Good things happen when you leave your comfort zone.
For junior midfielder Magalí Capdevila, this saying rings especially true.
Originally from Spain, Capdevila committed to play college soccer at Penn after six years of playing for one of the best clubs in the world — F.C. Barcelona.
She hails from Catalonia, one of the most well-known soccer player-producing regions of Spain, and grew up playing soccer with and around boys. She started on the field alongside her brothers, standing in as their goalkeeper, and then continued in the boys’ clubs until the age of 13. With a family and city of avid soccer players, soccer came naturally to Capdevila.
“I feel like soccer has just been a big part of my life since I was born. It’s a big thing in my family, we’re Barça supporters,” Capdevila said. “The whole family … is a little crazy when it comes to soccer.”
At 13, she was signed to Barcelona’s youth team. The club, which is renowned for its youth setup and trains players in its distinctive style of play from a young age, only admitted female youth players to their academy’s residence program, La Masia, in 2021. Capdevila spent her last year in Barcelona at La Masia.
“What you experience there is just so unique and different from anything you could experience anywhere else that it just makes you grow, because you have no other option,” Capdevila said.
She also gained experience with the under-15 and under-17 age groups of Spain’s national team. Capdevila was called up to the team for the 2022 UEFA Women’s Under-17 Championship, where she played with and against some players who now play professionally on the highest level for club and country.
“I played with a bunch of [players] that are playing on the full-on national team now, or in first teams in Spain, England. It’s really awesome to see them succeed in … the professional level,” Capdevila said.
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What set Capdevila apart from her teammates in Spain, and ultimately brought her to Penn, was her being “a little bit of a nerd when it came to school.” She did not want to follow the traditional path many professional players in Europe take, attending college online for many years while playing soccer professionally.
“I love soccer, but I also like school. So if I can find something that allows me to do both at a very high level, I’m gonna do that,” Capdevila said. “And that’s when I started considering coming to the U.S.”
Besides adjusting to a new culture, Capdevila also had to adapt to a whole new brand of soccer coming to Penn. In Barcelona, game plans often followed a detailed structure, while American soccer emphasized on physicality and one-on-one attacking and defending.
Capdevila was trained in Spanish football’s possession-based mindset, and naturally tries to implement some of that in her game. As a playmaking midfielder, she tends to try and create opportunities for her teammates. A player she looks up to is Mariona Caldentey, a former Barcelona and current Arsenal W.F.C. player who Capdevila calls a “complete player.”
“[Capdevila] is always asking questions about tactics, and what about the other team was driving [a] decision,“ coach Krissy Turner said. “She wants to keep the ball. … And I think sometimes we’re challenging her, … yes, we want to keep the ball, but can we do it while we're threatening them and going forward?”
“We're always challenging her to be as influential and as impactful on the game as she can be, because technically, she's very gifted,” Turner added.
Capdevila played in all 15 games this season, started in 11, and scored one goal, tying her number of goals scored in each of the last two seasons.
Capdevila is studying accounting and legal studies in the Wharton School with a minor in French and Francophone studies. This past summer, she completed an internship under the Chief Revenue Officer at Boston Legacy F.C., a new club in the National Women’s Soccer League. Besides becoming familiar with the business side of soccer, she also dabbled in art, designing her own merch collection for the club.
Capdevila is looking to play soccer professionally after she graduates, preferably in the U.S. She sees herself working in soccer long-term, but before her focus turns to life after college, she still has her senior season in front of her next fall.
“We're eight [seniors], and we all are so invested in the team that I think that we're all going to carry a lot, and we're just gonna keep on getting better and better”, Capdevila said. “ Every season has been a little better [than] the previous one, so next year is just gonna have to be the time to shine.”
What stands out, in the end, is her gratefulness to have chosen Penn and gone down a different path.
“I just think this experience is so complete," Capdevila said, “It’s given me everything that I wanted.”
