The project lasted from September 2012 till August 2013
In September 2012 Football and Roma (together with the non profit organisation Opera Nomadi Milano)
founded a new soccer training group for Italian Sinti. The girls and boys involved in the project are living
together in a camp in the peripherie of Treviglio, a town at the edge of Milan.
Little equipment, much enthusiasm
The team is composed of eight children between 9 and 13 years old. For now they are training
on a pasture area in the neighbourhood. For the moment this is the best solution as it allows the other children
living in the camp (and not yet involved in the activity) to easily join the team. In the long term, we are
searching for an appropriate sports ground in order to run training sessions and to eventually hold friendship
games against other teams.
More female than male footballers
To be honest the girls have been dreaming of ballet and dance lessons rather than dribbling and passing.
However all of the children are very athletic and for a while have regularly been playing soccer in school
with their class mates. Hence they have been very enthuasiastic about the idea straight away. The eight children
currently involved in the team have a good basic knowledge about the rules, very good fitness and a grasp of
football specific skills. The two coaches, Ines and Laura, are therefore very confident concerning their possible
improvement as soccer players.
Football and ballet?!
The children's development in the area of soccer is the main focus of the new project of Football and Roma and
Opera Nomadi. However the broad range of the children's interests (dancing, gymnastics, ballet,
athletics) will be satisfied as we will offer them additional activities such as a ballet lessons from time to time
in order to nurture the kids' motor skills and to give them the chance to try different types of sport activities.
The final project report 2013
you may read ...here
