Goal Getter: Goal Bagger Barreca

Wilf Frith meets Actonians midfielder Ale Barreca, a rare UEFA championship winner playing in the FA Women’s Premier League, having tasted Euros success with Italy’s Under-19s in 2008. Now living in London with a job in the city, she joined Actonians in October 2016 after two years out through university and work, searching online for a local team at a medium level and finding great people and friends. Barreca contrasts training at least four times a week as a semi-professional in Italy with the FAWPL’s lower level, which she still finds exciting and enjoyable now her priorities have changed. She rates the U19 title as her career highlight, noting Italy’s women remain the country’s only national side to win a championship, and recalls a senior call-up in 2007 and ten minutes against Thailand before 35,000 in China.