Noin the heart of Umbria, where the concrete of the Liberati Stadium mixes with the memory of a working-class and passionate city, a young and unexpected figure took his place in the stands. He doesn’t wear a suit and tie, but he brings with him an entrepreneurial legacy, a vision and a belief: football can also be feminine, without losing a gram of intensity. At 23 years old, Claudia Rizzo she became the first female president of Ternana Calcioa Serie C club with over a century of history. An entrance that intends to be a project and a clear message.
Football according to Claudia Rizzo: inside the stadium, outside the box
Rizzo was born in Rome, daughter of Gian Luigi Rizzo, founder of the Villa Claudia group, active in private healthcare. His path it is that of a young girl who experiments and, telling his story, is even the Guardian. First agriculture, in Noto, Sicily, where he learned that “entrepreneurs are not born, they are made”. Then the clinics, where he breathed management and responsibility. In the end football, passion cultivated as a childtogether with his very enthusiastic father. And it is precisely in this mix of affections and ambitions that his presidency was born.
Young, but not immature leadership
Claudia Rizzo doesn’t hide behind her surname. “I’m learning to manage the club almost completely,” he says. His leadership is concrete, visible: he frequents the stadium, talks to the players, interacts with the community. He works side by side with Tiziana Pucci, an experienced manager, and Massimo Ferrero, former owner of Sampdoria, who remains an informal presence. But she is the face of change. And he does it with a style that mixes firmness and listeningwithout proclamations but with clear objectives.
Ternana has a new president. She’s young, she’s a woman, and she has a plan (@facebook)
The academy as a seed of the future
And if the present is made up of budgets and restructuring, the future is called youth. Rizzo believes in the academy, in training, in the growth of local talents. He doesn’t say it out of fashion, but out of conviction: “Young people need guidance and the right environment to grow.” And here his age becomes an advantage: «Youth allows you to bring fresh ideas and a modern approach». His goal is not just to win, but to build a bridge between generations, between memory and innovation.
Football as a space of equity
The gender issue cannot be omitted from her speech, but Claudia Rizzo has very clear ideas: «Football isn’t just for men», he states, not as a manifesto phrase, but as a declaration of intent. Rizzo does not want to be an exception, but a precedent. «The future is female», he says, and he says it from inside the system, not from outside. His role is not that of someone who asks for space, but of someone who occupies it competently. And in this, his example becomes an invitation: to change the rules, not just to respect them.
Women in football, not an exception, but almost
Claudia Rizzo she is not the first woman to sit in the top seat of an Italian football clubbut she is among the very few who have accepted the challenge so far. Before her, Rosella Sensi had led Roma in Serie Ainheriting the position from his father Franco and becoming a well-known face of Italian football in the early 2000s. More recently, Valentina Mezzaroma held the presidency of SienaWhile Elisabetta Cortani taught women’s football with Lazio Women. It remains that the appointment of Claudia Rizzo is different: not only for her surprising age, but for the context in which she moves, a male Serie C often marked by economic instability and distrust towards innovation.
A silent revolution
Claudia Rizzo doesn’t scream, she doesn’t promise miracles, she doesn’t seek the spotlight. But his every choice, his every word, his every presence at the stadium is a piece of a revolution. In a football that often repeats itself, she brings a new narrative: that of a young woman who does not want to be recognized because she is a woman, but evaluated for her results. With the hope of still being president in twenty years, perhaps of another club, because in this way he will be able to demonstrate that the change was not a parenthesis, but a direction.