“It was me, her and my brother and I kept going to practice.
“One day he came back from travelling. I said to him, ‘Dad I have a game.’
“He asked, ‘A game of what?’ ‘Soccer.’ ‘What?!’
“But he saw I loved it and allowed me to continue.”
Football is one of several challenges now though. Castellanos is starting her adult life, learning English and studying for a degree, all 1700 miles from home.
“It was not hard to leave my family, but the language was harder,” she said.
“I only really knew how to say ‘hello’ and ‘yes’. I understood more, but it was hard communicating with my team-mates, coaches. Now though I have a lot more confidence and I love it here.
“Occasionally somebody from Venezuela or another Latin American country will stop me for a picture on campus, but, considering there are 45,000 students here, it is not a lot.”
Castellanos – a Barcelona fan – wants to move to Europe once she graduates. Could a WSL side fit the bill?
“Well, we’ll see,” she laughs.
If she wins Fifa’s top prize, it won’t be her Tallahassee present or European future on her mind though.
