Argentina women's national field hockey team


The Argentina women's national field hockey team is governed by the Argentine Hockey Confederation. The current coach is Fernando Ferrara, who was appointed after Carlos Retegui was let go in late 2021. The team is currently second in the FIH Women's World Ranking.
Las Leonas have appeared in six Hockey World Cup finals, including the first final in 1974, which they lost 1–0 to the Netherlands. Argentina had to settle with second place in two more finals before winning the tournament for the first time in 2002, beating the Netherlands 4–3 in the final on penalty strokes after a 1–1 draw. Argentina, led by eight-time FIH Player of the Year Luciana Aymar won again in 2010, a 3–1 victory over the Netherlands. Argentina's World Cup-winning coaches are Sergio Vigil in 2002 and Carlos Retegui in 2010.
Argentina has been very successful at the Summer Olympics, winning four consecutive medals since the 2000 edition, when they became the first women's team in any sport to win an Olympic medal for their country. Luciana Aymar is the only player that has participated and won those four medals. Also, after their first title in 2001 at a Hockey Champions Trophy, they have won the tournament six more times. In front of a home crowd, they won the 2014–15 Hockey World League as the first international title after Aymar's retirement from the national team the previous year.
At a continental level, Argentina has dominated and won every tournament they played, including the Pan American Cup and the Pan American Games leaving the United States with second place on most events until they lost the 2011 Pan American Games final for the first time.
In July 2003, after the implementation of an official World Ranking System, Argentina reached the top of the FIH Women's World Ranking for the first time, reaching it again in 2010 after obtaining the World Cup title and once more in late 2013.

History

Hockey was introduced in Argentina by English immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century, and the first women's teams were officially formed in 1909. In 1997, Sergio Vigil, a former player for the men's national team, was appointed coach. Under his leadership, Las Leonas achieved their first World Hockey Cup title, their first Olympic medals, their first Champions Trophy medals, and many other achievements. The team went from having a rather limited audience to becoming a national sensation, with some of the players even appearing as models in advertising campaigns.

Nickname

Throughout its history, the team has developed a reputation for being tenacious even when a match appears to be lost. For this reason, a lioness was chosen as their symbol when the team qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics. During the second round of games, Argentina played against the powerful Dutch team, and they chose this occasion to place the image of a lioness on their shirts for the first time.
The image was designed by then-player Inés Arrondo together with Vigil's sister-in-law. Argentina won that match, went on to win the silver medal, and Las Leonas were born. Subsequently, the junior team is called Las Leoncitas.
The lioness logo was redesigned in 2006 by the team kit supplier, Adidas, along with Confederación Argentina de Hockey and even some of the most representative players. This is slightly different from the original, showing the lioness' tail pretending to be a hockey stick while holding a ball.
The nickname also falls in line with an unwritten Argentine tradition of naming national teams after big cats: the men's field hockey team is called Los Leones, the men's rugby union team is called Los Pumas, and the women's volleyball team is known as Las Panteras.

Tournament records

Players

Current squad

The following players were called to compete in the Pro League window against Netherlands and Germany between 10th and 14th February in Hobart, Australia.
Players, caps and goals updated as of 23 January 2026.
Head coach: Fernando Ferrara

Recent call-ups

These players were called up in the last 12 months.

Notable past players

When Luciana Aymar, retired from the national team in 2014 after 376 international matches played, some of Aymar's teammates asked the Confederation for the retirement of her iconic number 8 worn by her during 17 years with the national team. Nevertheless, the number is not officially retired by the CAH, although it has not been assigned to other players since.

Captains

Coaches

PeriodName
1986–1991Miguel MacCormik
1991–1997Rodolfo Mendoza
1997–2004Sergio Vigil
2004–2009Gabriel Minadeo
2009–2012Carlos Retegui
2012–2013Marcelo Garraffo
2013Emanuel Roggero
2013–2014Carlos Retegui
2014–2015Santiago Capurro
2015–2017Gabriel Minadeo
2017–2018Agustín Corradini
2018–2021Carlos Retegui
2021–presentFernando Ferrara

Honours

Since its breakthrough in the 2000 Summer Olympics, Argentina has won more than 20 official titles, which are detailed below: