4 promising young female footballers to keep an eye on

Women's football is on the rise and no one can say otherwise. There were two matches in the past month which saw attendance records being broken in both Italy and Spain.

A league match between FC Barcelona Femeni and Atletico Madrid Femenino saw a world record crowd of 60,739, while a Serie A fixture between Juventus and Fiorentina broke the Italian attendance record as 39,027 fans came to witness the match between the two giants.

While women's football's recent rise has seen seasoned players like Alex Morgan, Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg, Julie Ertz, Carli Lloyd, and Toni Duggan gain even more international recognition, it has also opened opportunities for some young players who are making the right kind of noise at both the international level and at the club level.

Here are some of the more talented young female football players creating quite an impression:

#4 Deyna Castellanos (Striker, Venezuela/Florida State Seminoles)

Deyna Castellanos (Picture Credit - FIFA.com)

A shock inclusion for the 2017 FIFA Best Women's Player award, a then 17-year-old Deyna Castellanos came under heavy fire from established female football players like Lisa De Vanna, Megan Rapinoe for her selection over much better performers like Australia's Sam Kerr. Rapinoe went to the extent of calling Deyna "some random" amateur player - a far inferior assessment of the young footballer's talent & potential.

Hailing from a country stricken with economic depression, Venezuela's Deyna has always been a tough competitor be it playing football against boys in her neighborhood or making the tough transition from a Spanish-speaking nation to the United States, she has always hurdled over challenges seamlessly.

Currently pursuing a degree in communications from Florida State University, Deyna is a star player of her college's football program having scored 36 goals in 59 matches since her arrival in 2016. She led the Seminoles to their second NCAA National Championship in 2018 with 10 goals and 8 assists in 26 games.

Even before she turned into a college soccer star in the US, Deyna has been a consistent performer for her national team at all levels. She had her first taste of international football in 2014 at the U17 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica, whereas a 14-year old, she finished the tournament as the joint top scorer with 6 goals and 3 assists. Deyna has a combined total of 39 goals in 45 matches for Venezuela's U17 and U20 squads. She is the current all-time leading goal-scorer in FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup with 11 goals.

In April 2018, Deyna was selected for Venezuela's senior squad for their 2018 Copa America Femenina campaign. She gave instant results, scoring 4 goals in only her second match, as Venezuela thrashed Bolivia 8-0.

Still 19 years old, Deyna Castellanos is the future of women's football and will be a leading light for Venezuela's women's football team for years to come, while the chances of seeing her in action at the FIFA Women's World Cup are quite bleak due to the lack of talent in the national team but she would still be a major draw wherever she plays.

#3 Patri Guijarro(Midfielder, Spain/Barcelona):

Patri Guijarro(8) (Picture Credit - FIFA.com)

The crown jewel of a young and talented Spanish women's team, Patri Guijarro at just 20 years of age is going to play a major role for La Rojita in the upcoming 2019 Women's World Cup starting in June.

A central midfielder, Guijarro ply's her trade for FC Barcelona Femini. She made her debut for Barcelona's senior women's squad last season after her flying performance in the Women's U20 World Cup in France, where she won both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot for her performance. She netted 6 goals including a hat-trick against Paraguay as Spain finished runners-up to Japan in the final.

Her Barcelona career too started on a strong note, as Guijarro's first goal as a Blaugranes helped them exact a sweet 3-0 revenge over Kazakhstan outfit BIIK Kazygurt who had defeated them 3-1 in the sides' previous encounter. Guijarro finished with 9 goals in 25 appearances during the 2017/18 season and helped FCB femini win the Copa de la Reina and Copa Catalunya Femenina.

Guijarro's career in Spain's youth categories is second to none. She won the UEFA U17 and U19 women's championship in 2014/15 and 2017 respectively. Guijarro scored 6 goals each in both of these championship-winning campaigns. She was also part of Spain's Algarve cup winning team in 2017 but unfortunately had to contend with just a silver medal in the 2014 U17 World Cup and the 2018 U20 World Cup.

A creative midfielder with a penchant for scoring goals in major tournaments, Guijarro will look to put behind the missed opportunities in the U17 and U20 World Cup and try to usurp the like of USA and Japan to win the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.

#2 Marie-Antoinette Katoto (Striker, France/Paris Saint-Germain):

Marie-Antonette Katoto (Picture Credit - Zimbio.com)

Is it a plane, is it a bird, no it's Marie-Antoinette Katoto! The French striker has been flying sky high with her goal-scoring prowess having amassed 49 goals in 51 games for Paris Saint-Germain Feminines.

Katoto is a Les Parisiennes through and through, having represented them in all age-groups since the age of 13. In total, she found the back of the net 27 times in 26 games for the youth teams and also led them to the Championnat de France National Féminine U19 in 2016.

She made her senior debut for PSG in 2015 coming on as a substitute in a UEFA Women's Champions League tie against VFL Wolfsburg. Katoto's breakthrough season though came during PSG's 2017/18 campaign where she led their title charge with 26 goals in 27 games and won the Coupe de France Feminine.

She has raised her game a notch up this season and has already scored 18 goals in 17 appearances in Division 1 feminine while also finding the net 5 times in the UEFA Women's Champions League.

Katoto's groundbreaking performances didn't go unnoticed and she earned her first call-up to the senior national squad in November of 2018 for an international friendly against Brazil. She scored her first goal for Les Bleus in her very next match against the mighty USA when she delivered the game-sealing 3rd goal of the match as France defeated USA 3-1.

Katoto isn't new to the international scene, having been a part of France's UEFA Women's U-19 Championship winning squad where she won both the golden player award and the golden ball for her 6 goals. Now with the FIFA Women's World Cup being hosted in her backyard, Katoto will have her eyes fixated on recreating the performance of her male counterparts who won the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

#1 Mallory Pugh (Striker, USA/Washington Spirit):

Mallory Pugh (Picture Credit - washingtonspirit.com)

She made it to the squad of one of the world's leading nations in women's football, USA, while still studying in high school. Touted as the next big thing for USNWT, Mallory Pugh has decided to travel on a road less taken, a much talked about prospect coming out of high school, Pugh decided to forgo her college education from UCLA and decided to go pro, all at the paltry age of 18.

Pugh signed up with the Washington Spirit, a side playing in The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) a professional women's soccer league, run by the United States Soccer Federation.

She made her pro debut against Kansas City, on 20 May 2017, Pugh finished the season with 6 goals in 16 games and was Washington's leading goalscorer in the tournament. The 2018 NWSL season was a disappointing one for Pugh, partly due to a PCL strain in her knee which forced her to miss 8 games, as she finished with just 2 goals in 15 matches.

In the international arena, Pugh has been a consistent fixture in the USA's youth teams curriculum from the age of 13. She played a major role in the 2015 CONCACAF Women's U–20 Championship victory, leading from the front scoring 7 goals and providing 3 assists across the tournament. Pugh was awarded both the golden ball and golden boot for her performance.

She made her debut for the senior side in 2016, coming on as a substitute for Alex Morgan, Pugh made an instant impact and scored her first senior international in the 83rd minute, adding to her glowing reputation as a first-team prospect. Still only 20 years old, Pugh has already made 45 appearances for the senior team, 33 of them as a starter and has found the back of the net 15 times in total.

A player possessing great ball control and the ability to beat defenders with pace, Mallory Pugh is USNWT's future star and alongside names like Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd would look to make a mark in the upcoming 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.