Giulia Dragoni (born 7 November 2006) is an Italian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

, on loan from

Liga F The Primera División de la Liga de Fútbol Femenino, currently known as the Liga F (finetwork Liga F for sponsorship reasons), is the highest level of Sports league, league competition for women's football in Spain. It is the women's equivalent ...

club

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, and the Italy women's national team.

Club career

Early life and Inter Milan

Born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Italy, Dragoni started playing football at the age of four, joining grassroots club Franco Scarioni, before moving to Cimiano, and then entering the junior academy of Pro Sesto in 2015. Here, she first came to prominence for her performances in

mixed-sex Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

junior championships, where she played until 2019, earning the nickname "Little Messi". Having first joined

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

on trial for a youth tournament in 2018, Dragoni officially entered the club's youth sector in the summer of 2020. During the 2020–21 campaign, following the halt of several youth leagues due to the consequences of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, she was promoted to Inter's under-19 squad, aged just 14, and contributed to a third-place finish in the national championship. Having been promoted to Inter's first team at the start of the 2022–23 season, under head coach

Rita Guarino Maria Rita Guarino (; born 31 January 1971) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Italian club Inter Women. As a player, she represented the Italy national team as a striker. Playi ...

, Dragoni made her professional debut on 20 November 2022, coming in as a substitute for

Ghoutia Karchouni Ghoutia Karchouni (; born 29 May 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Italian Serie A club Inter Milan and the Algeria national team. She previously played for Paris Saint-Germain, Boston Breakers and Bordeaux. Bor ...

in the 74th minute of a goalless

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

draw against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

. Having just turned 16 years old, she became the youngest player to ever feature in a

match since the league had achieved full-time professional status. She went on to make three more appearances for Inter's senior team before the end of 2022.

Barcelona

2022–23 season

On 31 January 2023, Dragoni officially joined Spanish side

on a permanent deal, signing a contract until June 2025. In the process, she became the first non-Spanish member of the women's team setup to reside at

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; ), is FC Barcelona's youth academy. It includes more than 300 young players and has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success, producing several world class players and ...

. Having been registered for the club's reserve team,

Barcelona B Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within cit ...

, she scored her first goal for the side on 5 March, in a 3–0

win over Athletic B. In her first season at the club, she helped Barcelona B win the second-tier title, having scored four goals in ten matches; she was also included in the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

's title-winning

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. ...

squad, despite not featuring in any of their matches.

2023–24 season

At the start of the 2023–24 season, Dragoni was still primarily part of Barcelona B but was included as a regular training player of the first team. She made her first-team debut on 26 November 2023, coming on as a substitute for

Mariona Caldentey Maria Francesca "Mariona" Caldentey Oliver (; born 19 March 1996), also known mononymously as Mariona, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Women's Super League club Arsenal and the Spain national team. Prior to her move to Arsen ...

in the 83rd minute of a 4–0

win over Athletic Club. In the process, at 17 years and 19 days, she became the youngest non-Spanish player to make her debut for a senior Barcelona team (in men's or women's football). On 13 December, she made her

debut, coming on for

Esmee Brugts Esmee Virginia Brugts (born 28 July 2003) is a Dutch professional football player who plays as a forward for Liga F club Barcelona and the Netherlands national team. Club career PSV Brugts started playing football with boys as a five-year-old ...

in the 78th minute of a 6–0 win over

FC Rosengård FC Rosengård (), known as Malmö FF Dam () until 2007 and later LdB FC Malmö until 2013, is a professional football club based in Malmö, Scania, Sweden. The team was established as Malmö FF Dam in 1970. It started out with playing 7 seasons ...

in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, and a month later she made her first start and scored her first goal for Barcelona's first team, opening the scoring in a 6–0

Copa de la Reina Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

win over

Fundación Albacete Fundación Albacete is the women's football section of Albacete Balompié. Founded in 2004 they reached the Spanish league's top division in 2014. History Fundación Albacete was founded in 1997 with the aim to promote sport, education and c ...

. Barcelona completed a

quadruple Quadruple may refer to: * 4-tuple, an ordered list of elements, with four elements * Quad (figure skating), a figure skating jump * Quadruple (computing), a term used as alternative for nibble in some contexts * Quadruple-precision floating-point ...

, with Dragoni becoming the first Italian player to win the women's Champions League, also winning the league title, the

and the Supercopa. While she was given few opportunities to play for the first team, Spanish newspaper ''

Sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

'' stated that she "brought something different" every time she featured for Barcelona. Dragoni 2024

Loan to Roma

On 17 July 2024, Dragoni renewed her contract with Barcelona until 2027, and subsequently joined

club

on a season-long loan. Dragoni made her Serie A debut with Roma on 30 August 2024, coming on as a substitute for

Benedetta Glionna Benedetta Glionna (born 26 July 1999) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club AS Roma and the Italy women's national team. She moved to Roma on 5 July 2021 and signed a contract until the summer of 2024. ...

in the 58th minute of a 2–2 draw with

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

International career

Dragoni has represented Italy at various youth international levels, having played for the under-16, under-17 and under-19 national teams. In March 2023 she received her first call-up to the Italian senior national team for the friendly match against

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. In June of the same year, she was included in the preliminary squad for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

by head coach Milena Bertolini. She subsequently made her debut for the ''Azzurre'' on 1 July, coming on as a substitute in the second half of a friendly match against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, which ended in a goalless draw: at 16 years and 236 days, she became the youngest person to represent an Italian senior national football team in the 21st century, but did not beat the all-time record, originally established by

Carolina Morace Carolina Morace (; born 5 February 1964) is an Italian politician and former footballer, who played as a striker. She was most recently the head coach of Lazio Women. She played for the Italian national team and for various clubs in women's ...

in 1978. The following day, she was officially included in the final 23-women squad for the

in Australia and New Zealand, aged just 16; in the process, she became the second youngest player to get called up for the tournament, behind only

Casey Phair Casey Yu-jin Phair (; born 29 June 2007) is a South Korean professional footballer who plays as a striker for National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club Angel City FC and the South Korea national team. She was the youngest player to ever featur ...

. On 24 July 2023, Dragoni started in a 1–0

win over

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

: at 16 years and 259 days, she became the youngest player to ever represent the ''Azzurre'' in the competition's history, a record that previously belonged to

, while also overtaking

Giuseppe Bergomi Giuseppe "Beppe" Bergomi (; born 22 December 1963) is an Italian former professional footballer who spent his entire career at Inter Milan. He is regarded as one of the greatest Italian defenders of all time, and as one of the best of his genera ...

as Italy's youngest player to take part in any World Cup match, including both men's and women's football. She also became the second-youngest European player to feature in a FIFA Women's World Cup game.

Style of play

Dragoni mainly operates as a

in the ''

mezzala In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

'' role; she is best known for her dribbling skills, as well as her ball control, her passing and her tactical intelligence.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

;Barcelona *

: 2023–24 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

: 2023–24 *

: 2023–24 * Supercoppa Italianna:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

;Individual *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

Women's Youth (U20) UEFA Team: 2023

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragoni, Giulia 2006 births Living people Italian women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Footballers from Milan Serie A (women's football) players Primera Federación (women) players Liga F players Pro Sesto 1913 players Inter Milan (women) players FC Barcelona Femení players FC Barcelona Femení B players AS Roma (women) players Italian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Italy women's youth international footballers Italy women's international footballers 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century Italian sportswomen