The Juventus Paralympic team Juventus One competes in competitions organised by the Paralympic and Experimental Football Division (DCPS) of the FIGC.
The Juventus One staff has constantly developed and increased its roster of athletes with disabilities over the years, forming teams for each of the four levels and thereby ensuring the players can fully express their abilities. In the 2023/2024 season, Juventus One had an impressive four teams, composed of a pool of footballers with cognitive, relational and sensory disabilities (including deaf athletes).
Project coordinator Marco Tealdo said: ‘We have four teams, one at level A, two at level C (C1 and C2) and one at level D: this was a significant milestone, as it was the first time we had so many teams’. Today Juventus One is consolidated and well-structured: starting with around 40 athletes in 2017, the team has grown to involve 110 footballers in the 2023/2024 season, supported by a technical staff of around 30 professionals, including qualified coaches, graduates in motor sciences and education, and FIGC-certified trainers.
The project has extended beyond the playing field, having also declared a social purpose and specific objectives.
Created in 2017 as ‘Juventus for Special’ and developed in collaboration with local partner ASD Nessuno Escluso [No One Excluded], Juventus One has a dual soul: sporting and social, to promote the inclusion of people with cognitive-relational disabilities through the practice of sport. It is the bold, concrete response to a still very traditional view of disability and its connection with sport.
The project is based on an axiom that is as simple as it is important: disability is not a limitation, but only one of the characteristics of the human condition; this means breaking down biases and prejudices towards disability, as well as all those ‘pious’ attitudes often associated with the word.
This principle restores dignity to those with disabilities and gives them the opportunity to express themselves beyond those cultural and social limits leading to forms of marginalisation and exclusion. The primary objective thus translates into the deepest sense of the word inclusion: to ensure all people have the same rights and dignity in everyday life, as well as in sport.
Football, in particular, plays a key role.
The youth in the teams experience a real competitive environment: from the composition of the coaching staff to training sessions, from locker room management to the choice of positions in matches. The players are athletes in their own right and, as is the case in all football teams, must earn their place on the team through commitment, being awarded their starting jersey following good performance on the pitch.
This approach is successful from both a sporting and a social point of view. The sense of belonging the athletes develop in Juventus One strengthens their awareness and self-esteem. The youth take the field with the desire to be part of a group, develop relationships, constantly improve and overcome their limits, proudly wearing the prestigious black and white jersey.
Drawing on the understanding that disability is not a limitation or a ‘special’ condition, but rather one of the many aspects common to human existence and diversity, in the 2023/2024 season Juventus worked to change the project’s name and identity. Juventus One is the result of this work; it will be used officially from the 2024/2025 season and reflects a paradigm shift linked to the concept of ‘special’ when related to the notion of disability, embarking on a new cultural path that involves everyone, without distinction, in a true spirit of equality and inclusion.
The term One is the natural evolution of what is by now a historic project, having reached the milestone date of 3 December 2023, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. To celebrate the day, together with its partner Nessuno Escluso, the Club organised the event Juventus IS JUVENTUS, created precisely under the banner of inclusion.
The Paralympic team played a friendly mixed-level match together with players from the Women’s Under 19 and the Men’s Under 19 and Next Gen teams.
This special moment underscored how, just as two words can have the same meaning regardless of how they are written (Juventus /JUVENTUS), all the Club’s athletes are similarly part of one team, regardless of the league they belong to: Men’s, Women’s, U19, U23 or Paralympic.
The meaning of the event held at the training centre in Vinovo is thus embodied in its name: Juventus has so many members, so many faces and so many different human conditions, but it is one family: Juventus is one family, Juventus is ONE, Juventus is JUVENTUS. The event was also an important moment for reflection, culminating with a ‘disability experience’ in the finale that included the Club’s employees.
They were given the opportunity, through special ‘football’ trials, to experience and understand first-hand what taking the field with a disability means, whether sensory, physical or cognitive.
Sporting-competitive dimension: as fully explored in the previous section, this pillar can be considered the core of the project. It includes participation in the competitions of the Paralympic and Experimental Football Division of the FIGC as the main competitive opportunity. However, the commitment of the Juventus One teams does not stop there: they have participated in numerous national and international tournaments over the years (including the non-competitive EFDN international tournaments in Leverkusen and Breda).
The 2023/2024 season counted yet another great satisfaction for the Juventus Paralympic team: the C1 team was confirmed Italian Level 3 Champion in the DCPS-FIGC National Finals held on 18 and 19 May in Tirrenia. Team coach Silvia Dema described the last two fantastic seasons: ‘Last year was a “surprise” not only because of the results we achieved, but also because of the growth we experienced, which was not to be taken for granted. For this season [2023/2024], the watchword is “professionalism”’.
Educational dimension: Juventus One@School is the educational programme that has been in place since the 2018/2019 season. The athletes of the Paralympic teams visit local schools (of all levels - primary, middle and secondary schools) for a special educational moment, offering students a direct, educational experience on disability. The programme will be described in more detail in the education/awareness-raising projects section of this chapter.
Playful-social dimension for the 6-16 age group: designed primarily for participants on the autism spectrum and with cognitive disabilities, this project has around 20 participants. It offers the youth a safe and stimulating environment to develop often unexplored skills and resources and to break down the biases associated with these disorders.
2017/18 SEASON
2018/19 SEASON
2020/21 SEASON
2021/22 SEASON
2022/23 SEASON
2023/24 SEASON
