Chinbaatar Solongo Becomes Mongolia's First Female Legionnaire

Image property of WFC Kharaatsai

With more and more male Mongolian footballers joining clubs abroad in recent years, Mongolia now has its first female legionnaire. 21-year-old midfielder Chinbaatar Solongo has made the breakthrough and signed for reigning champion of the Lao Women's League, Master 7 FC. The move was announced on social media by the player's domestic club, WFC Kharaatsai, earlier this week.

Solongo joins Master 7 ahead of its upcoming 2025-2026 AFC Women's Champions League qualifying campaign. Laos will host the matches of Master 7's Group D. Joining the club in the group are the reigning champions of three other nations, Royal Thimphu College (Bhutan), Naegoyang (North Korea), and Kaohsiung Attackers (Taiwan).

The young Mongolian has been with WFC Kharaatsai since 2015 when she was a student at the Oyuny Undraa Complex School. That year, the team competed in its first-ever tournament, the U-13 Girls National Championship. Despite being newly-formed, the Kharaatsai girls won the gold medal that year. Solongo originally participated in volleyball, dance, and rhythmic gymnastics but was drawn to football and Kharaatsai specifically when boy's from her school would win medals with the club.

Eventually she progressed to the club's senior team in the Women's National Footall League. In 2022 she was a finalist for the Women's Footballer of the Year award at the annual Golden Ball Ceremony as her club finished second in the league. The award ultimately went to Solongo's teammate, S. Shinebayar. Kharaatsai won the league the following season before earning silver again in 2024. Solongo also competed for the club in the National Futsal League.

Solongo was part of Mongolia's most recent senior national squad for 2026 AFC Asian Cup qualification. Her shot in the team's final match against Timor-Leste found its way into the opposing net but was credited as an own goal after deflecting off a Timorese defender. She was also part of the previous squad which competed in the 19th Asian Games, Olympic qualification, and the EAFF Championship in 2023.

She has been part of Mongolia's national setup since the under-15 level. In 2017 she competed in the EAFF U-15 Girls Tournament in Shanghai. The following year, Solongo returned to the squad for a UEFA youth tournament held in Thailand. She scored in a 2-3 defeat to Malta to open the tournament. The match was the first time ever that a Mongolian women's selection played a European opponent.

In the following years, the young midfielder progressed to the national under-17 and under-20 teams and participated in qualifying for the AFC Women's Cup in these age categories.

Off the field, Solongo graduated with a bachelor's degree in Marketing Management from the Mongolian University of Science and Technology in Spring 2025. She has demonstrated her leadership abilities as a member of the Mongolian Football Players Association, being elected to its first Board of Directors in February 2025, and has been a vocal opponent of MFF President Ts. Anandbazar who has been accused of rape and of entering the locker room of the under-18 national team and committing assault on several women as team manager in 2021.

Name: Chinbaatar Solongo

Name in Mongolian: Чинбаатарын Солонго

Position: Midfielder

Birth date: 14 August 2003

Height: 1.6m (5ft 3in)

National Caps/Goals: 5/0

Social Media:

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