If The Crown Fits (Deyna Castellanos Interview)

Manchester City’s number ten talks about a third new country, a new position and a fame that arrived when she was fourteen. Deyna Castellanos describes crying on her couch after a fortnight without sunlight, becoming the squad’s unofficial Spanish translator, and learning to decode a Liverpool accent from Alex Greenwood. On the pitch she is playing deeper than she is used to, an eight rather than a ten, and rates her own season eight out of ten with goals still to come. Top scorer at the 2014 U-17 World Cup, she says her life changed from that point: everywhere she goes in Venezuela, people know her. She is candid about what her national team still lacks, arguing that talent without professionalism will not take Venezuela to a World Cup, and hopeful about the generation now playing abroad.