Cecilia Salvai

Italian footballer

Cecilia Salvai
Salvai with Brescia in 2016
Personal information
Date of birth (1993-12-02) 2 December 1993 (age 30)[1]
Place of birth Pinerolo, Italy
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Centre back
Team information
Current team
 Juventus
Number 23
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008–2009 Canavese 4 (1)
2009–2012 Torino 60 (4)
2012–2013 Lugano
2013–2016 Verona 54 (5)
2016–2017 Brescia 19 (0)
2017– Juventus 91 (4)
International career
2010–2012 Italy U19 9 (1)
2012 Italy U20 3 (0)
2013– Italy 60 (3)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 5 December 2023

Cecilia Salvai (born 2 December 1993) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Serie A club Juventus FC and the Italy women's national team. She has represented Italy U19 at the 2011 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship.[2]

Personal life

Salvai contracted and was treated for Hodgkin lymphoma at age four.[3]

In 2019, she married amateur footballer and member of Fortitudo Mozzecane Women's staff Matteo Borgese near Asti.[4]

Club career

Salvai started her professional career with Canavese in 2008, and after a single season she moved to Torino, where she developed into a regular for the Turinese club. The team's website described her as "without doubt, the player with most appeal in Torino's roster."[5] She plays primarily as a left-back, but she can move to become a centre-back when needed.

Before the start of the 2012–13 season, she moved to Swiss club Rapid Lugano, and left at the end of the season to return to Italy, as she signed with Veronese club Bardolino Verona.[6] On 11 July 2016, ahead of the 2016–17 season, she joined ACF Brescia Femminile.[7] She joined Juventus starting in the 2017–18 season.[1]

In August 2021, the Juventus Twitter account posted an image of Salvai using her fingers to pull back her eyes while wearing a training cone on her head.[8][9] The tweet was soon deleted, and the club apologized.[10]

International career

Under-19

During the 2011 Championship Salvai was named on the starting XI of the opening group stage match against Russia.[11] She did no play in the second group stage match against Switzerland,[12] but she scored the equalizer against Belgium in an eventual 3–1 win for the azzurre.[2] Italy reached the semi-finals unbeaten, but eventually lost 2–3 to Norway.[13]

She was also called for the first qualifying round for the 2012 Championship, and she started all three matches[14][15][16] as Italy advanced to the second qualifying round, where, again, she was a regular and started all three matches.[17][18][19] Italy, however, finished second in its group and last amongst the runners-up, and therefore did not advance to the final tournament.

Under-20

Salvai was called by Italy's U-20 coach Corrado Corradini to take part in the 2012 World Cup, where she was a starter in all three group stage matches. As Italy finished last in Group B, they did not play any other match.

Senior

Salvai made her début for the senior team on 19 September 2012, as Italy faced Greece in the final qualification match before UEFA Women's Euro 2013.[20] She started the first two group stage matches against Finland and Denmark but did not play against Sweden, as Italy advanced to the quarter-finals.

International goals

No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 8 June 2018 Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy  Portugal 2–0 3–0 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
2. 24 February 2021  Israel 6–0 12–0 UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying
3. 5 December 2023 Stadio Ennio Tardini, Parma, Italy  Switzerland 2–0 3–0 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League

Honours

Juventus

  • Serie A: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22
  • Coppa Italia: 2018–19, 2021–22 [it]
  • Supercoppa Italiana: 2019, 2020–21, 2021–22

Individual

  • AIC Best Women's XI: 2019[21]

References

  1. ^ a b Profile on football.it in Football.it
  2. ^ a b uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Belgium-Italy – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  3. ^ JuventusNews24, Redazione (16 February 2022). "Salvai si racconta: «A 4 anni curata da un linfoma»". Juventus News 24 (in Italian). Retrieved 16 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Cecilia Salvai si è sposata" (in Italian). 16 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Cecilia Salvai". Archived from the original on 17 July 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  6. ^ "Nuovi arrivi: Cecilia Salvai – AGSM Verona". www.veronacalciofemminile.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  7. ^ "Salvai è del Brescia". ACF Brescia Femminile (in Italian). 11 July 2016. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  8. ^ Toyin Owoseje. "Juventus apologizes for racist post shared on women's team's Twitter feed". CNN. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Juventus say they made 'an unforgivable mistake' after racist tweet appeared on their women's team feed". Sky Sports. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  10. ^ "Juventus 'sincerely apologise' for tweet". BBC Sport.
  11. ^ uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Italy-Russia – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  12. ^ uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Italy-Switzerland – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  13. ^ uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Italy-Norway – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  14. ^ "Italy-Armenia | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  15. ^ "North Macedonia-Italy | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  16. ^ "Italy-Austria | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  17. ^ "Spain-Italy | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  18. ^ "Italy-Scotland | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  19. ^ "Russia-Italy | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  20. ^ uefa.com. "UEFA Women's EURO 2013 - History - Greece-Italy Lineups – UEFA.com". Uefa.com.
  21. ^ "Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners". Football Italia. 2 December 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cecilia Salvai.
  • Cecilia Salvai – UEFA competition record (archive)
  • Cecilia Salvai at Soccerway
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Juventus FC (women) – current squad
Italy squads
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Italy squad – UEFA Women's Euro 2013
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Italy squad – UEFA Women's Euro 2017
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Italy squad – 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
Italy