Linda Caicedo: The making of the NXGN 2024 women's winner

It's impressive that we’ve even reached this stage, really, because Caicedo has been surrounded by incredible hype ever since her emergence in the Colombian top-flight as a 14-year-old. It was at that tender age that she debuted for America de Cali, marking her first appearance with a goal and her rookie season with a Golden Boot, her goals powering the club to its first-ever league title.

The records Caicedo smashed that season were incredible. The youngest player to play in Colombia’s Liga Aguila, its youngest-ever scorer and the youngest nominee for the Player of the Year accolade, the only downer on her first campaign in senior football was that she couldn’t help America in the Copa Libertadores, forced to watch from the sidelines as they were eliminated in the semi-finals because the minimum age to participate in the competition was 16.

After that breakthrough year, Caicedo made a controversial switch to America’s rivals, Deportivo Cali. It was a move that attracted a lot of attention and coverage, and the hype that was building around her only grew when Marco Caicedo, the club president, told Univalle Estereo in a radio interview what her next move would be. "Linda Caicedo is a football star and we managed to sign her for one year,” he said. “The contract was made this way because she will later go to play for Barcelona in Spain.”

If Caicedo did well not to be swallowed up by all of this excitement around her, then what word can be used to describe the battle she overcame before she even kicked a ball for Deportivo? Aged 15, the bright young talent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

“At the time, I didn't think I could play professionally again because of all the treatments and surgeries I had to go through,” she told FIFA. “Mentally, it was a very difficult moment in my life. I'm forever grateful that it happened when I was very young. I was able to recover, I also had my family's support, and I feel very good now. What happened made me grow. I feel thankful and happy to be here.”

It's an incredible way for her to reflect on what must have been such a terrifying time, and it certainly makes her rise to the top of the game all the more admirable and inspiring.

Once Caicedo was well enough to return to football, she did so almost immediately, getting back on the training pitch with Deportivo days after her last round of chemotherapy treatment, once she had been declared cancer-free. The manner in which she returned to form after those six months out was quite remarkable, too.

In her first full season with the club, in 2021, she netted nine goals in 18 appearances, including four in as many matches in her first experience of the Copa Libertadores. It was enough to make her the joint-top goal-scorer in that season's competition and earn her a place in the tournament's Best XI, while her efforts in the league helped Deportivo secure the title.

At this point, it felt like Caicedo had already conquered and outgrown her home country. She was starting to underline this point with her national teams, too. In 2022, aged 17, Caicedo helped Colombia to reach three major finals – at the U17 Women’s World Cup, U17 South American Championship and the senior Copa America.

At the latter, it was abundantly apparent that she was ready to arrive in one of the world’s top leagues. Caicedo picked up the tournament's Golden Ball and was even named Player of the Match in the final, despite Colombia losing 1-0 to Brazil.

That highly-anticipated move would occur just a few months later, triggered by her 18th birthday. However, it was not one that took her to Barcelona, as Marco Caicedo had said. No, instead, she would join the club’s most historic rivals, Real Madrid, whose women’s team was launched in 2020.

In the Spanish capital, the teenager is improving and developing at quite a rate. Having long been a direct and goal-scoring forward, she is starting to understand how to impact the tempo of a game, learning that not simply darting at defenders has its benefits and recognising the havoc she can wreak when she drifts centrally from her wide role.

Caicedo is still polishing her game off, particularly on the other side of the ball, but time is certainly on her side and the strides that she is taking forward are absolutely evident.

Last year’s World Cup was a snapshot of the superstar she could go on to become, then. As has been true of so many moments throughout Caicedo’s career, it would’ve been easy for her to fold under the weight of expectation, especially as an 18-year-old gracing the biggest stage for the first time.

But she thrived in that pressure environment and relished the opportunity to star in front of the thousands of adoring Colombian fans who made Sydney, Perth and Melbourne feel like Bogota, Medellin and Cali. "It's been really incredible," she told Optus Sport of that support. "We didn't expect it to be like this. In every Australian city, they were supporting us at our hotels, airports and the stadiums."

If anyone needed evidence to prove that this teenage prodigy could deliver when it really matters, then Caicedo’s performances at her debut World Cup - which returned two Player of the Match awards, two goals (the one against Germany named Goal of the Tournament) and an assist - delivered it, all while helping Colombia enjoy its best-ever performance at the Women's World Cup.

But the World Cup was also a warning. Two days before Colombia faced Germany, Caicedo collapsed in training. “Linda is very tired,” a medical staff member at the Colombian Federation said. “What happened was just a symptom of all the stress and physical demands. She is well and all is back to normal.”

Towards the end of that match, she appeared to be struggling again, but Angelo Marsiglia, Colombia’s assistant coach, was not concerned when speaking to reporters after the game. “We know that Linda had some problems in the past but nothing to be worried about,” he said. “She was very tired, of course. She had acceleration in her heart, but this wasn't a problem and she decided to continue and finish the game." Much criticism was thrown at the Colombian staff at the time for what many believed was irresponsible management that didn’t put the player’s health first.

Caicedo was utilised massively by her nation in the 12 months that concluded with the World Cup. She played at five major tournaments in this time, for three different teams, all while being exposed to a more competitive and demanding league than she had ever known, with Real Madrid in Spain. It's unlikely that she’ll be used by Colombia’s under-age teams from here on out, but this was still a warning to heed. A player’s health should always come first.

It’s not just Colombia and Real Madrid that will hope her incredibly bright spark doesn’t burnout, either. Caicedo has the potential to be a genuine superstar who excites the whole sport, not just the teams she represents in it. In fact, her contributions could help to catapult Colombian women’s football forwards, such is the way in which she appears to transcend sport in her home country.

At 19 years old, Caicedo is already an absolute delight to watch, the type of footballer whose team’s games you actively seek out just so you can watch for moments of their individual brilliance. Long may it continue.