Italy women’s soccer team roster: players, profiles, stars

As part of a collaboration with the Guardian and other leading newspapers from each of the World Cup’s participating nations, we bring you an in-depth guide to the Italy squad for the upcoming tournament.

It was written by La7′s Martina Angelini, and Luca Bianchin of La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Goalkeepers

Francesca Durante

Club: Inter Milan

Date of birth: February, 12 1997

Her club form could not have been better during the 2022-23 season and she arrives at the World Cup with a real chance of overtaking Laura Giuliani as the No 1 goalkeeper for Italy. The coach, Milena Bertolini, has rotated goalkeepers in 2023 but there is a real opening for Durante, who is a flamboyant keeper who decided to focus on football after some serious reflection. “I used to play both football and tennis but then I realised I skipped every tennis tournament to play football.” Durante is studying electronic engineering, loves to play the guitar and in January 2023 won the eBay Values Award for her behaviour off the pitch. “I’ve always had a passion for studying,” she says. During the 2020-21 campaign, with Verona, she wore the No 2 shirt rather than the more customary No 1.

Laura Giuliani

Club: Milan

Date of birth: June 6, 1993

Was the No 1 at both the 2019 World Cup and Euro 2022 but has had a topsy-turvy season for her hometown club, Milan, whom she joined in 2021 after four straight scudettos with Juventus. Her experience, however, may see her start in Australia and New Zealand too. “I’ve played against so many talented strikers,” she once said before picking out Vivianne Miedema and Dzsenifer Marozsan as the most difficult ones. The self-confessed cat-lover has reached the top the hard way and while playing in the Frauen-Bundesliga, she worked in a factory packaging DVDs, was a waitress in a restaurant, a bartender and, at one point, doing night shifts at a bakery. “Being a baker was not easy,” she revealed in 2019. “But I told myself it was the only job I could do to be able to train during the day.” Very environmentally aware, Giuliani is part of a non-profit organisation called Plastic Free.

Rachele Baldi

Club: Fiorentina

Date of birth: October 2, 1994

Was in a race to be the third goalkeeper at the tournament with her clubmate Katja Schroffenegger and came out on the winning side. Not the tallest at 1.75m but she is an explosive goalkeeper with great reflexes. She made her Italy debut at the Arnold Clark Cup in February. “I agree with the cliché that goalkeepers are always a bit crazy,” she said. “We always throw ourselves on the ground, maybe on a muddy pitch full of puddles.” Growing up, two American goalkeepers became her role models: Hope Solo and Ashlyn Harris. A cat lover she once named one of hers “Gol”.

Defenders

Elisa Bartoli

Club: Roma

Date of birth: May 7, 1991

Twenty-two years after a certain Francesco Totti, Bartoli managed to do what so many football-loving kids born in the Italian capital dream of but so few can experience: winning the scudetto as captain of their home town club, Roma. A great story of never-say-die attitude and determination, Bartoli has worked hard to overcome injuries to lead the club to their first Serie A title. “When I was little I was a bit shy, introverted,” she recalled. “Then football helped me. I remember watching Roma play together with my family, my uncles, my cousins. The best days of my life. When Roma lost, the house plunged into silence. When Roma won, the house rocked.” An art lover, Bartoli has said she would have liked to meet the Italian painter Caravaggio, who lived towards the end of the 16th century.

Lisa Boattin

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: May 3, 1997

The 26-year-old was voted Serie A player of the year in 2022 and although she could not repeat it this season she is a reliable option for the coach, Milena Bertolini. “I did swimming and gymnastics as a child but on the day of my first recital I locked myself in my room and refused to go out. I felt ashamed of wearing a tutu,” she once said. So Boattin became a footballer instead, thereby fulfilling her father’s dream. Juventus have had several offers for her in the past but have always turned them down. Has somehow acquired strange nicknames such as “Fagiolo” (Bean) and “Cipollotta” (spring onion) from her teammates on social media. On Valentine’s Day Boattin and her Swedish clubmate Linda Sembrant announced on the club’s Instagram account that they were in a relationship and they now face each at the World Cup in Wellington on 29 July.

