Leicy Santos, Spirit's 5-foot-1 catalyst, shoulders the playmaking burden

Washington Post

14-03-2025

Leicy Santos has spent her first eight months in the Washington Spirit midfield letting her play do the talking. Crafty touches and slick evasions, clutch strikes and silky through balls — the Colombian playmaker hasn't needed to speak English to make noise with her game-breaking influence.
Still, Santos wants to learn all the same. On the field, the 28-year-old's vocabulary of soccer terms is reasonably robust. Off it, players say she's constantly asking her teammates to teach her new words. Although Santos conducted most of a recent interview at the Spirit's Leesburg facility through an interpreter, a question about her NWSL ambitions led her to break out four words she made sure to learn in English.
'I want to win.'
And win Santos has. Last week, the Spirit claimed its first trophy since 2021 when her free kick goal powered Washington to a victory at Orlando in the Challenge Cup. Now that the curtain-raiser has kicked off the NWSL campaign, the Spirit will launch the regular season with a trip to Houston to face the Dash on Friday night.
Expectations are high for Washington, which went 18-6-2 last season to finish second in the NWSL standings, then won two dramatic playoff contests before falling to Orlando in the title game. After Santos arrived last summer in a move from Spanish side Atlético Madrid, a productive preseason under Coach Jonatan Giráldez has her poised to spearhead Washington's shorthanded attack to start 2025.
'When you arrive midseason, you have to adapt,' Santos said in Spanish. 'There are a lot of doubts, a lot of things up in the air, and that doesn't give you that tranquility and confidence for you to actually play the way you have to play. Starting the preseason with Jona, it's been really good. It's easier now to understand what he wants and how my teammates are on the field.'
If Santos didn't feel settled last season, you wouldn't know it. Fresh off representing Colombia at the Paris Olympics, Santos notched a goal and an assist when she made her Spirit debut in a 4-1 win over Kansas City in August. Two weeks later, she nodded home the stoppage-time winner in an electrifying 2-1 victory against Portland. After a thigh injury limited Santos down the stretch, she returned to appear in all three playoff contests while offering her usual blend of clever touches, scrappy intensity and defense-splitting distribution.
'She's the type of player who can get out of sticky situations or create an opportunity out of nothing,' forward Ashley Hatch said. 'So it's always good to have players like her in games where we're having a hard time finding momentum or having a hard time finding the attack because she can help us switch that tone really quickly.'
It's exactly what the Spirit expected when it signed Santos to a three-year contract. After she starred for Iowa Central Community College during its run to the 2015 national title, then kick-started her professional career in Colombia, Santos racked up 17 goals and 16 assists while logging more than 100 matches for Atlético from 2019 to 2024. She also has notched 16 goals for the Colombian national team, including a highlight-reel tally in a loss to England in the 2023 World Cup quarterfinals.
When it came time for Santos to choose her career's next step, she had options aplenty. But the opportunity to play for Giráldez — the Spanish coach she saw oversee FC Barcelona's dominance first hand — guided her to Washington.
'I love his style of play, his mentality, his work ethic,' Santos said. 'So that was a determining thing to come here.'
Although Santos began her Spirit career centering a playmaking trio featuring NWSL midfielder of the year Croix Bethune to her left and MVP finalist Trinity Rodman to her right, those players haven't shared the field since that August win over Kansas City. Days later, Bethune suffered a torn meniscus in her knee. Rodman, meanwhile, was limited by a back injury last fall. While Bethune and Rodman are nearing returns to the lineup, both sat out the Challenge Cup win.
'Those definitely are two players that are missed,' Santos said. 'They make a difference every game, and at every moment they can change the game. So not having them has been rough. But I'm always trying to work hard and do what is best for the team.'
In their absences, even more of the attacking onus has fallen on Santos. When the Spirit fell behind against Orlando last week, it was Santos who stood over a 72nd-minute free kick, curled a shot around the Pride wall and beat goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse to the near post — a strike teammates said was remarkably similar to one she had recently netted in a scrimmage.
'It's cool to have someone that can really just hit a banger,' midfielder Hal Hershfelt said. 'That's always great to have in our back pocket.'
As the Spirit played Orlando to a 1-1 draw, then triumphed in penalty kicks, Santos also earned praise from Giráldez for tracking back and helping hamper the Pride's attack. 'She had a good performance scoring a goal,' he said, 'but defending also at a high level.'
While Santos has cultivated a happy-go-lucky reputation in the locker room, Hatch emphasized that she's a 'fierce competitor' on the pitch. Standing all of 5-foot-1, Santos doesn't hesitate to body an opponent or lunge into a tackle.
'She's a 10, and I feel like 10s normally don't want to defend,' said Hershfelt, a stalwart in defensive midfield. 'That's okay because then there's people like me that do love to defend. But I feel like Leicy just does it all, and that's really cool. She'll scrap for a ball — she does not give a s---.'
When Bethune, Rodman and striker Ouleymata Sarr (back) do return, Santos will have more playmakers to combine with and more weapons to pick out. In the meantime, she's not hedging on her aspirations. Having already led the Spirit to one piece of silverware this season, she has her sights set on more.
'It's very high expectations,' Santos said. 'We want to win playing well. That's our main goal. With the quality of players we have, with the quality of staff around the players as well, we are very excited — and we're hoping to win it all.'