Juliana Bennett Luna’s footballing journey has taken her from Colombia to the Community Arena at McDiarmid Park.
It would be fair to say that ending up at St Johnstone WFC was not on her radar when enhancing her skills on the pitches of Cartagena.
She had earned a call-up to the Colombia under-17 national team before eventually returning to Scotland.
Juliana, who was born in Edinburgh, smiled: “I’ve not lived in Scotland my whole life. With my dad’s job, I have moved around quite a lot.
“I started taking football more seriously when I lived in Colombia a few years ago. My teachers at High School were telling me to play a bit more.
“I joined a team and ended up getting called up to the Colombia under-17 squad. But because of Covid, it unfortunately never really came to anything.
“Football in Colombia was a little bit different. The High School teams are quite similar to in America, where you get good exposure to senior football.
“I wouldn’t say the standard was brilliant because women’s football in Colombia is still a growing sport. They are doing a lot to try and improve everything.”
Juliana, who has also spent time in the likes of Malaysia, Nigeria and Oman, continued: “We returned to Scotland and I went into the grassroots set-up. To be honest, I didn’t really think I would be able to play at a good level.
“I played at Blackburn United in Livingston and managed to get a trial at Hearts, which was eventually unsuccessful. From there I had a spell at Boroughmuir and that was really good for me. I learned a lot about the Scottish game and developed as a player.
“My football journey continued at Hamilton, East Fife and then I tore my knee ligaments and was out for a while. I took a break from football. It was about nine months.
“I met Elvie (McLean) at the university football team and she asked me to come and train with Saints – and I’ve never regretted doing that. I’ve met so many good people and it has been an unreal opportunity.”
Alongside training and games, Juliana is studying medicine at Dundee University.
She said: “I’m at university in Dundee now and I’m settled. Balancing studying and football was quite hard at the beginning. I wasn’t sure if I had the time for it all.
“With the course I’m doing, I’m in 9am-5pm every day and then there is the extra studies on top of that. I’m glad I signed for Saints and have stayed.”
She continued: “It was not the start of the season I wanted. I had some pain in my shin towards the end of last season.
“During this pre-season, I ended up not being able to kick the ball. We found out that I had a few micro-fractures in my shin bone. With a new season, you want to hit the ground running. But I couldn’t do that.
“Now I’ve had the opportunity to play more in the last few games and I’m now looking to build on that and get into the rhythm of playing games.”
Saints head for MTC Park on Sunday to face Gartcairn in SWPL2. Kick-off is 2pm.
Juliana said: “Gartcairn will be a physical, tough game. They have had a few decent results. We need to keep working hard because we’ve shown how good we can be.
“If we work for each other and are all on our game, there is no reason why we can’t get the points.”
