“They said we want her, we are going to do the rehab, pay her and I was telling myself this is an opportunity from God.” Victoria Swift recalls as she becomes the first female footballer to ply their trade in Mexican professional football after joining Club Leon earlier this month.
Club León Femenil plays in the Liga MX Femenil, the highest division of women’s football in Mexico which started in 2017. The rules of the league were recently changed to add foreign players and Swift believes Caribbean players will follow in her footsteps in the future. She is currently doing rehab and yet to feature for her team but is contracted until December with a possible extension until the completion of the league in May.
Speaking on her experiences thus far, Swift said, “The coaches and staff were welcoming so it wasn’t difficult for me to settle in this environment. Training was a bit challenging; it begins at 7am and then right after training is gym. It was a bit difficult on my body for the first week.”
The 26-year-old defender has been in Mexico since the start of the month and has settled into her new home. She said, “I had the opportunity to adapt to the food and stuff. I think the hardest part was the altitude, my body is still adapting to the high altitude. I love tacos, so coming to Mexico… I’ll be able to eat tacos anytime I want, but I had to switch from eating the tacos constantly to cooking my own meals.”
The former US and Iceland based defender attended the University of West Florida. The hard-tackling defender comes from a sporting family as her older sister, Daystar is the goalkeeper for the national netball team whilst her younger sister Zoe played national youth football.
