For Isabella Echeverri, soccer has never ended at the final whistle. The former Colombian national team defender has become a serious student of the game she once played professionally, building a second career that reaches from television and analysis to sports leadership and gender equity.
In 2026, that journey brought her back to the FIFA World Cup. Echeverri joined Telemundo’s coverage following Colombia, but this time she arrived with a very different responsibility. Instead of defending her country on the field, she was there to help audiences understand what was happening around it.
Born in Medellín, Echeverri played professionally in Colombia, the United States, Spain and Mexico. She represented Colombia at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games and won gold at the 2019 Pan American Games.
Studying Soccer From Every Angle
Retirement did not take Echeverri away from soccer. It gave her the opportunity to examine it differently. She moved into broadcasting and joined Telemundo as an analyst, translating the instincts she developed as a defender into a deeper reading of tactics, players and the pressures surrounding international competition. But Echeverri wanted to understand more than what happens during 90 minutes.
She pursued the UEFA Executive Master for International Players, becoming the first Latina to join the program and studying the business and leadership structures that shape the sport. As a co-founder of SOMOS Equidad, she has also worked to address another part of soccer’s future: gender equity.
Those different chapters now inform one another. Echeverri understands what it means to play the game, analyze it, study the institutions behind it, and consider how those institutions can change. That made the 2026 World Cup particularly fitting.
Years after experiencing a World Cup in Colombia’s jersey, Echeverri returned asking different questions and telling different stories. She once saw soccer from inside the lines. Today, she is building a career around understanding the entire field.