Sara Gama retires: “My pride, my gratitude”

With his daily example, with his ambition and discipline, with the responsibility of a personal story that is of many; Sara Gama In recent years it has been the most representative figure and figurine of Italian women’s football. He retired from competitive activity in these hours. He descends from the carousel at 36 years old, with a smile and no regret as always.

«Today I kick that ball and let him go. With pride, with gratitude, with a full heart: it is my farewell to football played. The love for this sport and for his people remains with me forever, “he says in a long video message during which he retraces the stages of his career. That ball began to chase him on the Barcolana promenade when he was a little girl, In Trieste, where she was born daughter of Congolese father and Trieste mother.

He was the only child in a male team. It was at that moment that the prejudices began to kick (also). A courageous captain, Sara Gama. Even when he had not linked that white band to his arm which then became his distinctive sign.

He was not the strongest footballer of our football, he knows it well. But he is aware of having been – probably – the most important. Why the most recognized and recognizable. It is no coincidence that for her – the only Italian sports car – a special Barbie has been created.

It was a model for a whole generation that – looking at her play – thought yes, the road was long, but it was worth walking. The stages of his career are known: the debut in Serie A with Tavagnacco at seventeen years, the first time in blue in Nineteen (140 overall appearances, in February of last year he gave the official farewell to the national team), the leader of Italian women’s football leader e The World Cup in France in 2019 who confirm it among the best footballers in the world, the experiences abroad, between Los Angeles and Paris, the great successes – 13 trophies (6 championships, 3 Italian Cup and 4 Super Cup) put on the bulletin board in eight seasons – with Juventus in the age of the maturity.

And it is precisely to Juventus that Gama, at the time of taking leave, gives a caress. «Many trophies and many battles. But above all, a club that also made the dreams that we didn’t know we had. ». And Juventus greeted it thus through his social channels: “Thanks for what you taught us and for everything you did by wearing our shirt, your shirt. It would have been impossible to want better ».

The president of the FIGC Gabriele Gravina said: “Having been able to share all this with her has been and will remain a privilege”. So instead Federica Cappelletti, the president of the women’s Serie A division: «Sara has been the protagonist in first person of a cultural change that continues every day in a more decisive way: an awareness that football is one, without gender distinction. Thanks from all of us women to Sara, an extraordinary leader of a thousand battles, and Gama, a very high level footballer ».

His is a beautiful story that tells of dreams, sacrifices, integration. And it is a story that summarizes many stories. Graduated in foreign languages ​​and literatures at the University of Udine, it speaks four languages ​​(in addition to the Italian, also English, French and Spanish) and has always distinguished itself, on every occasion: competitive and not, for its wise words, marked byinclusion.

To the girls of today, to the colleagues already established and those who dream of a future in a football field, Gama has given sincere words and the trace of a journey: “There is a long way to do but we will always travel next to each other, whether on the field or that it is elsewhere”. And finally when he says that “love for this sport and for his people remains with me forever” leaves a glimmer open for his role in Italian women’s football.