Andrea Martínez, a 21-year-old law student at the National Autonomous University of México, has been admitted as the country's first female college football (橄榄球) player. When Martínez tried out for the team, she assumed the school had a women's team where she might be placed, but was told she would be playing alongside the men.
Martínez got her start as a soccer player before trying out for the university's football team after they posted an open call for kickers. Martínez wasn't out to play football specifically, but saw that she could apply her talents as a soccer player to a new game. "The decision I made was to try a new sport. Nothing else," she said. "I was very happy when I heard the news that I had been the girl selected."
Martínez is not the only soccer player turning to football, especially as it becomes more popular throughout the country. It is estimated that there are about 48 million football fans in Mexico and the numbers are growing. Martínez is also not the first female college football kicker, although she is the first one in Mexico. In 1997, Liz Heaston became the first woman in the US to play that position on a college team. However, Ashley Martin was the first woman to score a point as a kicker in 2001.
It was never Martínez's intention to become famous, but that's exactly what has happened. So far, Martínez has done more than 80 interviews and has seen herself on the cover of every major newspaper in the country and even on national television, a rarity (罕见的事) for any college football player.
"There are little girls and boys who come and ask me for a photo or come up and say very nice words to me," she said. "It's the most satisfying thing I've ever felt, realizing that perhaps I'm inspiring them a little."
