Deyna Cristina Castellanos Naujenis (born 18 April 1999) is a Venezuelan 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

and the Venezuela women's national team.

Early life

Deyna Cristina Castellanos Naujenis was born on 18 April 1999 in

Maracay ) , image_skyline = , image_caption =Top:Maracay Municipal Garden and Las Delicias area, Second:Sindoni Tower, Los Tamarindo residential area and overview to Maracay, Third:Maestranza Cesar Giron Bullring Stadium, Girardot Square and Maracay ...

, on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela.

Club career

Castellanos was awarded a scholarship to study journalism and play football at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

, an experience she describes as life-changing; she spent three college years with the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

before signing a two-year contract with the Spanish club,

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

on 2 January 2020. At the end of this contract, Castellanos moved to English club

, in the

(WSL), where she signed a three-year contract on 3 June 2022; she was described as the marquee signing during a high-turnover summer for the club. She made her Manchester City debut on 18 August 2022, in a 6–0 Champions League win against Kazakhstani side Tomaris-Turan, scoring a penalty in the 89th minute. On 18 September 2022, she made her WSL debut, coming on in the 70th minute during a 4–3 defeat by

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

International career

Youth

In 2014, she was a member of the Venezuela national under-17 team who finished fourth in the

2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the youth association football tournament for women under the age of 17. The final tournament was hosted in Costa Rica. The competition was played from 15 March to 4 April 2014. Jap ...

and runners-up in the 2014 Women's Youth Olympic football. She won the Golden Boot of the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup with six goals, equalling her teammate

Gabriela García Gabriela Antonia García Segura (born 2 April 1997) is a Venezuelan 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 associati ...

and was also a goalscorer of the 2014 Women's Youth Olympic football with seven. She was also as a top scorer of the

2016 South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship The 2016 South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship was the fifth edition of the South American Under-17 Women's Football Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the CONMEBOL for the women's ...

with 12. Castellanos is the top goalscorer of the Venezuela U-17 women's team with 35. Castellanos is currently the all-time leading goalscorer of the

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA). The tournament is held in even-numbered y ...

with 11. Castellanos was called up to the Venezuela U-20 women's team in January 2018 for the 2018 South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship. She was the only player to score in the

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...

matches with three, once against Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile. She was also the only player to score in the

final stage Final stage or The Final Stage may refer to: * '' The Final Stage'', 1995 film directed by Frank Howson * Fifth stage of a bill's passage through a legislative chamber * In a multi-stage tournament: ** knockout stage ** playoffs The playoffs, p ...

, scoring once in a 3–1 defeat against Paraguay U-20 women's team.

Senior

In April 2018, Castellanos was part of the senior team in the

2018 Copa América Femenina The 2018 Copa América Femenina was the eighth edition of the CONMEBOL Copa América Femenina (also referred to as the ''Copa América Femenina''), the quadrennial international football competition for women's national teams in South America af ...

. She scored on her debut against

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

on 5 April, and netted four times in an 8–0 win over

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

four days later. In 2021, at the age of 21, she was named captain of the team for the first time.

Off the pitch

Castellanos started a foundation that encourages gender equality and helps provide football scholarship for South American girls. She has worked as a studio analyst for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...

at the

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

(men's) and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

(women's) FIFA World Cups, and in Spain. She is a fan of

tattoos A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing pr ...

and as of 2022 has over 30. In Venezuela, she is known as ''Reina Deyna'' ("Queen Deyna"). She learnt English while at university in Florida, becoming quickly bilingual. In

The Best FIFA Football Awards 2017 The Best FIFA Football Awards 2017 were held on 23 October 2017 in London, United Kingdom. The ceremony was held at the London Palladium and was hosted by Idris Elba and Layla Anna-Lee. Cristiano Ronaldo, Lieke Martens, Gianluigi Buffon, Zinedine ...

, Castellanos was named to the three woman shortlist for

The Best FIFA Women's Player The Best FIFA Women's Player is a football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, since 2016, to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous calendar year. From 2001 to 2015, the award was know ...

. Her nomination created some controversy.

Megan Rapinoe Megan Anna Rapinoe (; born July 5, 1985) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a winger and captains OL Reign of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), as well as the United States national team. Winner of the Ballon d ...

was outspoken about this nomination, complaining that Castellanos was an unknown player and had not played professionally, nor in a major senior national team tournament at the time of her nomination.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours

Atlético Madrid * Supercopa de España Femenina:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

Her official site

Her Soccerway profile

Her Instagram account

Her Twitter account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellanos, Deyna 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Maracay Venezuelan women's footballers Women's association football forwards Florida State Seminoles women's soccer players Atlético Madrid Femenino players Manchester City W.F.C. players Venezuela women's international footballers Venezuelan expatriate women's footballers Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate sportspeople in England Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Primera División (women) players Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's footballers in Spain