Lucia Di Guglielmo

Club: Roma

Date of birth: June 26, 1997

It is fair to say that Di Guglielmo arrives at the World Cup after an emotional rollercoaster of a season. She endured the frustration of missing six months of the campaign because of a tendon injury but recovered in time to help Roma win their first ever scudetto. A right-back who can also play on the left, Di Guglielmo knows how to both attack and defend, her speed a particular asset in counterattacks. In addition she is also a good tackler. Di Guglielmo and the former Juventus striker Andrea Favilli, now at Ternana, share a curious story. When they were children, they played together for six seasons, in the mixed team of Polisportiva Arci Zambra in Cascina, a small town near Pisa. They both made it to Serie A and they both played with the maglia azzurra (Favilli with the men’s youth teams, Di Guglielmo with the women’s senior team). In 2019 she graduated from the University of Pisa with a degree in chemistry.

Martina Lenzini

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: July 23, 1998

From Frignano in the south to the national team, that is the journey Lenzini has made, just like Luca Toni did on the men’s side in the 2000s. Lenzini grew up in Fanano, just a few kilometres from Pavullo, where Toni was born, and she is very attached to her place of origin. And the feeling is mutual. Last year, before the Euros, the local council unveiled a giant Panini sticker of Lenzini on one of the stadium’s walls. A versatile player, Lenzine can play across the back, which pretty much guarantees her a place for club and country. Juventus has always been in her blood. “I was a week old when a neighbour gave me a black and white onesie,” she said once. So perhaps destiny played a part when she signed for Juve in 2017. After three years on loan at Sassuolo she has now been a permanent fixture for Juventus in the past two seasons, winning the scudetto in 2021-22.

Elena Linari

Club: Roma

Date of birth: April 15, 1994

This has already been a good year for Linari. She has just won her fourth scudetto, the first with Roma, being one of the protagonists, and is set to be a certain starter for Italy at a World Cup being played in New Zealand, the home of her idol Jonah Lomu. Her father was a rugby player and she grew up watching videos of Lomu and the All Blacks. “I am honoured to play in New Zealand. I am going to buy some rugby shirts because this sport means so much to me,” she told fifa.com. Will have to take on added responsibilities at the World Cup with experienced defender Sara Gama left out of the squad but, as one of Elena Linari’s many tattoos reads, “per aspera ad astra” – “through difficulties, up to the stars”.

Benedetta Orsi

Club: Sassuolo

Date of birth: February 25, 2000

Started playing mainly tennis but switched to football at 13 after learning that she had a benign tumour in her shoulder. She had surgery to remove it and wasted no time before launching her into her new sporting career. “I started as a striker, then I played on the wing. I tried playing in midfield and finally found out that my best position is centre-back,” she has said. At 23, she is a starter for Sassuolo, the club of her hometown, and made her Italy debut in 2022. She has admitted that she once travelled around Italy with Maria Luisa Filangeri, now a teammate at Sassuolo, lying to their parents about what they were doing so that they wouldn’t be found out. Her maverick days seem to be over, though. “I seem to have aged prematurely,” she joked in an interview recently. “In the evening I stay at home, drink camomile tea and fall asleep at 9.30pm.”

Cecilia Salvai

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: December 2, 1993

Must surely be one of the unluckiest players of this World Cup. She has missed the last two major tournaments by falling victim to the ACL curse before the 2019 World Cup and Euro 2022. It is a testament to her fighting spirit that she has made it into this squad and is ready to help the coach, Milena Bertolini, when called upon. Was in the eye of the storm in 2021 when Juventus published a photo of her narrowing her eyes with her finger while having a red cone on her head. “We would like to express our deepest apologies,” Juve said in a statement. “The club had committed an unforgivable mistake, that has seriously hurt the feelings of many people.” A football lover since she was young, Salvai met her husband Marco on a football pitch and was one of the 11 ambassadors chosen by Zalando for the #ActivistsofOptimism campaign.

Midfielders

Arianna Caruso

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: November 6, 1999

Caruso’s career has not worked out quite the way her dad had hoped, one assumes. A diehard Roma fan, Mr Caruso introduced his daughter to the game at a young age and it all started well. She entered the Totti Football School and once even met the captain herself. “I was crazy about Totti and I remember crying when I saw him,” she has said. However, in 2017 she was snapped up by Juventus, one of Roma’s fiercest rivals, and is now an emblem for the Turin club, having played more games than anyone else for the women’s side. A skilful midfielder and a good reader of the game, Caruso is capable of weighing in with goals too and was the only player who got into double figures in assists in the 2022-23 Serie A season. She still remembers the time she nearly got into the Roma boys academy. “When I was really young, I impressed the Roma coaches and I still remember their faces when they found out that I was a girl.”

