Celia Jiménez Delgado on Her Journey to the Challenge Cup

OL Reign defender Celia Jiménez Delgado made her first appearance for the club in 2020 on July 4, subbing on for Allie Long in the 75th minute. The Spanish defender may not have played for very long, but her first appearance on the pitch capped off a long journey to Utah so that she could play for her club. 

Celia, who spent the offseason playing with W-League side Perth Glory in Australia, was preparing for what she expected would be a rapid transition back to training with OL Reign. At the end of the W-League season, Jiménez Delgado spent three days in her native Spain, before catching a series of flights to arrive in Tacoma for what was meant to be the start of the club’s preseason training. 

When she arrived in the Puget Sound, however, she was required to spend 14 days in isolation due to concerns about the spiking rates of COVID-19 in Europe.  

“About 10 days into that, the situation got very serious and the league decided that the season was going to be delayed,” Jiménez Delgado said. “That’s when I thought things were going to get more complicated and I thought it was time to fly back home before the borders closed.” 

By the time she arrived back in Spain, Jiménez Delgado found her native country in a state of near-total lockdown. Her mother had to receive special permission from the authorities to make the four-hour drive to pick her up in Madrid when her flight landed. 

After catching a ride home with her mother, Jiménez Delgado entered her family home in Alcaudete. She wouldn’t come back out for two months. 

Restrictions meant that Andalusia’s residents were not allowed out of their homes unless it was to purchase groceries or see a doctor. Walks were prohibited and interpersonal contact beyond households was completely banned. 

It was a stark contrast to the warm, welcoming atmosphere Jiménez Delgado associates with home. 

“Our culture is based on affection and caring,” Jiménez Delgado said. “You show your affection by hugs and kissing people on the cheek to greet them. It was weird to see how everyone was so distant, even people that knew each other were staying two meters from each other. It was something I’d never seen before and I hope it doesn’t have a permanent effect on our culture. 

“I got home and didn’t leave the house for two months, because my parents did the grocery shopping. I lived within the walls of my house for nearly 60 days. I don’t think I ever imagined living like that, but I was thankful that I was able to be surrounded by my parents and to spend quality time with them.” 

Quality time with family has been sparse for Jiménez Delgado for nearly a decade. She left Alcaudete when she was 14 to train with Sevilla FC and pursue her dreams of playing professional soccer. She spent her collegiate years in the United States, playing first for Iowa Western Community College before transferring to Alabama. 

In all, Jiménez Delgado estimates that she hasn’t spent longer than two weeks at home at any point since 2010. 

“I left home when I was young to play for Seville, my club team,” Jiménez Delgado explained. “At the same time, I was also competing for my regional team and also for the Spanish national team. Whenever the league had a break, it was for international play, so I was competing then. During the week, I was training with the club and the regional team, so I didn’t really have weekends off. With the European calendar, we’d normally have July off, but we’d also have a competition during the first week of July, so I’d normally only have two weeks to go back home and spend time with my family. Other than that, I was traveling, training, or playing.” 

Despite the frustrations of living under lockdown, Jiménez Delgado found comfort in finally being able to share time with her parents. 

“It was good,” Jiménez Delgado said. “I was able to wake up in the morning and have breakfast with my mom. I hadn’t done that since I was a girl. I was able to talk to my dad at night and we’d sit down and play games together. I hadn’t had time to do that. I also had time to focus on my MBA and get creative, since I still needed to keep working out. I was able to come up with ways to stay fit and keep doing workouts within my house.” 

As the two-month mark neared, the details around the Challenge Cup became clear. Jiménez Delgado said her goodbyes and headed off for Tacoma. It proved to be an arduous journey:  a car ride to Madrid was followed by a non-stop flight to Dallas. Then, on to Chicago, where she spent the night before catching a 6:00 a.m. flight to SeaTac. All told, the odyssey lasted 40 hours, the longest period of travel the defender can remember in her life. 

Her reward for making the journey? Celia was required to isolate for nine days in Tacoma and undergo multiple rounds of COVID-19 testing before joining her teammates in Montana. Jiménez Delgado arrived just before her teammates left for Missoula, which only made keeping her distance harder. 

“It was a really emotional moment, especially because I was excited to see them but I knew that due to the severity of the situation, we needed to follow so many rules,” Jiménez Delgado said. “I couldn’t say ‘hi’ to them or hug them. It was a really strange feeling. I wanted to say hi to them, but I had to keep my distance.” 

Now, having had weeks to acclimate and reintegrate herself in training, Jiménez Delgado’s appearance on the pitch on Saturday is proof that she is once more ready for the rigors of NWSL soccer. 

“I definitely think that the NWSL is the most competitive league in the world right now,” Jiménez Delgado said. “The speed of the game is one of the highest. Getting the experience with the game last year forced me to think faster and to develop that mentality of transitional play and thinking how I can be more dangerous than what I had been used to in other leagues. Maybe I had a little catching up to do when I first joined the team in Montana, but getting on the field against Houston has me confident that I’m ready to play at this level.” 

Beyond soccer, though, Jiménez Delgado says the opportunity to spend time with her family will stick with her, long after the Challenge Cup ends, and she embarks on another soccer adventure. 

“It’s one of the things I cherish the most,” Jiménez Delgado said. “I left home when I was such a kid. My parents were both involved, but especially my mom. Regardless of the time difference or what part of the world I was living in, she was always available to talk to me. She’d regularly get up at four in the morning to watch my games. If I hadn’t had a good game, she’d jump on a call and talk to me to be supportive, regardless of the distance or time change. It’s the same with my dad and sister. I’m really lucky. Almost every time I play with the national team, they try to fly out to see me, even if it’s only for five minutes before I have to head back to the hotel. A huge part of the person and athlete that I am today, I owe to them.”