Misc Soccer News

Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil has boosted women’s soccer with stars and big crowds but challenges remain

Mexico's Liga MX Femenil has boosted women's soccer with stars and big crowds but challenges remain

In a short amount of time, Liga MX Femenil has gone from a modest league to one that has produced record crowds, countless golazos that inevitably led to a Puskas Award nomination in 2021 and social media reach that is among the best across the globe.

Prior to Barcelona’s crowd of 91,553 at Camp Nou in a Champions League win over Real Madrid last month, and Atletico Madrid’s 60,739 in a match vs. Barcelona in 2019, Monterrey’s attendance of 51,211 at the Estadio BBVA in a 2018 game had been the previous record for a women’s club soccer match.

Liga MX Femenil has also served as a catalyst for the country’s ambitions of reaching the 2023 Women’s World Cup and opened the doors to a new generation of players, especially those with roots on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. And while it has experienced its own set of growing pains and challenges, Liga MX Femenil has made huge strides both on and off the pitch.

“It’s just so creative,” said Monterrey forward Christina Burkenroad about Liga MX Femenil’s style of play. “There’s so much confidence when people have the ball at their feet.”

Once a league that only allowed Mexican-born players, Liga MX Femenil opened the doors to dual-nationals like Burkenroad in the summer of 2019, one year before she arrived to Monterrey in 2020. The 28-year-old Mexican-American, who previously played in the National Women’s Soccer League and in Europe, has credited the league’s technical proficiency with helping her be “more comfortable with the ball.”

More known for technicality than physicality, Liga MX Femenil matches regularly provide endless flashes of inventive brilliance — many of which arrive from some of the league’s youngest players.

In a playoff game last December, Burkenroad was able to watch one…

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