Valentina Cernoia

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: June 22, 1991

This summer marks the end of an era for Cernoia as she is leaving Juventus after a superbly successful six-year spell, which included five consecutive Serie A titles, three Italian Cups and three Italian Super Cups. Back in 2018, when Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Juventus, fans of the women’s team started to call Cernoia VC7 because of her shirt number and she outlived the Portuguese at the club by some distance. However, last season was difficult as her playing time decreased and Juve lost the scudetto to Roma. One of the best Italian players of her generation, she started out as a left-back – and a Milan fan. “Paolo Maldini was my role model, as a man and as a captain,” she once said. As her career progressed, however, she developed into a fine midfielder with an exquisite left foot.

Giulia Dragoni

Club: Barcelona

Date of birth: November 7, 2006

The biggest surprise of them all in the Italy squad – but only because of her age, not because of her talent. Always considered destined for success, Dragoni was included in the World Cup squad at the age of 16, having made her debut against Morocco the day before. In January, she became the first-ever foreign female player to move in at La Masia, the legendary Barcelona academy. Quite natural for a player that at 10 earned the nickname “little Messi” for her skills. “Frankly, I don’t think I can live up to the nickname,” she said, understandably. This year Dragoni has played with Barcelona B and not yet made her debut for the first time. That should happen next season as she is due to start training with the European Champions on a regular basis. Started playing at the age of four with her brother and at 10 she regularly played with boys at Pro Sesto. She is a supremely gifted midfielder with an exceptional view of the pitch and understanding of the game.

Manuela Giugliano

Club: Roma

Date of birth: August 18, 1997

The only No 10 allowed in Rome these days. Playing for a club that retired the hallowed shirt for the men’s side when Francesco Totti ended his career, Giugliano has taken over the mantle as a scudetto-winning hero. After Roma Women won their first ever scudetto this spring, she had a tattoo made of the badge and she impressed enough in Europe to be included in the Sofascore Champions League XI of the season. “Red Cloud” is the perfect nickname for her – reflecting the colour of her hair while offering a nice metaphor for a style of play, full of soft and elegant touches. One of Italy’s key players, she can be deadly with her incisive through balls. Despite her diminutive stature, Giugliano makes her presence felt in midfield in both defence and attack. “My father worked for the Italian Air Force, so we lived in a military village,” she once told Roma’s website. “I started playing there, with my father and brother”.

Giada Greggi

Club: Roma

Date of birth: February 18, 2000

Greggi was only 14 years old when she made her Serie A debut back in 2014. Nine years later she has developed into an experienced and versatile player who can play anywhere across midfield. Not the tallest of players but she compensates for her lack of height with excellent stamina and technique. A great passer of the ball, she often outruns her opponents and is great at reading the game, intercepting the ball and firing off a shot. Not the most frequent of goalscorers but she did get one in the 2-1 win against Fiorentina this season which sealed Roma’s scudetto. Greggi is a hardcore Roma fan and cried tears of joy when an injured Elisa Bartoli handed her the captain’s armband. “I learned from Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi how important the armband is,” she said. “I felt a great responsibility and happiness.”

Emma Severini

Club: Fiorentina

Date of birth: July 18, 2003

The midfielder made her debut for Italy against Morocco on July 1 and the day after she was named in the World Cup squad by the coach, Milena Bertolini. It was quite a surprise for everyone. “It was incredibly emotional,” she said after her debut. “This was my childhood dream, I will remember this day for ever.” Severini is a complete midfielder, one of the best players in a Fiorentina side that had a very topsy-turvy season. Her story with the maglia azzurra goes back further than this year though as she captained both the Under-17 and Under-19 sides before representing the Under-23s too. “My football reference is Andrés Iniesta,” she said. “My goal is to play like him, even if I understand that it is quite a hard target to reach.” She comes from a sporting family and her sister Giulia is a very good middle distance runner.

Forward

Chiara Beccari

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: September 27, 2004

“It would be a dream to play in a World Cup at 18,” Beccari said in March and here she is, one of the biggest talents of her generation being picked for the squad and thus keeping that dream alive. Has been described as a possible heir to Cristiana Girelli and has all the attributes to succeed in the game: quick, strong and with an eye for the goal. She made her debut for the Azzurre senior team in April, against Colombia, and immediately provided an assist to Valentina Giacinti. Spent last season on loan at Como from Juventus but will soon be able to fight for her place in the bianconere team. “I have often been told that I need to realise my potential,” she once said. “I am just starting to believe in myself and up until now this could be my biggest weakness.” Born in San Marino (so not Italy) she is the daughter of Mauro Beccari, a former baseball player. “I don’t really like studying but I know it is something that has to be done properly,” she once said. “I prefer to play FIFA.”

