Current Mississippi State midfielder Ilana Izquierdo and former Bulldogs goalkeeper Catalina Perez were both named to the Colombia women’s soccer team for the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, bringing the total number of 2024 Olympians with MSU ties up to eight.
Izquierdo made her debut with the Colombian senior national team earlier this year in the inaugural CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup. After transferring from Southern Miss last year, Izquierdo started all 23 matches for the Bulldogs and led the team with a school-record 2,097 minutes played, scoring four goals and adding three assists.
She has been with the Colombian national team system since she was 17, when Izquierdo played for her home country at the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay.
Perez represented Colombia at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, before enrolling at MSU. She made 15 saves while allowing four goals to help Colombia reach the quarterfinals in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and won a gold medal at the 2019 Pan American games. In that competition, she made eight saves in a shootout victory in the final.
After playing four years at Miami, Perez transferred to MSU for her final year of eligibility in 2017. She was an All-American and earned First-Team All-Southeastern Conference honors that year, recording six shutouts and nine wins while allowing exactly one goal per match.
Colombia opens Olympic play on July 25 against host France, and plays New Zealand and Canada later in group stage play.
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