Wendy Patricia Acosta Salas (born 19 December 1989) is a Costa Rican footballer 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 Herediano FF and the

Costa Rica women's national football team The Costa Rica women's national football team ( es, Selección femenina de fútbol de Costa Rica) represents Costa Rica in women's international football. The national team is controlled by the governing body Costa Rican Football Federation. The ...

Career

University of Costa Rica

Acosta attended the

University of Costa Rica The University of Costa Rica (Spanish: ''Universidad de Costa Rica,'' abbreviated UCR) is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Mo ...

International

On 28 April 2010, Acosta made her international debut against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. On 7 October 2011, she scored her first ever international goal against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. In the following matches against Honduras and

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, she again scored a goal in each match. Then on 22 January 2012, she scored a brace against

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. On 7 March, she scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

, with goals in the twenty-sixth, forty-fourth and sixty-fifth minute during a match in which Costa Rica won 14–0. She would continue her scoring, as she found the net in consecutive matches against El Salvador and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. On 16 March 2013, Acosta scored twice in a match against

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

. There she found the net in the first half of the match, in the fourteenth and twentieth minute. Costa Rica won that match 4–0. She again scored in a 6–1 victory for Costa Rica against

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

, finding the net in the thirty-second minute before she was substituted for Carol Sanchez in the sixty-second minute. Through victory in that match, Costa Rica was "one match away from" the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

. On 5 March 2015, Acosta scored a single goal against

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, which helped Costa Rica win a match in the

Istria Cup The Istria Cup is an annual invitational women's football tournament, hosted by Croatia since 2013, in the Istria region of Croatia. It is held at the same time of the year as Algarve Cup, Cyprus Cup and SheBelieves Cup The SheBelieves Cup ...

Club

In 2015, Acosta was invited for a trial by Swedish club

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

. After scoring a goal, Acosta "always ointsto the sky" to remember her father, who died due to a heart ailment in 2011. She has also said that she plays football because her "dad played".

Honours

;Costa Rica Winner *

Central American Games The Central American Games ( es, Juegos Deportivos Centroamericanos) are a multi-sport regional championships event, held quadrennial (every 4 years), typically in the first year after Summer Olympics. The Games are open for member federation ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

References

External links

*
Profile
at Fedefutbol * 1989 births Living people Women's association football midfielders Costa Rican women's footballers People from San José Province Costa Rica women's international footballers 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Pan American Games competitors for Costa Rica Footballers at the 2011 Pan American Games Footballers at the 2015 Pan American Games Central American Games gold medalists for Costa Rica Central American Games medalists in football VCU Rams women's soccer players Costa Rican expatriate footballers Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Spain {{CostaRica-women-footy-bio-stub