Italian Legend Carolina Morace Reveals Desire to Work in England
Italian women’s football legend Carolina Morace has expressed her desire to coach at a club in England, revealing that she is a big fan of English women’s football. She also suggested that Italy needs to follow the likes of England, France and Spain where players are professional.
In a 19-year international career that spanned three decades, Morace established herself as one of the all-time Italian greats. She has since gone on to become a top coach, leading both the Italy and Canada national teams, plus Trinidad & Tobago, and most recently club side AC Milan.
In 1999, Morace even briefly coached an Italian men’s team and has been a real pioneer.
The Women’s Super League in England is one of the top domestic leagues in the world and Morace freely admits that she enjoys watching the games there.
Asked by 90min if she like to work in England, the 56-year-old replied, “Without a doubt.”
Morace elaborated by saying, “I have coached three national teams and with Canada I managed to win the CONCACAF Women's Championship. Being on a bench like that together with other big names can only be good.
“The English game is one that I like very much. I am very close friend of [former England manager] Hope Powell, so I have come to England several times and I have seen all the great teams playing. I follow English football a lot.
“My assistant is also Australian-English, so yes, I would also like to have a club experience.”
Italy were something a surprise package at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. It was a first appearance at the competition in 20 years yet they managed to top a tough group that also featured Brazil and Australia. They saw off China in the last 16 and got through to the quarter-finals.
But despite being competitive on the international stage, Italian club football, for now, continues to trail domestic leagues elsewhere in Europe.
“In England, France and Spain the players are professional, in Italy they are not,” Morace said.
“I am not the one who can say what path to take because there is [an Italian] women's football league in which I have not been involved that should lead a project and show the way.
“If women's football has made progress today, we owe it to Michele Uva's project, when he was general manager of the Football Federation. I hope that starting from that base they are carrying out the work, because there is a need to move and do it quickly.”
Making money available for the development to happen is going to be the real key.
“If we go to see what the funds for women's football are in the other associations, we immediately realise the difference,” Morace said. “I don't think anything needs to be invented [from scratch], it would be enough to take an example from other countries.”
The original 90min interview with Carolina Morace was published in Italian.
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