Interrogating representations and Colombian footballing narratives of nation around the Women’s World Cup 2023: Of voids and (in)visibilities

Over the last dozen years, Colombia has turned to football as a potent source of unifying narratives for the nation. Domestically, the aim has been to construct a greater sense of a collective, integrative national identity built around pride in sporting success; internationally, the objective is to reinvent Colombia's negative image through ‘positive’ appearances and performances (players and fans alike) in global sporting events, whether as hosts or participants. This sporting nationalism project has been based around the Colombian men's football team in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups in Brazil and Russia. Football-based narratives of the nation, therefore, have largely been driven by masculine performance, with women's football left largely invisibilised and unable to represent the nation in political or media narratives despite their ‘Superpowerful’ nickname. This article focuses on how Colombian women footballers, through their sporting exploits and struggles up to and including the Women's World Cup 2023, have managed to fill a void of sporting narratives of the nation. In doing so, they have visibilised feminist concerns that go beyond purely sporting interests and are changing imaginaries around gender in Colombia.