Vatican City national football team facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

This page is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Vatican City women's national football team.

Quick facts for kids
Vatican City

Association

Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica "Sport in Vaticano"

Head coach

Gianfranco Guadagnoli

Most caps

Antonino Gart
Pablo Enrique Amaro
Marcello Rosati (5)

Top scorer

Alessandro Quarto
Antonino Gart
Marco Pouti
Nicolò Busincu (1)

Home stadium

Campo Pio XI

FIFA code

VAT

First colours

Second colours

Third colours

Elo ranking

Current

221

2 (3 March 2019)

Highest

212 (2002)

Lowest

222 (2018)

First international

Unofficial

Vatican City 3–0 Austrian journalists

(1985)
Official

Vatican City 0–0 San Marino Amateurs

(Rome, Italy; 22 November 1994)

Biggest win

Unofficial

Vatican City 9–1 Station Carabinieri of Rome

(Rome, Italy, 3 February 2011)
Official

Vatican City 4–3 China U23

(Rome, Italy; 25 October 2008)

Biggest defeat

Unofficial

Borussia Mönchengladbach 21–4 Vatican City

(Mönchengladbach, Germany; 13 August 2016)
Official

[[Palestinian National Authority {{{altlink}}}|Palestinian National Authority]] 9–1 Vatican City

(al-Khader, Palestine; 12 June 2011)

The Vatican City national football team is the official football team for Vatican City. It is managed by the Vatican Amateur Sports Association. This association was started in 1972. Its current president is Domenico Ruggerio. Gianfranco Guadagnoli, from Italy, is the head coach. Famous coach Giovanni Trapattoni also coached the team in the past. His first game as coach was on October 23, 2010. The Vatican City team played against a group of Italian financial police. The team's very first match was in 1985. They won 3–0 against a team of journalists from Austria. In 2018, Vatican City also started a women's football team.

About the Vatican City Football Team
The Vatican's View on Football
Why Vatican City is Not a FIFA Member
Team Kit and Uniforms
Matches Played by Vatican City
Overall Match Results
Coaches of the Team
See also

About the Vatican City Football Team

Albert II, Prince of Monaco meeting the team in June 2013.

A carousel in the Cortile del Belvedere in 1565. The first football match in the Vatican was held here.

Jersey worn by Vatican City in April 2017 during a friendly match with Monaco.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II created a sports department in the Vatican. He wanted to "bring back the tradition of sport" in the Christian community. In 2006, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone suggested that the Vatican could form a team. This team would be made of men from Catholic seminaries. He joked, "If we just take the Brazilian students from our Pontifical universities we could have a magnificent squad."

The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It has about 900 people. This makes it hard to create a football team. The team is made up of Vatican employees. These include police officers, postal workers, government staff, and members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard. The Swiss Guard is the Vatican's army, protecting the Pope. Since many citizens are in the Swiss Guard, they cannot play often. So, the national team plays only a few international matches. These games often get a lot of media attention.

When Vatican City played its first match in 2002, only one player had a Vatican passport. His name was Marcello Rosati. In 2010, the Vatican City team was invited to play in the Viva World Cup. However, they could not go because they could not find 15 players for their team. The Vatican City has played only four official international matches against other countries. They had one draw and three losses against Monaco in 2002, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

The team has also played many friendly matches. Their first friendly game was in 1994 against the San Marino reserve team. The score was likely a 0–0 draw. Some say it was 1–1. In 2010, the Vatican organized a team to play against Palestine. This team was made of Catholic priests and was not the official national team. In 2006, Vatican City played against SV Vollmond from Switzerland. They won 5–1. The team has also played against a team from the Diocese of Limburg. In September 2016, the team played in a tournament. This tournament raised money for people affected by an earthquake. Former Italian player Simone Perrotta also played in this event.

In April 2019, the team got its first sponsor. It was Poderi di San Pietro, a family winery from Milan. The team made sure the company met their strict ethical rules. Before this, a sports betting company offered a large sponsorship. But the team refused it because it did not fit their ethical standards.

The Vatican's View on Football

Football has a long history in the Vatican. The first game of Calcio Fiorentino was played there on January 7, 1521. It took place in the Cortile del Belvedere. Pope Leo X watched the game. The first Vatican football league started in 1973. Employees of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, won the first league title.

The Vatican has always supported football. Pope John Paul II was a goalkeeper when he was young in Poland. He was a big fan of Cracovia Kraków. The former German pope, Pope Benedict XVI, has been a fan of Bayern Munich since he was a child in Bavaria, Germany. Pope Benedict said, "The sport of football can teach values like honesty, teamwork, and friendship, especially to young people." In October 2007, Pope Benedict received a #16 jersey. This was from the Serie B team Ancona. They wanted to be a "beacon of morality" in football.

