19 February 2024
The Italian women's national team's match on Friday, 23 February in Florence against Ireland will be a special match for Sara Gama, who will represent her nation on the football pitch for the final time.
It's been an 18-year adventure for Sara, who has decided to hang up her Azzurre boots.
It was 2006 when she made her debut in the Under-19 national team, starting a fantastic period, which would bring the Italians - a team which she captained - to the top of Europe in 2008 in France: in that tournament Gama would be included in the UEFA Team of the Tournament.
Not only that: at just 16 years old, again in 2006, Sara also made her debut for the senior national team, against Ukraine, in a World Cup qualifier.
And from then on it was a truly unique story: 139 appearances, crowned by participation in four European Championships (the first in 2009) and a World Cup, in which she played every match.
Since 2014, Sara has also been captain of our national team, further displaying how important her presence has been and is for a movement, the Italian one and in general that of Italian women's football, which in recent years has experienced unprecedented growth, culminating with the start of the professionalism era, from 1 July 2022.
A growth that largely coincided with the beginning of the extraordinary adventure of Juventus Women, in which Sara has, not surprisingly, been the protagonist since the first match in 2017.
Friday will therefore be an important – and probably moving – day for her: the applause that we will all give her that day will, without a doubt, be extremely well-deserved.
