Female Academy: the mid-season balance

With our Female Academy as well on a Christmas hiatus and with all commitments to resume at the dawn of the New Year, it is high time to draw a balance of all our Female Youth sides: this season, as a tangible embodiment of Atalanta’s growing commitment towards the Female Academy, the F-sides welcomed a new entry, thus moving from five teams as of the previous season to the current roster of six and consequently comprising an age gap which encompasses players born as late as 2006 to as early as 2012. Ranging from the Under 17 to the 7-a-side peewee team, Atalanta’s Female Youth Sector welcomes a tally of 108 enlisted players.

Donning deservingly and without a shadow of a doubt the title of flagship team of Atalanta’s F-Academy, the Under 17 is coached by Michele Frigerio and comprises players born between 2006 and 2007. Currently competing in Group C of the championship, the black-and-blue lasses have never tasted defeat thus far: on the grounds of their 12 victories in as many matches (thus accruing 36 points) and their impressive tally of 145 goals, they have imposed themselves as the leading force of their group, even more considering their victories in the head-to-head matches against both Brescia and Cortefranca, their closest rivals in the standing. The very home fixture against Cortefranca on the 8th of January will mark the resumption of league fixtures.

Likewise, the Under 15 side, coached by Gennaro De Maria, can flaunt a spotless run of 12 victories in as many fixtures. On the premises of their tally of 36 points and 91 goals scored, the black-and-blue players born as late as 2008 have been rightfully crowned winter champions of Group C. As well as for the U-15, they came out on top from the head-to-head outing against Uesse Sarnico, their closest rivals in the standings. On the 8th of January, league fixtures are to resume with the home match against Cortefranca.

Despite competing under the age requirement, the U15 B team, coached by Alberto Signorelli and comprising athletes born no later than 2009, have provided up-to-par solid performances so far: despite the aforementioned 1-year age gap, the tally of 110 goals scored and the 34 points accrued after 12 matches - resulting from 11 victories and with only the draw against Brescia denying our lasses of a flawless first half of the season, yet with the closest pursuers in the run for the title already defeated in the re-match of the 2nd leg - allowed the U15-B to seize the top of the standings of group D. The next fixture awaiting the U15-B on the 8th of January, the date set for the resumption of the league, will be the outing against Calcio Desenzano. Despite being denied access to the inter-regional phase per regulation (unlike the A-team competing in Group D), the black-and-blue players are garnering invaluable experience that will stand them in good stead throughout their footballing growth.

Moving to the grassroots female sides, we want to foreground the work carried out by, respectively, Giuseppe Zonca’s Under 13; Michele Ghisu’s Under 12 and Diego Fasolini’s Under 11- highlighting their lion’s share in ensuring the implementation of a model of upbringing balance between learning and leisure while capable of nurturing a continuous personal and professional growth in the meantime.