Wonder Woman of the Week: Celia Jimenez Delgado
With the Olympics about to start- and the soccer events already begun- this week's Wonder Woman is one of the top women's soccer players in the world. A staple of several youth Spanish soccer squads, Celia Jimenez Delgado represented Spain in several international matches starting at only 14 years old before heading overseas to college at the University of Alabama where she helped the university's women's soccer team tear up the pitch against competition. While simultaneously studying aerospace engineering, Delgado earned praise for her skill on the soccer team- largely thanks to a game winning goal in double overtime against LSU in her first season with the university's team. In 2018, Delgado became the first person from the University of Alabama to earn a draft pick into the National Women's Soccer Team.
Celia Jimenez Delgado didn't immediately get her big break though. The Seattle Reign took their drafted Delgado and sent her to the minor league Seattle Sounders Women team to develop her as a player- and she shined. The Spanish footballer led the team to the 2018 WPSL Championships; enough to earn Delgado a roster spot on the 2019 Reign roster. Delgado has also played for the Swedish league team FC Rosengard and the Australian women's league team FC Perth Glory- the latter of which saw Delgado score 3 goals in a single season. Delgado's adult football career doesn't end at the club level either. The athlete represented Spain in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup where she played as a starter in all three of Spain's matches in their first appearance at the tournament.
Celia Jimenez Delgado's accomplishments are about more than just being an incredible athlete. Spain has a two deeply entrenched aspects to its nation's culture- sport (including soccer) and sexism- in fact Spanish cities have to specifically design their streets based on high rates of sexual assault. Within the sports community, there is entrenched sexism limiting the advancement of women and girls, which means that national team players like Delgado are incredibly important to inspiring new generations of young women and girls to take up soccer and other sports and help smash the patriarchal culture of the Spanish sports scene. And it's working! The rates of young girls in Spain taking up sports has increased dramatically since the 2015 Women's World Cup when Delgado and her teammates helped inspire and empower young girls to play soccer.
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