Mayra Ramírez, at Chelsea: a signing never seen before!

Mayra Ramírez made history this Friday. The Colombian striker signed for the next four and a half years for English club Chelsea, in a transfer for a record amount in world women's football according to the club of origin, the Spanish Levante.

In Chelsea, winner of the last four English women's championships, they were eagerly seeking to reinforce their offensive line due to the losses of their stellar Australian attacker Sam Kerr and the skilled Catarina Macario, American of Brazilian origin, both with knee injuries.

“Being part of such an important club is a dream come true, a dream that I have nurtured since I was little,” said the Colombian, who will turn 25 years old on March 23, and who has scored six goals in seven games with Levante since the start of the season in Spain. The club also published images of her first training session in London.

The cost of the transaction is “the highest for this type of operation in the history of world women's football,” Levante said on its website. It would rise to 450,000 fixed euros ($488,000), to which 50,000 euros ($54,200) would be added variables, linked to several possible bonuses.

With the Colombian National Team, Ramírez reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Australia in August of last year.

Levante coach, proud of his transfer

Although for Levante it is a significant loss in the face of the Spanish Women's League, the Spanish club's coach, Javi Calleja, highlighted that this transfer is “a big step” in women's football.

“We have talked about it within the team. It is a great step and speaks well of the evolution it is having. That these figures are reached means that players in general and women's football are taking more important steps forward,” Calleja said in the press conference prior to her team's clash against Tenerife.

“It is being followed by more and more people, the teams are more competitive and it has much more impact. It is a very important step and they have earned it on their own merits,” he stressed.

Calleja commented that the sale of Mayra has been “an agreement between everyone”, since the player “wanted to leave” and explained that in his opinion her way of playing fits perfectly in English football.

“I think it is a very good opportunity to show the level she has, she is a very physically strong and very powerful player and I think it will be very good for her in the English league,” said the coach.

The player showed her gratitude to Levante in a farewell message on social networks:

Thinking big

Mayra will land in an English football industry that aspires to move 1,000 million in the next ten years. Since the victory of the English team in the 2022 Euro Cup, interest in women's football in England has skyrocketed and the impact has been received by the English league, which has multiplied attendance at the fields by more than 200 percent, has found a million-dollar television rights agreement and has obtained sponsorship for the league itself that could provide the clubs with more than 30 million over three seasons.

Thus, the objective is that projects such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are capable of creating hegemony in European football, where only the first know what it is to be European champions in the women's branch (2006-2007 , when it was not yet called the Champions League).

The 'Blues', finalists in the competition three years ago, are the ones that have opted the most for a winning project, thanks in part to the incorporation of Emma Hayes as coach and the achievement of the league and FA Cup double, along with the semi-finals of Champions, achieved last year. Even so, they have not been able to retain the technician, who will leave for the United States team when the season ends.

However, the figures cannot yet be compared with those of men's football. The gap between the transfers of women and men is enormous. Many of them even go through work to have professional contracts or, as happens in Colombian soccer, the ties last just a few months.

In case of Linda Caicedo It is palpable in that sense. The young Colombian, second in the voting for Fifa's The Best award, arrived at Real Madrid as a free player, after ending her relationship with Deportivo Cali.

The most expensive new player in the history of women's soccer was born in Sibaté, a small municipality in Cundinamarca, with only approximately 40,000 inhabitants, located 27 kilometers southwest of Bogotá.

He began his career at the age of 14 in the Real Pasión de Funza training team, where he also played indoor soccer.

In Fortaleza she made her professional debut in the first season of the Colombian Women's League. She was barely 18 years old and her youth prevented her from having continuity. She only played five games and scored one goal.

However, the coach of the Colombian women's national team, Nelson Abadía, had her in his sights and took her to the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, in which the team could not overcome the group stage.

That was not an obstacle for Mayra to begin to gain ground in the National Team and the following year He was part of the team that won the historic gold medal at the Pan American Games in Lima, although he was not yet part of the starting lineup.

Mayra arrived at Independiente Medellín in 2019, a team that at that time still had an agreement with one of the most prominent training clubs in the country, Formas Íntimas. With Carlos Paniagua as coach, DIM reached the final, which they lost against América, and Ramírez missed the second leg of the semifinal and the definition of the title due to an injury.

However, Mayra was followed closely. She made the leap to international football in 2020, when she was hired by Sporting de Huelva (Spain).

Two years later he moved to Levante, from which he leaves today for Chelsea. Next Tuesday, as leader of Group D with 11 points and already classified to the next phase, the English club faces Paris FC (third with 7 points) at the Charlety stadium in the French capital, on the last date of the group stage. In that same area is Real Madrid, which is last with one point and no longer able to advance.

In the current English league (Women's SuperLeague), in which 12 teams participate, Chelsea is the leader after 11 games with 28 points, three more than Manchester City and Arsenal. So Mayra is taking a huge leap in quality that will allow her to continue thinking big.

SPORTS
With AFP and Efe

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