Back home in Venezuela, Deyna Castellanos is known as “Queen Deyna,” but within minutes of our conversation, all lingering concerns that Manchester City’s new No. 10 may be expensive or high-maintenance had vanished.
Reina means queen in Spanish, and since it rhymes with Deyna, it seemed a logical choice for a lady who became captain of her country’s La Vinotinto soccer team at the age of 21.
Gareth Taylor’s blockbuster summer signing from Atlético Madrid is now 23 years old, but Castellanos acknowledges that if she had not received a college scholarship to study journalism and football in Florida, the national armband may have never been hers.
“Coming to the United States changed my life,” says the refreshingly humble forward who grew up in the Caribbean city of Maracay, idolizing Brazil’s Marta and struggling for the chance to play football. It was an extraordinary, crucial point in my career.
It explains why Castellanos formed a foundation that helps grant football scholarships for young South American females and why she spoke so strongly about gender equality, education, and “changing attitudes” during her introduction as a City player.
After a summer of radical upheaval in east Manchester, a flexible forward or offensive midfielder essential to Gareth Taylor’s reconstruction plans says, “I want to change the world a little bit and fight for equality.”
This seasons starting eleven has been significantly impacted by the departures of Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh to Barcelona, Georgia Stanway to Bayern Munich, Caroline Weir to Real Madrid, and Ellen White’s retirement.
Castellanos, who scored 23 goals in 59 appearances for Atlético, recognizes that the departing players were very large and crucial. “However, everyone here is now really thrilled and excited to be at City, even though it rains frequently in Manchester!”
Moreover, with England’s Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly still in the fold, continuity is not an alien concept as Taylor seeks to clinch his team’s first WSL victory of the season against Leicester at home on Sunday.
The manager of City did not always agree with Bronze, but Castellanos is impressed by former Wales forward. She declares, “He’s incredibly kind.” Not every coach takes the time to educate and improve his players, but he does. I believe I can develop as a player here.
“England’s game is faster, more physical, and more aerial than Spain’s, but it’s also technically proficient, a pleasant blend of styles.” Significantly, Manchester City has always been a passing team. It is essential to control games by possessing the ball.”
The seven-star infrastructure at City’s Etihad Campus may appear light years apart from the daily Venezuelan lifestyle. The mission statement of Castellanos is to ensure that every young girl can be “a queen in their manner,” yet the legacy of her country’s economic collapse following its failed socialist revolution demands that mere survival is the only goal of many inhabitants.
In 2018, her compatriot Salomón Rondón, then with Newcastle and now at Everton, spoke passionately about his distress at the country’s economic collapse, painting a grim picture of empty supermarket shelves, widespread water shortages, a dearth of essential medicines, and mass cancellations of hospital operations; all set against a backdrop of violence, kidnappings, and soaring inflation.
Four years later, the emergency has somewhat subsided, but Caracas still has one of the highest murder rates in the world. Castellanos, whose family still resides in Venezuela, says, “I believe the situation is little better than when Salomón told you that.” “There are increased food supplies and better access to medicines, but the country is still in a precarious position. I hope this will change.”
After retiring from football, she is tempted to become a journalist, as she is almost as adept in front of the microphone as she was in front of the goal. She liked working as a television analyst, particularly for NBC and Telemundo, in Spain and at the 2019 women’s World Cup in France.
She states, “I feel quite an at ease in front of the camera.” “I perform analysis, commentary, and interviews with the same fervor with which I play football.”
Even though she first learned her second language after relocating to Florida, Castellanos has trained herself to “think in English as well as Spanish” and is remarkably bilingual on camera. Due to Venezuela’s failure to qualify for the World Cup next summer, she is likely to be courted by television corporations ahead of a tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
She says, “It’s going to be truly magnificent.” “Every squad has vastly improved technically and physically. The United States was always the team to beat, but now England has won the European Championship and Spain has a promising future as well.
Inwardly, Castellanos celebrated when the United States team publicly sought the dismissal of all North American club administrators who had turned a blind eye to the culture of chronic emotional and sexual abuse in their domestic league, as revealed by the recent Sally Yates report. “They’re courageous to speak out loud about significant matters,” she says. I feel pride for them.
Although in a very different situation, she has comparable feelings about her body art collection. “I have quite a few tattoos,” Castellanos discloses. “I’m unsure of the precise number, but it’s roughly 37. They’re a combination of words and images, although I haven’t gotten one for Manchester yet… There could be some precipitation!
