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CREDITS

Sirene Milano is not only the first Italian women's American football team but a family, in which different personalities coexist and complement each other. Discipline, perseverance and mutual trust are some of the founding values for the group, united by a strong sense of belonging and ready to fight together to achieve their dreams, including spreading the discipline of women's football in Italy and Europe.

Unlike other sports traditionally thought of as feminine, in which competition between female teammates is completely unavoidable, this community lives everything in reverse: eager to legitimize their passion against stereotypes and prejudices, they challenge the old and ingrained thought that girls cannot challenge each other in a sport with a high percentage of physical contact by running until the goal, what they themselves call a touchdown, is achieved.

For me, the Sirene are a family, my reference point and my joy.

"Il football mi ha aiutato tanto a credere nell’amicizia tra donne. È facile pensare, anche per un discorso culturale interiorizzato dalla società, che nei gruppi di donne ci sia più competizione che coesione."

American football is the art of staying on your feet when everyone is trying to knock you down. You learn to get back up, with the help of your teammates, thinking about the goal, the touchdown.

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Fiorenza Bonetti

78 Center

A veteran of the Sirene and the focal point of every play, Fiore is a valuable member of the team. From her beginnings to today's successes, she has always followed one of the basic rules of football, trying to pass it on to all members of the team: keep your head up for yourself and throw yourself into it, because it always matters what you can build rather than the result in the immediate moment.

Football is a complex discipline, and internalizing unnatural movements becoming able to make them natural and spontaneous takes a lot of work. The results can be seen in every game, but according to Fiore, there is still a long way to go to legitimize football as a women's sport:

"Stereotypes in football towards female players have given me many bad moments, but something is changing. It is our achievements that have brought us to where we are today, but the patriotic conception that takes the spotlight away from American football makes the terrain still slippery to get official recognition, let alone to be recognized as professionals."

On the other side, it feels like home in the Sirene, even off the field, both because of the atmosphere of complicity between the girls and the shared collective moments. The huddle for example, is a moment when at the end of each game the coach or captain calls the whole team together and says a few words to keep the group's morale up, all ending with the team shouting in chorus. It is rituals like these that keep the players' morale high, even if it is still not enough.

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