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Daniela Cruz
Personal information
Full name	Daniela María Cruz Mejía
Date of birth	8 March 1991 (age 33)
Place of birth	Tibás, Costa Rica
Height	1.61 m (5 ft 3 in)
Position(s)	Centre-back
Team information
Current team	Atlas
Number	16
College career
Years	Team
2010–2013	West Florida Argonauts
Senior career*
Years	Team
2014–2015	Saprissa
2015–2016	Red Star Belgrade
2016–2019	Saprissa
2019–2020	Espanyol
2020–2022	Saprissa
2023–	Atlas
International career‡
2008	Costa Rica U17
2009–2010	Costa Rica U20
2010–	Costa Rica
Medal record
Women's football
Representing Costa Rica
Pan American Games
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 8 September 2019; ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 October 2018

Daniela María Cruz Mejía (born 8 March 1991) is a Costa Rican footballer who plays as a defender for Deportivo Saprissa and the Costa Rica women's national team.

Career

Cruz made her professional debut with Sportek de Heredia where she won the second division championship and the promotion to the Costa Rica Women's Football Championship.

Later in 2010, she went to study to the United States, where she had the opportunity to play with West Florida Argonauts in NCAA Division II. She won the Division II championship with the same team in 2012.

After graduating from college in 2014, she came back to Costa Rica to play with Deportivo Saprissa FF, with Saprissa she also won the championship in 2014. Cruz won the Apertura 2015 with Saprissa and made a huge step in her career by signing with Red Star Belgrade in the Serbian First League with the option of extending her 1-year contract.

Unfortunately in 2016 her grandfather got sick so she returned to Costa Rica for three months, in her last match in Serbia she caught an injury which she had planned to treat in her home country, but the injury was so serious she had to pay for an operation with the help of her parents. Because of her injury, Red Star Belgrade didn't renew her contract, so Cruz went back to Costa Rica to play for Deportivo Saprissa FF. Last year she won the Clausura 2018 as the team captain. She was also the trainer of the U-13 female team of Saprissa.

Before leaving to Spain, Cruz also won the Apertura 2019 with Deportivo Saprissa FF, scoring an Olympic goal in the final against AD Moravia, where they tied 1-1 and then Saprissa won by penalties.

On June 5 of 2019, RCD Espanyol Femenino announced on their social media that Cruz signed with them for one season, she'll play alongside her Costa Rica teammate Katherine Alvarado.

International career

At the young age of 13, Cruz was already called to the U-17 Costa Rica National Team squad, which eventually qualified to the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand. In 2010, she had the opportunity to play in the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup that was held in Germany, having achieved her second world cup as a very young and promising player for Costa Rica. Finally in 2014 with Cruz already playing for the senior team, Costa Rica Women's National Football Team achieved their first ever qualification to the FIFA Women's World Cup in a match against Trinidad & Tobago, which Cruz was part of. Their generation was now ready to demonstrate all their experience, and so they did. Even though Costa Rica finished 3rd in their group of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, they played an amazing tournament and showed what they are capable of.

Ups and downs were to come for Cruz and her teammates in 2018, after she was part of the Costa Rica National Team that made history by winning a silver medal in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games which were held in Barranquilla, Colombia. But later that same year she was part of the squad that failed to reach the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup after winning 8–0 against Cuba, but losing 1–0 and 1–3 against Jamaica and Canada.

With three World Cups in her log book, Cruz is one of Costa Rica's most valuable and important players.