His introduction to the world of football came at the 2023 World Cup, when he just came of age. Linda Caicedo scored the best goal of the tournament against Germany. The Colombian’s play was exceptional thanks to the use of both legs to free himself from two rivals in minimal space and then slot the ball into the top corner. Two years later, in her third full season with Real Madrid, the young striker (20; Candelaria) is already the most disruptive and influential player of the white team, which this Saturday will face Barcelona, leader of the League F, at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium (16.00 Dazn). The duel is fundamental for the team led by Pau Quesada, who has a direct opportunity to try to reduce the four points gap to the Blaugrana, who were defeated for the first time last year at the nineteenth attempt.
Linda’s influence on Madrid is absolute. Quesada, who took the reins of the team in the summer after almost four years on the bench from Alberto Toril, had a conversation with her in August to propose that she abandon the left wing and play in a more central position with which she could intervene more. “He has had a very positive attitude since then, asking a lot of questions about this new location: ‘If this comes to press me, where do I press? How do I do it? Where do I move?’ We tried to help her because she is a talent that everyone can see,” explained the Valencian coach last Tuesday in a press conference after a question from EL PAÍS. “He has adapted to the role very well and has entered another dimension at a football level, we are all seeing it,” added the coach after the Champions League draw against Paris FC.
Real lost two points against the Parisians, but Linda, who at times seems to practice a different sport from the others, left a new exhibition at the Alfredo Di Stéfano. Just three days earlier he had scored one of the goals of the year against Alhama in the same stadium. The café player received the ball in her field and carried out an extraordinary drive of almost 67 meters in which she got rid of Quintero, Javiera Toro, Yannel and Castiñeyras before beating the goalkeeper with an angled shot. The action showed much of his quality repertoire: power, speed, dribbling, ability to bring the ball close to the shoe, management of both feet and definition.
The Maradonian play was not the first of this caliber by Caicedo this season. In the 34th minute of the match against Eintracht Frankfurt, in the second leg of the Champions League qualifiers, he received wide of the white area and completed another 70-metre run where he dribbled past five rivals and helped Bruun finish at will. A moment before entering the locker room, he did the same thing again from midfield, but the ball hit the crossbar after the German club’s goalkeeper touched it.
Linda’s new position maximized her impact on Real Madrid’s game. The Colombian, who now appears in every corner of the pitch, is the second player in the F League with the most successful dribbles (2.93 per 90 minutes), behind only the Granada player Linnéa Laupstad (3.11), according to the model of the company specializing in high-performance sports data Hudl Statsbomb. She is also the one who averages the most key passes per game – those which generate shooting opportunities for her teammates – at Madrid (2.26) despite having played just 399 minutes in the league tournament so far.
Caicedo has scored three goals and six assists in 12 games played this year – seven in the league and five in the Champions League – for Real Madrid. To be able to wear the white shirt she had to defeat ovarian cancer when she was 15. At 14 she had already made her debut with América de Cali and had won the 2019 scudetto. “Yes, I am a cancer survivor. There are moments in my life when I stop to think that I was on the verge of never doing what I love again,” she said in 2023 in an interview with Atletico.
After undergoing chemotherapy and eliminating the disease, Linda signed for Deportivo Cali, the other big club in the city, with which she lifted the championship in 2021. She learned to play football with the boys on the streets of Villagorgona, a town of Candelaria located on the outskirts of Cali, after asking her parents who, in addition to the doll they had given her for Christmas, also wanted them to buy her some boots and a ball. Before making the leap to Europe in early 2023, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he was an “extraordinary player”. Caicedo, however, preferred to sign for Real Madrid, with whom on Saturday he will again face the club that has dominated in Europe and Spain for the last five years.
