Rags to riches success a far-off dream for South American female players

Camila Lujan Gomez Cabrera, an 18-year-old Paraguayan immigrant from Buenos Aires's Villa 31, boards a public bus every day to the hours-long soccer practice for her team in Argentina's professional league.

As a reserve player she has no salary, so she can't enjoy the luxuries of top male players, who can earn thousands of dollars a month. Instead, Gomez Cabrera has to juggle a part-time nannying job beside strenuous practices.

South America's poorest neighbourhoods have birthed some of its greatest soccer stars, from Maradona to Pele, who often spur local pride and invest back into their communities.

But with the professionalisation of the women's sport still in its earliest years and wages lagging far behind men's salaries, making it big through soccer is still a far-off dream for women in South America's barrios.

"Until it’s equal, we women players are always going to need another job, because they don’t even pay us half of what they pay the men, who live comfortably from this," Gomez Cabrera said.

As the Women's World Cup kicks off on July 20, female players across the region hope the visibility of the tournament will help them reach new heights.

SOCCER'S TRANSFORMATIVE POWER

At 58-years-old, Monica Santino said she dreamed of playing soccer professionally when she was a girl in the working class Boedo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. But as a teenager, she was kicked off the pitch and insulted for her love of the game, so she abandoned her dream.

"It was frustrating because it was what made me happy, what reflected my identity, and it couldn't be," Santino said.

Now, Santino runs girls’ soccer program La Nuestra in the Villa 31, where Gomez Cabrera has played for nearly a decade. The teenager and another La Nuestra