Melissa Andrea Espina Esquivel (born 6 July 1994) is a Chilean football player who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for .

Club career

Born in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

, Espina began playing football alongside male players. At club level, she made her debut with Unión San Felipe at the age of thirteen. Later, she played for , Colo-Colo and Universidad de Chile. In 2015, she emigrated to Mexico and spent six years playing at university level for Aztecas UDLAP until 2020. Back in Chile, she joined . In February 2022, she signed her first professional contract with them. In the first half of the same year, she suffered a clavicle fracture, returning to play in the second half. In 2023, she joined the Mexican club Atlético San Luis, becoming the first Chilean player in the

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 ...

. She made his debut on 16 January in the 3–1 win against León and left the club in the second half of the year. In 2024, she returned to her homeland and rejoined Audax Italiano.

International career

In 2009, Espina represented Chile U17 in friendly matches previous to the 2010 South American Championship, but she was crashed by a car while riding a bicycle, suffering a fracture in two lumbar vertebrae and not taking part in the final squad. However, she took part in the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. In 2012, she represented the under-20's. At senior level, she has taken part in training microcycles in 2021.

Personal life

Espina attended the

Universidad de las Américas Puebla Universidad de las Américas Puebla, commonly known as UDLAP ( en, University of the Americas), is a Mexican private university located in San Andrés Cholula, near Puebla. The university is known for its programs in Finance, Arts and Humaniti ...

and got a degree in business managing. She has worked as a business analyst in a Chilean medical technology company.

References

External links

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Melissa Espina
at PlaymakerStats.com
Melissa Espina
at Cutelmex {{DEFAULTSORT:Espina, Melissa 1994 births Living people Footballers from Santiago Chilean women's footballers Chilean expatriate women's footballers Chile women's youth international footballers Unión San Felipe footballers Audax Italiano footballers Colo-Colo (women) footballers Club Universidad de Chile (women) footballers Club Deportivo Palestino (women) players Atlético San Luis footballers Liga MX Femenil players Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate women's footballers in Mexico Women's association football midfielders Universidad de las Américas Puebla alumni