic Christian.

Linda Caicedo Family

Linda’s parents are Herlinda Alegria and Mauricio Caicedo.

She has a sister Kelly Caicedo, who is as well a footballer. Kelly plays as a defender for Brazilian club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube and the Colombian national Under-20 team.

Linda Caicedo Club Career

Early life

Linda has been a footballer since she was in the womb, as her mother once described her. She began to show love in football as soon as she learned to walk. Linda was always out play in the street. At home she would be kicking anything from dolls to utensils. The only thing the little Linda had interest in was playing football.

Thankfully her parents observed and fully supported her passion and talent from that early age. At the age of five they enrolled Linda into a small local soccer club Real Juanchito FC, a boys football academy. It is during her formation time here when Linda would became proficient in the football more specially in dribbling and shooting.

In 2015 and aged 10 years, Linda joined her first women’s club Generaciones Palmiranas, a prestigious club renown for nurturing big names in Colombian football. The following year, she started to play for Club Deportivo Atlas CP, a Cali based club famous for nurturing young footballers in Colombia. She won three U13 national tournaments for regional youth clubs with the Atlas CP between 2017 and 2019. Her exceptional performances and achievements at the youth level began to draw the attention from the biggest women’s clubs in Colombia and beyond.

America de Cali: 2019

In 2019, Caicedo signed for the Cali based club, America de Cali’s women’s team. She made her professional debut while aged 14, in a Colombia Women’s Football League match against Cortulua. Linda scored her first goal for the club, which was also the match winning goal in the debut. Her performance inspired America Femenino to their first ever League title when she scored the winning goal against Independiete Medellin.

Furthermore, she finished the season as the League top scorer having scored 7 goals in 7 matches.

Deportivo Cali: 2020-2022

2020

On 4 February 2020, Linda signed a one year contract with America’s city rival Deportivo Cali. However she was not able to play for six months after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

She was declared cancer-free in September 2020 and resumed training days after her last chemotherapy. Caicedo made her debut for Deportivo on 20 October 2020, against Junior in their opening match of the 2020 Colombian Women’s Football League. She scored her debut and only goal of the season in a 3-0 win against her former club and city rivals America Cali. They finished first in their group but could make it beyond the quarter finals.

2021

In 2021, Linda opened her season goal account with a brace against Atletico Bucamaranga in the group stage of the tournament. They once again finished top of their group and progressed up to the finals. Caicedo was instrumental in helping Deportivo fit their first league title with a 6-3 aggregate against Santa Fe in the finals. She finished the season as Cali’s second-highest goal scorer with 5 goals.

Moreover, Cali qualified for 2021 Copa Libertadores Femenina for reaching the league finals. This was Linda’s chance to play in a major continental club competition. She scored important goals as Cali finished top of their group. they however lost 2-1 to Uruguayan club, Nacional in the quarter finals. Caicedo finished the tournament as joint highest scorer.

2022

In 2022, the Colombian League changed to a round-robin format and Cali finished on third on the table. They advanced to the knock-out stage were Caicedo scoring prowess was critical for the team progress in the tournament. She scored a goal against Milonarios in the quarters then Santa Fe in the semis to take the team to yet another Colombian League final. In the finals against her former club America, she scored a goal but they lost their title defense battle 4-3 on aggregate.

She made 37 appearances and scored 16 goals for Deportivo Cali.

Linda became a free agent on December 2022 upon expiration of her contract with Deportivo Cali. She expressed her interest in playing overseas once she turned eighteen. She was linked with North American and European big clubs including Manchester City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Real Madrid: 2023- present

On 24 February 2023, Linda officially a three-year contract with Real Madrid. She debuted for the Spanish giants in the Liga F against Alhama CF on 4 March 2023. Her debut goal for Real was in extra time of the Copa de la Reina quarter finals on 9 March 2023. She scored her maiden league goal in a 3-1 victory against Levante Las Planas. She consummated the season with two goals and four assists in 10 league matches.

In November 2023, she was awarded the Golden Girl award following her noticeable performance throughout the year. Consequently, she became the best female footballer under the age of 21 playing in Europe in 2023.

Linda Caicedo International Career

Caicedo got her first national team call-up in November 2019 while aged 14. She was capped again five times in 2021. Linda scored her first goal for Colombia in a 2-0 friendly match win over Chile on 23 October 2021.

However, it was in 2022 when Linda wore the national team colours more regularly. She played for Colombia in four different tournaments; South America U17 Championship, FIFA U17 and U20 World Cups, and Copa America.

Youth Level

In 2022, Linda represented Colombia in three different tournaments at youth level;

  • March 2022, South America U17 Women’s Championship in Uruguay, where they finished as runners-up behind Brazil. Caicedo scored five goals for Colombia in the tournament.
  • August 2022, FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica, they were eliminated by Brazil in the quarter-finals.
  • October 2022, FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in India, where Colombia finished the tournament’s runners-up behind Spain. Linda was Colombia’s tournament top-scorer with 4 goals.

Senior Level

Linda received a call-up to play her first tournament for the Colombia senior women’s national team in the July 2022 Copa America Femenina. She netted her first and game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Ecuador. They progressed through the knock-out stage and faced Argentina in the semis. Caicedo scored the only goal of the semifinal match to enable Colombia qualify for the third Copa America final where they lost 1-0 to Brazil. Linda was voted the best player of the tournament and was among the three Colombians named in the Best XI.

On 4 July 2023, she was listed in the Colombia’s 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup final squad. This made her the first player in history to compete at three Women’s World Cup tournaments (U17, U20 and senior levels) within a year. Linda scored Colombia’s second goal in their first match in the World Cup, a 2-0 win against South Korea. She consequently became the second youngest World Cup scorer with 18 years and 153 days. Caicedo additionally became the first Colombian player to score in the U17, U20 and senior Women’s World Cups. She scored again in their second group stage, a 2-1 win against Germany. Following her outstanding performances she was voted as the Player of the Match in both games.

Linda Caicedo Honors

America de Cali

  • Colombian Women’s Football League: 2019

Deportivo Cali

  • Colombian Women’s Football League: 2021

Colombia U17

  • FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup runner-up: 2022
  • South America U17 Women’s Championship runner-up: 2022

Colombia

  • Copa America Femenina runner-up: 2022
  • Women’s Revelations Cup runner-up: 2023

Individual Awards

  • Copa America Femenina Golden Ball: 2022
  • Copa America Femenina Best XI: 2022
  • FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup Silver Ball: 2022
  • FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup Bronze Boot: 2022
  • Colombian Women’s Football League Top scorer: 2019
  • Women’s Revelations Cup Best Player: 2023
  • IFFHS World Best Youth (U20) Player: 2022
  • Copa Libertadores Femenina Top scorer: 2021
  • Copa Libertadores Femenina Team of the Season: 2021
  • Premios Femina Futbol Young Player of the Year: 2021
  • Premios Femina Futbol Team of the Year: 2021

By MJR

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