Juventus Women captain Sara Gama named VP of Italian Footballers Association

There is no bigger presence in the fight for women’s equality in the Italian football world than Juventus Women captain Sara Gama. She’s outspoken, she’s always looking for a way to make a difference and, maybe most important of all, she isn’t satisfied with the fact that women in Italy will be considered professional footballers in the next few years.

Basically, if you want to follow somebody who is fighting for something that is worth fighting for, then you should get on the Gama bus and let her lead the way like she has done so many times for club and country.

On Monday, Gama made a little bit more history in a country where he footprint on the women’s game is already quite substantial. Gama, currently on international duty with Italy as she works her way back to full fitness following an early-season muscle injury, became the first-ever female to be elected as a vice president on the Italian Footballers Association, as she will serve alongside former midfielder Davide Biondini and new AIC president Umberto Calcagno.

The most impressive thing about this besides the obvious part of making history as the first-ever female VP is that Gama was elected to said role by a vote of her male counterparts. Plenty of names we recognize and have Juventus connections — most notably Leonardo Bonucci, Rolando Mandragora and Emil Audero— cast votes, as well as players like Gianluigi Donnarumma and Francesco Acerbi.

That’s respect right there.

And it’s clear that Gama has it from plenty of her male counterparts.

There’s no reason as to why she shouldn’t garner that kind of respect, either. Gama’s credentials are as impressive as anybody in the women’s game in Italy right now. She’s been the Azzurre’s captain for years, she’s earned over 100 caps for her country and she’s also the captain for the national team as well as the best club in Serie A Femminile. That’s on the field, but off the field she continues to be the driving force that the female players in Italy need leading the way for them. When she speaks, you know it has value and honesty coming along with it. What she says has purpose and has only one true meaning behind it — to try and make this male-dominated sport better for women. And she will continue to fight for that cause for years to come.

That’s why having a female voice in such a high-ranking position means a lot. And there’s no better female voice currently in the women’s game than Gama.

In short, this is just another reason why Sara Gama is a badass. And it’s pretty great that she’s doing all of this while being a part of the first steps in building a strong women’s setup at Juventus.