“If I had stuck to what people said or society’s prejudices, I would never have played football.”

My story begins with a football and a dream that became reality day after day.

My mother always says that when I was two years old I picked up a football in my hand for the first time and since then I have never been apart from it. Until I was five I played alone, then I asked my parents if I could join the small team of my village, Santa Maria dell’Arzilla, a hamlet of Pesaro. At Arzilla Calcio they were immediately favourable and with my new shoes I showed up at the field where I would later spend my entire childhood. That is how my football career began.

I stayed at Arzilla Calcio until I was thirteen, because from that age onwards the rules of the time did not allow girls to play with boys. I couldn’t even be part of a girls’ team, because there was no youth sector for girls: at the age of fourteen you immediately joined the first team.

At fourteen I signed up with Senigallia, where I played for five years. There were two teams, the first in Serie B and the second in Serie C. Then with the first team we went up to A2 and A. In the meantime, the camps with the Italian national team also arrived. My first trip in the blue jersey was in Canada with the Under 19, which at the time was the only youth team. We were welcomed with enthusiasm, the stadiums were full of girls who played in colleges even using shin guards. A different world compared to Italy.

That experience with the national team gave me great motivation throughout my long journey with the blue jersey, which I wore at European Championships, World Championships and other events. Becoming Captain was the icing on the cake.

I would have had the opportunity to leave Senigallia even before I was nineteen, but at the time women’s football was not professional and the teams did not offer the possibility of boarding. So, together with my parents I decided to finish my studies, and then go where I wanted. And so in 2005 I left for Turin, the first stop of a long career in Serie A, with a stint also in Bayern Munich and several injuries to resolve.

I stopped playing football in 2020 and returned to Santa Maria dell’Arzilla, in Pesaro, where I took over the Raffa Manieri Academy and Pink Arzilla project. I took care of it personally with Francesco Marcucci and the rest of the staff. With patience and dedication we brought the projects to life as they are today. I am very proud of it.

Now Raffa Manieri Academy and Pink Arzilla mostly walk alone, thanks to the protocols we have established and a close-knit and passionate team. I have undertaken a path in the FIGC, obtaining the following licenses: ⁠professional football observer, Uefa B, Uefa A, Sports Director.

“The mixed team: necessity is the mother of invention” is the title of the thesis with which I graduated from Coverciano in the Sports Director course, a work that was chosen by the examination commission as the best thesis of the course and which earned me the scholarship offered by the Technical Sector. Truly a great satisfaction.

Now I travel around Italy as a teacher for the FIGC, a role in which I bring back every day everything I have learned during my career, both on a human and technical level.