Aricca Vitanza is an Italian-American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. She most recently played in Italy for Pink Sport Time Bari of

Serie A (women's football) The Serie A (), also called Serie A Femminile TIM due to sponsorship by TIM, is the highest league of women's football in Italy. Established in 1968, it has been run by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) since the 2018–19 season, and curr ...

Early life

Vitanza started her career playing in AYSO, AYSO Allstars, and Coast Soccer Premier League. She attended Oak Park High School (California) and played on the women's Varsity soccer team where she helped the team become Tri Valley League Champions as well as a CIF Participant. Vitanza won the Tri Valley League Coaches Honorable Mention during her first year on the team.

Playing career

ŽFK Mašinac PZP

Vitanza began her professional career in Nis, Serbia when she signed with top women's club ŽFK Mašinac PZP Niš in 2007. In signing with the club, she made history (along with her sister Catiana Vitanza) by becoming the first female American players to play in the Balkans. She played with Mašinac for the second half of their 2006/2007 season, coming in second place in the league. In 2008, Vitanza again returned to the club and helped them become champions of the Serbian Prva Liga as well as win the Serbian League Cup. She went on to aid Mašinac in UEFA Women's Champions League 2008–09 (formerly known as

2008–09 UEFA Women's Cup The UEFA Women's Cup 2008–09 is the eighth edition of the UEFA Women's Cup football club tournament (since rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League), the most important trophy in European club football. The first qualifying round started on ...

Torres Calcio Femminile

At the start of the 2008/09 Serie A season, Vitanza signed with Italian club Torres Calcio Femminile. She helped Torres finish in second place in the

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (Italian language, Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in ...

and earn their spot in

UEFA Women's Champions League 2009-10 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs fo ...

. Vitanza also aided Torres in becoming champions of the

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

competition, in which they defeated rivals A.S.D. CF Bardolino in the finals. Following Supercoppa competition, Vitanza participated in UEFA Champions League with Torres, in which they went on to defeat champion clubs from various European countries to ultimately reach the quarter-final stage.

Orlandia '97

Vitanza returned to Europe in September 2011 and signed a contract with the newly promoted Italian Serie A club Orlandia '97 for the 2010/2011 season.

SC Heerenveen

Vitanza was invited to play for Dutch Eredivisie club SC Heerenveen for the 2011/2012 season. Her stint at the club had her playing center midfielder.

FCF Como

In September 2012, Vitanza returned to Italy along with her sister Catiana Vitanza and signed with

FCF Como Società Sportiva Dilettantistica Football Club Como Women, known as Como Women or simply Como, is an Italian football club from Como, currently playing in Serie A, the national league's top division of women football. History Founded in 19 ...

for the 2012/2013 season of the Italian

. She played as an attacking midfielder for the club.

W-League and WPSL

During her off seasons from European play, Vitanza played in the USL W-League and WPSL semi-professional leagues in the United States. Vitanza signed with the two-time USL W-League champions Pali Blues for the 2010 summer season of the W-League. The following year, she played for top WPSL club Ajax America Women for the 2012 Summer season. In May 2014, Vitanza played with

Santa Clarita Blue Heat Santa Clarita Blue Heat is an American women's soccer team, founded in 2008. The club was known as the Ventura County Fusion for its first two years of existence. The team plays its home games at Canyon High School. During the Fusion days, they p ...

of the USL W-League.

Pink Sport Time Bari

In January 2015, Vitanza signed with Serie A club Pink Sport Time Bari for the second half of the 2014/2015 season.

Personal life

Vitanza has spent most of her youth and professional careers playing alongside her sister Catiana Vitanza.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitanza, Aricca 1989 births Living people American women's soccer players Pali Blues players American people of Italian descent ŽFK Mašinac PZP Niš players Expatriate women's footballers in Serbia Torres Calcio Femminile players American expatriate sportspeople in Italy Soccer players from Los Angeles Serie A (women's football) players Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards SC Heerenveen (women) players Expatriate women's footballers in the Netherlands Eredivisie (women) players American expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Sportspeople from Ventura County, California A.S.D. Pink Sport Time players Expatriate women's footballers in Italy 21st-century American women S.S.D. F.C. Como Women players Ajax America Women players