Deyna

Castellanos

Deyna Castellanos joined City in July 2022 from Atletico Madrid.

An incredibly exciting young talent born in Maracay in Venezuela, the striker spent the formative years of her career with Escuela de Futbol Juan Arango in her homeland before moving to the United States in 2016 for university, with her spending three years playing for Florida State Seminoles.

Her goalscoring record in the Sunshine State – 48 efforts in 82 appearances - caught the attention of many, including FIFA who shortlisted her in the final three nominees for the FIFA Best Women’s Player of the Year award in 2017 alongside Carli Lloyd and Lieke Martens. She was the youngest player ever to be nominated.

In 2020 however, she earned her first professional contract in the game with Atletico Madrid and over two-and-a-half seasons with the Spanish side, she played UEFA Women’s Champions League football and found the back of the net 23 times in 58 outings.

She also played a key part in the team’s Supercopa de Espana Femenina success of 2020/21 and helped the team to a fourth-place finish in 2021/22.

On the international scene, Castellanos started representing her country at the age of 14 and won the Golden Boot as the team finished fourth in the 2014 Under-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and secured a number of other accolades during her time in their youth ranks, including a Puskas award nomination for an injury-time winning goal from the half-way line against Cameroon.

Called up by their Under-20 team in January 2018, she impressed in the South American U20 Women’s Football Championships and was fast tracked to their senior set up just three months later, scoring on her debut against Ecuador in the Copa America Femenina.

Netting four times in an 8-0 win over Bolivia just days later, Castellanos was named as captain of the national team in 2021 and has held that mantle ever since.

Deyna is considered to be a truly inspirational role model around the world. In addition to her youth FIFA awards, plus her TheBest and Puskas nominations, she has also dedicated her life to helping young girls to pursue their dream.

She is a FIFA and CONMEBOL Ambassador and has her own brand: ‘Queen Deyna’, paying homage to her nickname, and also studies Journalism.

Hailing from Maracay, Venezuela, where opportunities to play football were limited and female footballers criticised, she opened a Foundation that targets education and gender inequality issues across the globe and is working with several organisations to launch educational programs in South and North America.