Vatican City women's national football team


The Vatican City women's national football team is the team that represents Vatican City in association football and is under the control of the Vatican Amateur Sports Association, headquartered in the Vatican's Cortile di San Damaso. Gianfranco Guadagnoli, an Italian, is the current head coach, in addition to being the coach of the men's national team. Susan Volpini is the current manager.

Players

As of 2018 there are approximately 800 female employees of Vatican City. The squad consists of female Vatican employees and wives and daughters of Vatican employees. In 2019 20-25 women between the ages of 25 and 50 comprised the squad. There were only lay workers and no nuns on the squad but nuns are welcome to play. Although most team members are merely amateur players, some, such as Cameroonian captain Eugenie Tcheugoue, have played at higher levels.

Kit

As of 2019 the team wears an all yellow Givova top with the Sport Association logo in the center of the chest.

History

At Vatican Family Day in June 2018, a group of females organized to play football against each other as the male employees had done for years. Soon after they competed in a tournament organized by the Bambino Gesù Hospital.
The national representative team was first formed in 2019 and played its first match on 26 May of that year. The team took on A.S. Roma of the women's Serie A, the highest level of women's football in Italy. The Vatican side lost 0–10 at the Campo Pio XI.
On 7 June 2019 the team played their first "away" match, traveling across Rome to face the women's team of Serie D club A.S.D. Trastevere Calcio. Despite the 1–3 defeat, the Vatican City team earned a penalty kick which was converted for the team's first-ever goal.
After several months of preparation and planning, the team traveled to Austria to face Wiener Landesliga side FC Mariahilf at a stadium in Simmering in Vienna on 22 June 2019 as part of the club's twentieth anniversary. However, the match was abandoned after several FCM players displayed pro-choice t-shirts under their jerseys during the playing of Vatican City's national anthem.

Matches

Current squad