Bianca Elissa Sierra García (born 25 June 1992) is an American-born Mexican professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Liga MX Femenil The Liga MX Femenil, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, this professional league has 18 teams, each coincidi ...

club

Tigres UANL Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Foun ...

and the

Mexico women's national football team The Mexico women's national football team represents Mexico on the international stage. The squad is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and competes within CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associatio ...

Early life

Bianca Sierra is the daughter of Alberto Sierra and Rosa García. They manage several Mexican restaurants in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Sierra played forward, midfield, and centerback in high school from her freshman through junior years and with the Mustang Spirit, a girl's club team, in 2009."Bianca Sierra" Auburn Soccer http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/w-soccer/mtt/sierra_bianca00.html, accessed 10 April 2014

College

Sierra played with the

Auburn Tigers The Auburn Tigers are the athletic teams representing Auburn University, a public four-year coeducational university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. The Auburn Tigers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

of the

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

from 2010 to 2013 and was a starting

center back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for the last three of her four years on the Auburn Tigers women's soccer team. She played in a total of 85 matches and scored five goals and seven assists.

Professional career

National Women's Soccer League

Sierra was not among the 36 college soccer players drafted by the NWSL in January 2014. She showed up at tryouts for the

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

, played in several pre-season games, and was signed to a contract for the 2014 season on 4 April 2014. On 18 June 2014, the Washington Spirit traded Sierra to the Boston Breakers in exchange for forward and Australian international

Lisa De Vanna Lisa Marie De Vanna (born 14 November 1984) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Perth Glory. She has previously played for Adelaide Sensation, Western Waves, Doncaster Rovers Belles, AIK, Perth Glory, Washingt ...

and an international roster spot until the end of the

2014 NWSL season The 2014 National Women's Soccer League season is the second season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Soccer (2 ...

Toppserien

Sierra joined the first division

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

club

Arna-Bjørnar Arna-Bjørnar Fotball is a Norwegian football club from Arna, Bergen. It was founded in late 2000 as a merger between the football branches from ''IL Bjørnar'' and ''Arna T&IL'', and replaced Bjørnar IL in the league system from 2001. The w ...

in March 2016.

Úrvalsdeild

Sierra signed for

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic Úrvalsdeild kvenna team

Þór/KA Þór/KA is an Icelandic women's football team based in Akureyri. It is a joint team fielded by Þór Akureyri and Knattspyrnufélag Akureyrar and currently competes in Úrvalsdeild kvenna. On September 29, 2017, they won their second Icelandi ...

in March 2017. She played 18 games during the 2017 Úrvalsdeild kvenna season, scoring two goals and helping the club to the national championship. In November 2017, Sierra resigned with Þór/KA for the 2018 season.

Mexico women's national soccer team

Sierra was a member of the Under-20 Mexico women's national football team from 2009 to 2012. She played in all eight matches for Mexico in the

2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 5th edition of the tournament. It was held in Germany, who will also host the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup a year later from 13 July to 1 August 2010. Sixteen teams, comprising representatives from all ...

in Germany and the

2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 6th edition of the tournament. The tournament was played in Japan from 19 August to 8 September, with sixteen national football soccer teams and mark the first hosting of a FIFA women's football tourna ...

in Japan. Her teams advanced to the quarterfinals in both events. In 2013 Sierra was selected to be a member of the

and played in friendly matches against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 2014, she was on the roster of the Mexico team at the Four Nations Tournament in China.

Personal life

In June 2016, Sierra announced publicly she was in a relationship with fellow Mexico women's national teammate

Stephany Mayor Sandra Stephany "Fany" Mayor Gutiérrez (born 23 September 1991) is a Mexican footballer who plays as a forward for Liga MX Femenil club Tigres UANL and the Mexico women's national team. Early life Mayor is from Azcapotzalco, an industrial sub ...

. Sierra and Mayor are believed to be the first openly gay athletes in Mexico history. In 2015, Mexican coach,

Leonardo Cuellar Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

, had warned Sierra and Mayor to avoid any "stunts" or "holding hands." In 2016, Mayor was not selected by Cuellar to play for the Mexico national team and Sierra declined to play on the national team. Mayor departed Mexico to play in

. Sierra later joined her in Iceland. Mayor rejoined the Mexico national team, under new coach

Roberto Medina Roberto Gerardo Medina Arellano (born 18 April 1968) is a Mexican football manager and former player and current manager. He was the head coach of the Mexico women's national football team. Club career Medina began his professional career i ...

, for a match against Venezuela on 10 June 2017. Sierra rejoined the national team shortly thereafter."Cuando la homofobia aparecio en el futbol femenil", http://laaficion.milenio.com/futbol/homofobia-futbol-femenil-bianca_sierra-stephany_mayor-2016-relacion-twitter-milenio_0_980302073.html, accessed 4 March 2018

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sierra, Bianca 1992 births Living people Citizens of Mexico through descent Mexican women's footballers Women's association football central defenders Arna-Bjørnar players Bianca Sierra Tigres UANL (women) footballers Toppserien players Úrvalsdeild kvenna (football) players Liga MX Femenil players Mexico women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Pan American Games competitors for Mexico Footballers at the 2019 Pan American Games Mexican expatriate women's footballers Mexican expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Mexican expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Expatriate women's footballers in Iceland Lesbian sportswomen LGBT association football players Mexican LGBT sportspeople People from Mountain View, California Sportspeople from Santa Clara County, California Soccer players from California American women's soccer players Auburn Tigers women's soccer players Washington Spirit players Boston Breakers players National Women's Soccer League players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in Norway American expatriate sportspeople in Iceland American sportspeople of Mexican descent American LGBT sportspeople LGBT people from California LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people 21st-century LGBT people Pan American Games bronze medalists for Mexico Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Footballers at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games medalists in football