The friendly against Ireland which will open 2024 for Soncin’s national team will be Sara’s last game in blue, who will instead continue with Juventus
He chose Florence for the last page of an 18 year long story. Sara Gama, protagonist and icon of the women’s national team, leaves – somewhat surprisingly – the blue team. The debut in Mariupol against Ukraine in 2006 (World Cup qualifiers), while the 140th appearance will be that of Friday afternoon at Viola Park, in the friendly against Ireland which will open 2024 for Andrea Soncin’s national team. A choice, that of Gama – 35 years old in March – shared with Club Italia and the technical commissioner. And communicated in the last hours to her companions in the Coverciano retreat. Before the match, the FIGC president Gabriele Gravina will give her a celebratory shirt, a tribute to the Italian career of those who contributed to bringing Italian women’s football into a new dimension (off the pitch, she even had a Barbie inspired by her and contributed – active in sports politics – to the leap into professionalism from the summer of 2022).
THE ANNOUNCEMENT
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“Today I announce the decision to officially leave the Italian national team – his words of farewell – it has been an extraordinary journey. I have decided to leave now, at the beginning of a new cycle in which I have given my contribution to laying solid foundations for the future. I leave it here, where it all began, passing through our Coverciano and a city that fans know has witnessed important steps of our national team. And so thanks to all those who have shared our story. To my family, to my teammates, to the staff, to the professionals, to the fans. I used my body and my mind to play. I also used them to speak and try to inspire, on and off the pitch. Today I can say that some of these words and gestures helped.”
FORWARD WITH JUVE
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Gama leaves Italy after four European Championships – the last with a bitter taste, in England in 2022 – and a World Cup, the one in France in 2019 in which Milena Bertolini’s girls made the country fall in love. However, she was not called up – amid much controversy – by the former coach for the last World Cup, last summer in New Zealand, which ended ingloriously with elimination from the group at the hands of modest South Africa. In the living room of her house in Trieste, in addition to the many medals for her successes with Juventus, there is also the gold medal from the 2008 Under 19 European Championship, the only trophy won by an Italian women’s national team. She returned to the group in September with the arrival of Soncin, a new coach in the environment who did not want to give up her experience (despite having only deployed her on the pitch for two parts). Gama finishes as the fourth player ever for appearances in the blue shirt, behind Patrizia Panico (204), Tatiana Zorri and Carolina Morace (both 153). She will continue her highly decorated journey at Juventus, where she still finds space in Montemurro’s rotations, despite no longer being a very regular starter. On March 5th, Italy will meet their opponents in the qualifying round for the 2025 European Championship in Switzerland, the first major objective of the new cycle after the surprising Nations League. In the end, a new era truly begins.
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