Vatican City national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Vatican City
Badge = Lcvc.gif
Nickname =
Coach = flagicon|Italy Gianfranco Guadagnoli (as of 2002)
Most caps =
Top scorer =
FIFA Trigramme = VAT
Home Stadium = Stadio Pio XII
Elo Rank = 223
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=|pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFF00|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=FFFF00|socks1=FFFFFF
First game = flagicon|Monaco Monaco 0 - 0 Vatican City flagicon|Vatican City
Rome, Italy (November 23, 2002)
Largest win = No victories over international teams | Largest loss = No losses to international teams
The Vatican City national football team is the football team that plays for the Vatican City. They are one of only eight fully-recognised sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are Monaco, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Marshall Islands and Palau.

Overview

Vatican City have played only one international game, against Monaco on November 23, 2002 in Italy, ending in a 0-0 draw. [ [http://www.eloratings.net/Vatican.htm ELORatings.net] ]

In 2006 the Vatican City played a match against a Swiss club team, SV Vollmond on a small field just outside of the Vatican; Vatican City prevailed 5-1.

The Vatican City squad consists of the Swiss Guards (voluntary military force drawn from male Swiss citizens), members of the Papal council and museum guards (Italian citizens). Since only members of the Swiss Guard can get the citizenship of the Vatican and they cannot be amassed in large numbers for a long time, the national team can play only a few rare international matches often drawing a fair amount of interested press.

On December 18, 2006, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, stated that he did "not preclude the possibility that the Vatican, in the future, could put together a football team of great value, that could play on the same level as Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan and Sampdoria". [ [http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20944687-38200,00.html News.com] ] Meanwhile Vatican has organized the Clericus Cup.

National team

Goalkeepers:
*Simone Pegoraro
*Francesco Giammarresi
*Andrea CartaDefenders:
*Diego Lofino
*Davide Tisato
*Paolo Itta
*Luca Pangaro
*Agazio Cuccunato
*Danilo Capotosto
*Andrea IttaMidfielders:
*Carlo Zornada
*Francesco Voltaggio
*Paolo Varamo
*Gabriel Tarquini
*Michele Valente
*Stefano Parasimo
*Alessio PalladinoForwards:
*Giacomo Piermarini
*Daniele di Giandomenico
*Carmine Salvato

Link to the teams in the league

* [http://www.csi-net.it/whitePages/sito%20clericus%20cup/clericuscup.htm Squads in the Clericus Cup]

See also

* List of football clubs in Vatican City

Notes