PERUGIA – There is an Italian soccer team, specifically five-a-side soccer, that unlike Spalletti’s Azzurri knows how to achieve success in Europe. It is the Italy “made in Umbria”, returning from a tournament in Poland with a load of consensus and the award for the most competitive team, so much so that they left the field in front of the “wave” and the applause of the public and opponents. A special team made up of the boys of AGD Umbria, who every day measure themselves with type 1 diabetes and who in Warsaw wanted to demonstrate both their tenacity in facing the disease, and that playing sports is possible for them too and actually improves their health, and finally that the Regional Association for Helping Children and Young People with Type 1 Diabetes (AGD Umbria) is increasingly a protagonist in supporting both the boys and their families.
At the “IOB CUP” 2024, the International Futsal Tournament entitled “Coppa Insulina a Bordo” promoted by the “Foundation for Children with Diabetes”, the only Italian team present was able to raise the national and Umbrian colors well beyond the fourth place on the field.
Accompanied by a volunteer from the association, Enrico Piano, and a young doctor, Andrea Natalizzi, who, being affected by diabetes, did not fail to want to be an active part of the team in the role of defender, the nine young boys united by this invasive pathology were able to achieve the goal of wearing the shirt with the tricolor on the chest, facing the individual matches with commitment and excellent results (20 teams from all over Europe were present) and testifying their love for sport and football in particular.
Also worth highlighting is the great harmony in the field with some young people who had already met in the numerous health education camps that AGD Umbria, in concert with the regional health authorities, has been organizing for years. With their blue patches covering the glycemic sensors, simple but effective touches of the ball and an enviable athletic preparation, they managed to demonstrate that it is possible to overcome any obstacle through unshakable determination and great team spirit.
«The experience ended with an award for AGD – says Enrico Piano – awarded as the most competitive team and this is certainly the most important certification in the context of an extraordinary initiative such as the journey undertaken by our boys».
Who are now awaited by the next commitment, scheduled in Perugia for September 7, when for the eighth edition of the event “A kick to diabetes” teams made up of diabetic kids from half of Italy will arrive. The initiative will have as its theater the federal sports structure of the Umbria Regional Committee of the FIGC – Lega Nazionale Dilettanti di Prepo, and will go to elaborate one of the objectives that AGD Umbria has set for years: to encourage Umbrian kids and not only to not be afraid of doing sports despite type 1 diabetes. The association, with its constant commitment, intends to continue to demonstrate that living with this disease does not mean giving up one’s passions but, on the contrary, living an opportunity to better manage one’s pathology.
