Racing striker becomes Argentina’s first female footballer to be transferred abroad

Racing Club striker Rocio Bueno has become the first female Argentine footballer to be transferred to a club in another country after securing a one-year loan to Italian Serie A side Sassuolo.

"Thank you, Ro! Racing is your home for life. For history. Racing completed the first loan transfer in Argentine women's football," the club announced on social media on Tuesday.

The player "is going to Sassuolo, from the Italian Primera, on loan with a fee and option to buy," the club added in a tweet.

Bueno, 29, is a member of the Argentina women's national football team that recently finished second at the L'Alcudia Tournament in Spain.

The transfer means she is the first female player to bring in money for a women’s team from Argentina. Racing did not specify the amount of the operation.

"It makes me very proud to fulfil my dream of playing abroad and to be able to leave something to this shirt that has given me so much," said Bueno, who joined Racing two years ago.

Bueno has scored 31 goals in 35 official matches since joining the La Academia in 2020 and holds a record for scoring five goals in 15 minutes in a 2015 match when she played for Boca in a 10-0 win over Platense.

In the current season of the Primera División women's football championship, she scored 13 goals in 16 matches.

Although the first women's football championship in Argentina was held in 1991, until recently women's football had only been amateur. In 2019, 16 teams in the women’s top flight went professional.

– TIMES/AFP