MEXICAN striker Charlyn Corral packed up for Spain in 2015 because her home country didn’t have a professional league.

Women’s football in Mexico has transformed since then, however. More than 50,000 fans attended the women’s league final on Monday and watched Monterrey beat Tigres in a penalty shootout.

The Liga MX Femenil launched in 2017 and features two competitions each year — the Clausura tournament from January to May and the Apertura tournament from late summer to late autumn.

“The growth has been exponential, I can tell it was very fast,” says the 33-year-old Corral, who returned to Mexico three years ago to sign for Pachuca, which lost to Monterrey in the semifinals. “It’s nice to see that every day more people know who you are.

“In the past, you were known in women’s soccer circles, but a lot of people know who the players on the national team are,” adds Corral, who won a scoring title with Levante in the 2017-18 season. “It was not like that in the past.”

Monterrey, in Mexico’s north, averaged 11,428 fans in their home games for the Apertura championship.

“It’s been incredible all the support, not just here but in the whole country — of course there are places with less fans, but in Monterrey it has been incredible,” says Monterrey goalkeeper Pamela Tajonar, who played for Barcelona during a stint in Spain.

A Fifa report showed in the 2021-22 season that Liga MX Femenil had the second highest average attendance (3,100) behind the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States (7,930). The Women’s Super League in England was third that year but increased its average to 7,363 last season.

The Mexican Football Federation says of the 34 million football fans in the country, 26 million are interested in the women’s league.

“The interest in women’s soccer is growing, we are in the conversation now and changing narratives, and that allows us to talk about how much the game has been developing in the country,” league president Mariana Gutierrez tells The Associated Press.

In the Mexican league, the women’s teams are affiliated to the men’s top flight teams, and they play in the same stadiums — which can boost attendance.

The fans are also watching from home. In the 10th round of the Apertura, 5.75 million fans tuned in to watch the games, setting a league record. The previous mark was 4.61 million set in the 2024 Clausura.

Women are thriving not just in football.

Mexicans elected Claudia Sheinbaum to be the country’s first female president. But there are still many parts of the country, especially rural Indigenous areas, where men hold all the power.

Many of the women playing in the top league started their careers competing alongside men.

“I started playing with my cousins, and from five to 12 years old I played just with boys,” says Stephany Mayor, who has played in two Women’s World Cups for Mexico. “People used to tell me, ‘Don’t play soccer, focus on your career and get to work.' But I wanted to be a soccer player, and I said I’m going to make it and live out this profession.”

The growth in women and girls playing organised football has zoomed from 50,000 in 2019 to 1.5 million last year, according to Fifa.

The national team, once overlooked, has begun to develop better players and achieve better results in international competitions.

Last year, Mexico won the gold medal at the Central American Games, then won its first ever gold medal at a Pan American Games. This year, Mexico beat the United States 2-0 in the Gold Cup.

“For the national team it’s important to have strong and committed clubs because then you can have great players and a solid national team,” says Andrea Rodebaugh, the director of national teams in Mexico.

The 58-year-old Rodebaugh, the team captain at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, was appointed in December 2022.

“I would have never imagined that the results would arrive so quickly,” she says. “It just shows that we are on the right track. It was so much faster that I could have imagined.”

Mexico did not qualify for the last Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and missed qualifying for the Paris Olympics. The next Women’s World Cup is in Brazil in 2027.

“We have the means to have a good team, Mexico has the infrastructure, strong clubs, a strong federation and talented girls that are gaining confidence,” national coach Pedro Lopez says.

“We have talented players, we have everything to be a contender, we just need to believe it and gain more confidence,” he adds.

While that happens, Gutierrez can only hope that the league continues to grow.

“In Mexico, everybody breathes soccer, and the gender is not that important, that is why the women’s league is gaining relevance,” Gutierrez says. “Mexico is doing it great with women’s soccer so far.”