The Italian National Priests team arrives in Isola Capo Rizzuto for an afternoon of sport, social life and religion. Today, Thursday 23 April, at 4.30pm, a friendly match will take place with the local team that plays in Eccellenza. The event is part of the celebrations of the Greek Madonna.
More than a simple football team, that of the priests is a consolidated reality that combines sport, testimony and solidarity. The Seleçao Internazionale Sacerdoti Calcio was born in 2005 from an intuition of Moreno Buccianti, former footballer and technical collaborator of the FIGC, who brought together Italian and foreign priests united by a passion for football. Since then the association, established as a non-profit organisation, has held around 500 events throughout Italy, carrying out mainly charitable initiatives. The National Priests team uses football as a tool to promote values of solidarity, closeness and charity, with particular attention to the most fragile people. Over the years he has also obtained space in important national television programs and participated in important initiatives, such as the Sanremo Festival, i Fatti Vostri,Quelli che il Calcio and many others.
In 2010 the team was also in Palestine for a match with the Palestinian national team, an experience from which the project for the construction of a football field in Bethlehem was born, completed in 2015. In the following years, summer camps and sports internships were organized for hundreds of children, always in the name of inclusion and brotherhood.