OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: Juventus Women captain Sara Gama renews through 2024

The only captain that Juventus Women has ever known isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Juventus announced Thursday that Sara Gama, the captain of the club ever since the day she arrived, has agreed to a contract extension through 2024. Gama, who will turn 33 in latw-March, has been with Juve ever since they started a women’s team in 2017 and continues to be at the heart of the team’s impressive defensive numbers.

Despite battling injuries this season, Gama is on the brink of becoming the latest Juventus Women to record 100 appearances for the club.

Gama, who also captains the Italian women’s national team, has been the one to first lift each of the eight trophies Juventus Women have won over the last 4 ¹⁄₂ years, most recently adding the Supercoppa Femminile to their collection. Considering that they will begin the second half of the 2021-22 season with an eight-point lead over second-place Roma, there’s a very good chance that the Juve women will be adding at least one more trophy to their spot at the J Museum before the summer of 2022 arrives.

For Gama, this comes as no surprise seeing as she’s still a regular starter when fit. First-year manager Joe Montemurro has done an admirable job managing Gama’s minutes this season, giving the likes of Martina Lenzini — who spent the last two years on loan at Sassuolo before coming back to Juve this past summer — plenty of minutes despite being the No. 3 center back while Linda Sembrant rehabs her knee injury.

What Gama brings is so much more than just her still quality defensive skills on the field. There is one unquestioned leader on this team — and it’s the woman with the No. 3 jersey who wears the captain’s armband. It’s been that way for nearly five years now, and it’s not going to change for at least two more. She may be surrounded by some other really good players, but this is still very much a Gama-led team. And that is something that is never going to be a bad thing.