Cecilia Salvai

Cecilia Salvai (born 2 December 1993)[1] is an Italian footballer who plays as a defender for Serie A club Juventus and the Italy national team. She has represented Italy U19 at the 2011 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship.[2]

Cecilia Salvai
Salvai with Brescia in 2016
Personal information
Date of birth (1993-12-02) 2 December 1993
Place of birth Pinerolo, Italy
Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Juventus
Number 23
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008–2009 Canavese 4 (1)
2009–2012 Torino 60 (4)
2012–2013 Lugano
2013–2016 Verona 54 (5)
2016–2017 Brescia 19 (0)
2017– Juventus 60 (1)
National team
2010–2012 Italy U19 9 (1)
2012 Italy U20 3 (0)
2013– Italy 36 (2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 25 September 2021

Early life

Aged 4, Salvai was affected by the Hodgkin lymphoma.[3]

Club career

Salvai started her professional career with Canavese in 2008, and after a single season she moved to Torino, where she developed into a regular for the Turinese club. The team's website described her as "without doubt, the player with most appeal in Torino's roster."[4] She plays primarily as a left-back, but she can move to become a centre-back when needed.

Before the start of the 2012–13 season, she moved to Swiss club Rapid Lugano, and left at the end of the season to return to Italy, as she signed with Veronese club Bardolino Verona.[5] On 11 July 2016, ahead of the 2016–17 season, she joined ACF Brescia Femminile.[6]

International career

Under-19

During the 2011 Championship Salvai was named on the starting XI of the opening group stage match against Russia.[7] She did no play in the second group stage match against Switzerland,[8] but she scored the equalizer against Belgium in an eventual 3–1 win for the azzurre.[2] Italy reached the semi-finals unbeaten, but eventually lost 2–3 to Norway.[9]

She was also called for the first qualifying round for the 2012 Championship, and she started all three matches[10][11][12] as Italy advanced to the second qualifying round, where, again, she was a regular and started all three matches.[13][14][15] Italy, however, finished second in its group and last amongst the runners-up, and therefore did not advance to the final tournament.

Under-20

Salvai was called by Italy's U-20 coach Corrado Corradini to take part in the 2012 World Cup, where she was a starter in all three group stage matches. As Italy finished last in Group B, they did not play any other match.

Senior

Salvai made her début for the senior team on 19 September 2012, as Italy faced Greece in the final qualification match before UEFA Women's Euro 2013.[16] She started the first two group stage matches against Finland and Denmark but did not play against Sweden, as Italy advanced to the quarter-finals.

Controversy

On 5 August 2021, an image of Salvai, using her fingers to pull back her eyes while wearing a red training cone on her head, went viral after it was tweeted from the Juventus women's official team account. The tweet also included emojis that mimicked the gesture and prompted accusations of racism towards Asians from the online community.[17][18] The tweet was deleted with the club issuing an apology within half an hour of the original post stating, it was "not meant to cause controversy or have any racial undertones."[19]

International goals
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.24 February 2021Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy Israel6–012–0UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying

Honours

Individual
  • AIC Best Women's XI: 2019[20]

Club

References
  1. Profile on football.it in Football.it
  2. uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Belgium-Italy – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  3. JuventusNews24, Redazione (2022-02-16). "Salvai si racconta: «A 4 anni curata da un linfoma»". Juventus News 24 (in Italian). Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 2013-07-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Nuovi arrivi: Cecilia Salvai – AGSM Verona". www.veronacalciofemminile.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-07-17.
  6. "Salvai è del Brescia". ACF Brescia Femminile (in Italian). 11 July 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-09-19. Retrieved 2016-11-15.
  7. uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Italy-Russia – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  8. uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Italy-Switzerland – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  9. uefa.com. "Women's Under-19 2011 - Italy-Norway – UEFA.com". www.uefa.com.
  10. "Italy-Armenia | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  11. "North Macedonia-Italy | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  12. "Italy-Austria | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  13. "Spain-Italy | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  14. "Italy-Scotland | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  15. "Russia-Italy | Women's Under-19". UEFA.com.
  16. uefa.com. "UEFA Women's EURO 2013 - History - Greece-Italy Lineups – UEFA.com". Uefa.com.
  17. Toyin Owoseje. "Juventus apologizes for racist post shared on women's team's Twitter feed". CNN. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  18. "Juventus say they made 'an unforgivable mistake' after racist tweet appeared on their women's team feed". Sky Sports. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  19. "Juventus 'sincerely apologise' for tweet". BBC Sport.
  20. "Gran Gala del Calcio 2019 winners". Football Italia. 2 December 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
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