In our spare time, I’m sure we all love to play armchair Director of Sport. Whether it’s on Football Manager, EA FC, or simply in our minds, building a squad from scratch and watching it blossom is one of the best parts of being a fan. However, unlike North American sports, where expansion teams occasionally appear out of the blue, football fans seldom, if ever, get to witness a club spring from nothing to champions.
But Roma fans have been able to do just that. Since the club’s women’s team, affectionately
known as the Giallorosse, was founded, we’ve watched Head of Women’s Football Betty Bavagnoli take an idea on paper and turn it into a trophy-collecting machine. Since the club’s creation in 2018, the Giallorosse have won three league Scudetti, three Coppa Italias, and two Supercoppas, while also appearing in the Champions League in each of the past four seasons.
And when constructing a brand new football team, one of the first questions you have to ask is, who’s going to score the goals? For Roma, that was Martina Piemonte. At the time, the statuesque forward from Ravenna was a bit too rough around the edges to truly lead the line, but the potential was clear: she had the size and technique to be a problem for opponents.
It just took a bit of seasoning outside of Roma to reach that point. Since leaving the Giallorosse, Piemonte has become one of Italy’s finest forwards, grabbing 39 goals in her past three Serie A seasons, including 26 over the past two seasons with Lazio.
Fortunately for us, Piemonte has come to her senses and returned to Rome’s proper football club.
Earlier today, the club officially announced they have re-signed Piemonte, now 27 years old. Unlike her first tour at the Tre Fontane, Piemonte will be the main option for Roma as they transition to life without forwards Emilie Haavi, Evelyne Viens and Giulia Dragoni, who returned to Barcelona after a two-year loan with Roma.
