Pope gives blessing as Vatican launches women’s football team

The Vatican has launched its first women’s football team.

The team will make their debut against AS Roma’s women’s team on May 26.

Staff working within the Vatican and employees’ wives and daughters make up more than half of the team.

Danilo Zennaro, a representative of Sport in Vaticano, an association that organises the Vatican’s football activities, stated:

“Pope Francis has given considerable impulse to women within the Vatican, therefore this initiative is an extension of that.

“We’ve had a men’s team for 48 years so it was only right to offer the possibility to women who work within the Vatican to practise the sport.”

Most of the players are at an amateur level, although three have played football at a high level in the past, including the captain and striker Eugene Tcheugoue, from Cameroon. The team is being managed by Susan Volpini, the secretary of the Women in the Vatican Association.

Their match against AS Roma, will be followed by an international match in Vienna in June, by taking part in a tournament organised by the Vatican’s children’s hospital, Bambino Gesù.