Karina Anaís Rodríguez (born 2 March 1999) is a 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 lea ...

who plays as a defender 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 ...

side

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

. Born in the United States, she represents

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

at international level.

Early life

Rodríguez was born and raised in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

. 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 the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

International career

Rodríguez represented the United States at the

2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international Women's association football, women's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national t ...

and the

2018 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship The 2018 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship was the 9th edition of the CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, the biennial international youth association football, football championship organised by CONCACAF for the women's under-20 national teams ...

. She later switched allegiance to Mexico and made her senior debut on 24 February 2021 in a 0–0 friendly home draw against

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

. 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 older sister,

Anika Anika (Devanagari: ) is a female given name of Arabic, African, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Māori, Sanskrit, and Swedish origin and is also an alternative spelling of the name Annika or Anikha Meanings The meaning of the name "Anika" is different ...

, is also a professional footballer who also plays 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 ...

Honors

Mexico *

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, gold medal United States U17 * CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Club América *

: Clausura 2023

References

External links

* * 1999 births Living people Mexican women's footballers Women's association football defenders Mexico women's international footballers Soccer players from Torrance, California American women's soccer players UCLA Bruins women's soccer players Washington Spirit players National Women's Soccer League players United States women's youth international soccer players United States women's under-20 international soccer players American sportspeople of Mexican descent Liga MX Femenil players Club América (women) footballers 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 21st-century American sportswomen 21st-century Mexican sportswomen {{US-women-footy-defender-stub