Barbara Bonansea

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: June 13, 1991

An all-time hero of the women’s game in Italy, she became a proper national star at the 2019 World Cup when she scored two goals in Italy’s surprise win over Australia. After the game, Rai, the Italian public television network, went to interview her parents, who used to follow her around in a camper van to watch her games. Still at the top of her game both for la Nazionale and Juventus at the age of 32: in June she scored a last-minute winner against Roma to hand Juve the Italian Cup. A winger with a rare ability to read the game and score goals, Bonansea was the first female Italian player to have Mino Raiola as her agent. She recently became an ambassador for Fondazione Arpa, which works to support clinical and scientific research and to promote the education of doctors in Italy.

Sofia Cantore

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: September 30, 1999

If you see one of the Italian players, right before a game is about to kick off, walk from the penalty spot to the goalline, it is likely to be Cantore. “It’s a superstition,” she says. “If the steps are even, it’s a good sign. If they are odd, it isn’t.” She started out playing in the local chapel, where they organised mixed seven-a-side tournaments. “I considered all the boys I played with as my brothers. And I was often faster than them,” she has said. It did not take long before Juventus came calling and Cantore accepted the offer, despite her passion for Inter as a club and Diego Milito in particular. Cantora is a central striker but also capable of playing on the wing, as she did for most of the last season for Juve. She ended up with nine goals but missed the fifth and decisive penalty as Juventus lost the Italian Super Cup to Roma. “People say that I can be a bit stand-off ish but the thing is that when I am nervous I need to be on my own.”

Valentina Giacinti

Club: Roma

Date of birth: January 2, 1994

Remarkably, Giacinti recently confessed that she considered quitting football last year. It was a good thing she did not because last season ended up being arguably her best ever with 20 goals in all competitions and a first scudetto, having moved from Milan to Roma. “With Roma I found my love for football again,” she said and promptly tattooed “Roma, 29 aprile 2023″ on her right arm, the date of the title-clinching game. “My grandmother always gave me dolls as presents,” Giacinti once said. “But I ripped their heads off and played football with them. My parents soon understood that I had another passion”. A forward in her mind and heart, she loves Álvaro Morata’s style of play while, when she was young, she had Christian Vieri as her idol.

Cristiana Girelli

Club: Juventus

Date of birth: April 23, 1990

Girelli is the star player of the Azzurre, a striker who scored three goals at the 2019 Women’s World Cup and helped Juve reach the 2022 Champions League quarter-finals. Remarkably consistent, she has scored 15 goals or more in 10 of the 11 past Serie A seasons. In 2023, she entered the Hall of Fame of Italian football and reached two important milestones: 500 games in club football, 150 of them for Juventus. During the 2019 World Cup, Girelli – the unofficial DJ of the team – chose Macarena as Italy’s soundtrack of the competition. Two years later, she was a special guest at Festival di Sanremo, a song contest extremely popular in Italy. A rare combination of strong will, personality, technique and ability, Girelli is a complete forward.

Benedetta Glionna

Club: Roma

Date of birth: July 26, 1999

A fast and technical winger, Glionna is particularly dangerous in counterattacks when one-on-one against an opponent. In only her second season with Roma, she scored 11 goals, won her third scudetto and showed the national team coach, Milena Bertolini, that she can also play as a central striker. Started her senior career in the the third tier at the tender age of 14 and her path changed for ever when she joined Juventus in 2017. “When I was a little girl I was hyperactive and always wanted to play football with my brother and our friends,” she has said. Off the pitch she loves music: “I played the bass for eight years and I have always been fascinated by music.”

Annamaria Serturini

Club: Roma

Date of birth: May 13, 1998

Another of Roma’s scudetto-winning contingent, the call-up for the World Cup will have given her a huge sense of satisfaction, having been left out of the Euro 2022 squad. A fast, skilful winger, she uses her pace to go past opponents and create chances, and can play on the left or the right. Having started to play football pretty much as soon as she could walk, she scored Roma’s first-ever Seria A goal in 2018. “My mother quit her job to drive me to all my training sessions,” she said. At 25, she is still improving. “Before entering the pitch, I have a ritual,” she said. “I make the sign of the cross three times because I have a lot of faith, then I kiss the tattoo on my wrist with my parents’ initials.”