In 2010, Pope Benedict and the Vatican again said that football should be moral. They criticized Serie A for scheduling matches at 12:30 PM on Sundays. This was to please TV companies. The Vatican had already questioned playing games on Sundays at all. Monsignor Carlo Mazza said, "Putting people in front of the television at 12.30 CET, when they are having lunch with their families, seems like an 'invasion' of life." On December 18, 2006, Tarcisio Bertone joked that the Vatican might one day have a great team. A team that could play as well as Roma, Internazionale, Milan, or Genoa. The current Pope, Pope Francis, is from Argentina. He is a big fan of his hometown club San Lorenzo. He was sad when Argentina lost the 2014 World Cup final to Germany.

Why Vatican City is Not a FIFA Member

The Vatican is one of only nine independent countries whose national team is not a member of FIFA. FIFA is the international football organization. Other countries not in FIFA include Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, and the United Kingdom. However, the UK's four "home nations" (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) are individual FIFA members.

In 2006, a spokesperson for UEFA said the Vatican could join international competitions. He said, "We already have states of 30,000 citizens like San Marino, Liechtenstein, and Andorra. If the Vatican wants to become a member of UEFA all it has to do is apply. If it meets the requirements, it will be accepted." But at that time, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that the Vatican's football future was only in amateur games. Amateur means playing for fun, not as a business.

In May 2014, Domenico Ruggerio, the head of the Vatican football association, agreed with Bertone. He said, "I prefer to be amateur...To join FIFA, at that level, will be like a business." He added, "The important message of friendship and love is shown by the sport—the real sport, not the business that is in football these days...It is not just important to win a match; it is how you act." He explained that the Vatican team's values did not match FIFA membership.

In April 2019, Danilo Zennaro, the Vatican's football director, said the association would not join other football groups like ConIFA. This was due to "political reasons." Joining such groups could cause problems with different regions and disputed territories.

Team Kit and Uniforms

In the past, the team's uniforms were made by Diadora. The shorts were white, and the top was yellow with blue and white lines. Later, Sportika SA provided the kits until July 2021. These kits had a faint image of St. Peter's Basilica on the front. In July 2021, the association introduced new uniforms by Joma. For the first time, these kits were sold to the public. You can buy them in the gift shop of the Vatican Museums. The money from sales helps Pope Francis's charity work.

Matches Played by Vatican City

Win Draw Loss

No.	Date	Venue	Opponents	Score	Competition	Vatican City scorers
1	1985		Austrian journalists	3–0	Friendly	Unknown
2	1985		Selection of UN officials	3–3	Friendly	Unknown
3	22 November 1994	Campo Pio XI, Rome	San Marino Amateurs	0–0	Friendly
4	23 November 2002	Stadio Pio XII, Albano Laziale	Monaco	0–0	Friendly
5	3 February 2006	Campo Pio XI, Rome	SV Vollmond	5–1	Friendly	Unknown
6	18 June 2007		Nazionale Italiana Religiosi	3–0	Friendly	Unknown
7	25 October 2008	Campo Pio XI, Rome	China U23	4–3	Friendly	Unknown
8	23 October 2010		Guardia di Finanza	0–1	Friendly
9	3 February 2011	Rome	Station Carabinieri of Rome	9–1	Friendly	Unknown
10	7 May 2011	Stadio Pio XII, Albano Laziale	Monaco	1–2	Friendly	Quarto
11	12 June 2011	Al-Khader Stadium, al-Khader	Palestine	1–9	Friendly	Unknown
12	22 June 2013	Stade Municipal Cap-d'Ail, Cap-d'Ail	Monaco	0–2	Friendly
13	10 May 2014	Campo Pio XI, Rome	Monaco	0–2	Friendly
14	10 August 2014	Mönchengladbach	Borussia Mönchengladbach	1–8	Friendly	Unknown
15	14 May 2015		Nazionale Sindaci Italiana	5–3	Friendly	Unknown
16	17 June 2015	Campo Pio XI, Rome	Lutherstadt Wittenberg	1–0	Friendly	Unknown
17	20 June 2015	Campo Pio XI, Rome	FC Azzurri Schaan	2–2	Friendly	Unknown
18	12 May 2016	Campo Pio XI, Rome	Associazione Italiana Arbitri Seregno	1–1	Friendly	Unknown
19	13 August 2016	Mönchengladbach	Borussia Mönchengladbach	4–21	Friendly	Unknown
20	7 November 2016	Stadio Pietro Fortunati, Pavia	Fondazione Ospedale San Matteo	1–2	Friendly	Unknown
21	29 April 2017	Campo Pio XI, Rome	Monaco	0–0	Friendly
22	17 June 2017	Arthur-Lambert-Stadion, Wittenberg	Lutherstadt Wittenberg	0–2	Friendly
23	16 June 2018	Sportanlage Rheinwiese, Schaan	FC Azzurri Schaan	1–8	Friendly	Pouti
24	23 March 2019	Campo Pio XI, Rome	Raetia	2–2	Friendly	Unknown
25	30 March 2019		Atlético Pop United	2–2	Friendly	Unknown
26	10 June 2019		WEINELF	1–1	Friendly	Unknown
27	15 June 2021	Centro Sportivo Ciriaci, Rome	Rappresentativa OPBG	2–3	Friendly	Unknown
28	21 November 2021	Formello Sports Centre, Rome	World Roma Federation	7–7	Friendly	Unknown