The Vatican City women's national football team is the team that represents

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

association football 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 ...

and is under the control of the

Vatican Amateur Sports Association The Amateur Sports Association ( it, Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica "Sport in Vaticano") is an Italian sports association of employees who work in the Vatican City. The Association is headquartered in Italy and has an operative office in ...

, 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.

History

At Vatican Family Day in June 2018, a group of women 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 Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù (''Baby Jesus Paediatric Hospital'') is a tertiary care academic children's hospital located in Rome that is under extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Holy See. As a tertiary children referral centre, the hosp ...

. 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 ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

of the women's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

, the highest level of women's

football in Italy Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times ( 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only ...

. 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 The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

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 (women's third division) side FC Mariahilf at a stadium in

Simmering Simmering is a food preparation technique by which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept just below the boiling point of water (lower than ) and above poaching temperature (higher than ). To create a steady simmer, a liquid is brought to a boil, ...

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 Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...

t-shirts under their jerseys during the playing of Vatican City's national anthem.

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 anbout 20 to 25 women between the ages of 25 and 50 comprised the squad. There were only lay workers and no

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s 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.

Team image

Kits and crest

As of 2019 the team wears an all yellow

Givova Givova is an Italian manufacturing company located in Scafati. The company, founded in 2008 by Giovanni Acanfora, produces a wide range of sports equipment (mainly focused on the association football market but also covering other sports) that incl ...

top with the Sport Association logo in the center of the chest.

Home stadium

The Vatican City women's national football team plays their home matches on the Campo Pio XI.

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled. ;Legend

2019

Coaching staff

Current coaching staff

Notable players

* Eugenie Tcheugoue - captain

Manager history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vatican City Women's National Football Team European national and official selection-teams not affiliated to FIFA

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...