Anika Elia Rodríguez (born 4 January 1997) is a

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 lea ...

who plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Liga MX Femenil Liga MX Femenil, also known as Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, Federación Mexicana d ...

club

Tigres UANL Club Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, abbreviated as Tigres UANL and simply known as Tigres or internationally as Tigres de México, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Monterrey metropo ...

. Born and raised in the United States to Mexican parents, she

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the

Mexico women's national football team The Mexico women's national football team (Spanish: ''Selección Nacional de México Femenil'') represents Mexico in international Women's association football, women's football. The team is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and compe ...

Early life

Rodríguez was born in Torrance,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. She attended

Torrance High School Torrance High School is a high school located in Torrance, California. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest high schools in continuous use in California and is the oldest of the five high schools in the Torrance Unified School District. Four ...

and played youth soccer for Southern California Blues Soccer Club.

Club career

Portland Thorns

In June 2020, Rodríguez signed a short-term contract with

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a women's professional Association football, soccer league and the highest level of the United States soccer league system#Women's leagues, United States soccer league system (alongside the USL Supe ...

side

Portland Thorns FC Portland Thorns FC is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team NWSL ...

ahead of the

NWSL Challenge Cup The NWSL Challenge Cup is an annual supercup competition organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), a division 1 women's league in the United States soccer league system. The current (2025) cup holder is the Washington Spirit, who ...

PSV

Also in June 2020, Rodríguez signed a one-year contract with

Eredivisie Vrouwen The Vrouwen Eredivisie (; Dutch for "Honour Division"; ''Eredivisie Vrouwen'' before 2020), also known as the Eurojackpot Vrouwen Eredivisie due to a sponsorship contract, is the highest women's association football, women's football league in th ...

side PSV. In April 2021, she signed a one-year extension.

Tigres UANL

Rodriguez was signed by

side

on 18 June 2022.

International career

On 23 October 2021, Rodríguez made her debut for the Mexico national team in a 6–1 victory over

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Estadio Gregorio "Tepa" Gómez The Stadium Gregorio "Tepa" Gómez is a multi-use stadium in Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco, Mexico. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home stadium for Tepatitlán F.C. and Acatlán F.C. The stadium ...

. Rodríguez was selected to represent Mexico at the

2023 Pan American Games The 2023 Pan American Games (), officially the XIX Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santiago 2023, were an international multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization, held in Santiago, Chile from 20 October to 5 Novem ...

held in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, where the Mexican squad went undefeated to won the gold medal for the first time in their history at the Pan American Games, defeating

1–0.

Personal life

Rodríguez's younger sister, Karina Rodríguez, also plays for the

References

External links

* * 1997 births Living people Mexican women's footballers Women's association football forwards PSV (women) players Portland Thorns FC players Eredivisie (women) players Mexico women's international footballers Mexican expatriate women's footballers Mexican expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate women's footballers in the Netherlands Soccer players from Torrance, California American women's soccer players UCLA Bruins women's soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands American sportspeople of Mexican descent Footballers at the 2023 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2023 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists in football Pan American Games gold medalists for Mexico Pan American Games footballers for Mexico Competitors at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in football Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Mexico Tigres UANL (women) footballers Liga MX Femenil players 21st-century American sportswomen 21st-century Mexican sportswomen {{US-women-footy-forward-stub