Colombian Models Play Soccer in Full Makeup and Sharp Cleats

From the Catwalk to the Soccer Pitch

A female Colombian soccer team plays with full-face makeup and their hair styled. (They draw the line at high heels.) Read the full story here.

Who says female soccer players can't be beautiful?

Medellín’s Las Divas del Fútbol wants to defy tomboy stereotypes by having its players on the field with full-face makeup and their hair styled. (They draw the line at high heels.)

The soccer babes, who've drawn international attention, range in age from 16 to 35. Members of the 40-person team have worked as either a student or professional model, and some have appeared on television.

Director Alejandro Duque, who works in television, said he and his brother, a soccer trainer, started the team to challenge the notion that femininity and athleticism are incompatible.

“The idea was to get rid of that stigma beautiful women face,” Duque told Fox News Latino.

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The concept resonated with 35-year-old ex-model Luz María Díez.

“My husband doesn’t like soccer. He supports me, but he’s only come to see me play a few times,” Díez said in an interview with AFP. “I liked it since I was a kid and now it’s like a vice. I wish I had started earlier.”

The team may still have obstacles to overcome before proving that their athletic prowess matches their primping, however. The team plays mostly exhibition games against each other rather than competing against other teams.

But the Divas haven’t needed to demonstrate their excellence on the field to get noticed. The Medellín models—already well known locally—grabbed headlines from Honduras to Argentina over the last three weeks, as foreign publications took interest in the novelty of dolled up beauties taking to the soccer pitch.

The team has reinvested some of their notoriety back into the community, meeting with children in the countryside in collaboration with Hogares Juveniles Campesino—a charity that helps homeless and disadvantaged rural youth.

Duque hopes the international attention will help spread his message.

“We want to show other countries that beautiful women can play soccer,” Duque said.

See Las Divas in action in this slideshow.

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