Almost 18 years with the Italy National team, 139 times. Her 140th will be on Friday at Viola Park, against Ireland, and it will be her final adventure. Sara Gama bids farewell to the Italy team: a choice, from Gama and shared by Club Italia and Head Coach Andrea Soncin, that sees the retirement of one of the Azzurre that has contributed the most to bringing the women’s game into a new dimension. Gama, who will turn 35 on March 27, will wear the captain’s armband against Ireland, a special day that will also see her presented with a shirt and celebrative pennant by FIGC president, Gabriele Gravina.

Gama spoke: "Today I can officially announce that I have decided to retire from the Italy National team. It has been an extraordinary journey that began almost 20 years ago in the Youth Sector, I’ve experienced incredible emotions and great changes. I have given everything and have decided to leave in agreement with the Coach who has, with great respect, shared every step of this decision with me so far. I have decided to leave now, at the start of a new cycle, the solid foundations of which I have contributed to for the future and for passing the right values to a group that has shown its great potential. I leave here, where it all began, stopping by our Coverciano and a city that has known how to be passionate witnesses to great steps made by our National team

Here, in the home of our football, where I grew up and learned a lot from the people that I met on my path. And so, thank you to all those that have shared in our story. To my family, my teammates, the staff, all the workers, the fans. To all of us, together we are Azzurri. I have used my body and my mind to play. I also used them to speak and inspire on and off the pitch. Today I can say that some of these words and gestures did something. This understanding and love for the game and the shirt will be what I take with me. Thank you to those who kept me close and felt represented by me in the Azzurre shirt. Certainly, I expressed myself in it. Thank you to the people, because it is the people that make the difference and we made a big one”.”

Gama’s decision comes less than two months from the start of the Switzerland Euro 2025 qualifiers: the defender, born in Trieste, has played in four Euros (2009, 2013, 2017, and 2022), as well as the 2019 World Cup that Italy qualified for after 20 years out. Sara was also in Tours, in July 2008, when the Azzurre U19s won the European title, the only trophy won by an Italy National Women’s side.

Gama debuted in the Azzurre shirt two years earlier, on 17 June 2006 in Mariupol, Ukraine, in a World Cup qualifier. That was the first of her 139 appearances that sees the Juventus defender, though also having played for Tavagnacco, Chiasiellis, Brescia and, overseas, the Pali Blues in the USA and PSG in France, sitting in fourth for the number of all-time Azzurre appearances. With the 140th, the friendly with Ireland, the side against which she scored her first international goal in March 2007, it comes full circle, with Italian football giving Sara Gama the showcase she deserves.