Fondazione Milan in the Community – “Sport is not a gender issue” with Breda secondary school
In spite of the ongoing crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the work between the Fondazione Milan and VITA has not come to a halt, with the Rossoneri’s players still making themselves available to respond to questions from students at Lombardy’s schools.
On Thursday 30 April, Valentina Bergamaschi and Alessia Piazza, an attacker and a goalkeeper for our Women’s First Team, logged on from their own homes to an online class of roughly 110 boys and girls from the Breda Secondary School in Sesto San Giovanni in the province of Milan.
This appointment came in light of the growing number of students wanting to pursue a career in football, and Valentina and Alessia’s words and responses to questions were a way to encourage the pupils’ determination in chasing their dreams. Both underlined how “it’s necessary to nurture your passions and keep on pursuing your dreams. The secret to seeing them come true is to always believe in them and never give up.”
Bergamaschi and Piazza spoke about how they got into football, their relationships with their respective families who never stood in their way and their positions on the pitch. Alessia began: “I was born a goalkeeper, I started because my friends told me to go in goal, and on the way home I told my parents that I wanted a set of goalkeeper gloves.” For Valentina meanwhile, her journey was one of evolution: “I began as a midfielder, but over the years my coaches moves me further forwards and then out wide to make the most of my technical characteristics.”
To get to the highest level, however, you need to show sacrifice and dedication alongside your passion, but it’s all worth it when you get the results, and it all becomes a beautiful surprise that comes back day after day. Plenty of points for discussion came out during the chat, the value of the group being one of these: “Being a team is an added value compared to what every individual brings to the table, it’s the glue that holds us together and takes us the distance.”
