Italian National Soccer Team at Forte Village: Pre European Training Camp

Italian National Soccer Team: the first UEFA EURO 2020 holiday retreat is at Forte Village

The countdown to UEFA EURO 2020 has started, although it will be staged a year after due to the pandemic, the Italian Nation of Football is preparing for the continental competition with the first gathering holiday at the Forte Village Resort.

A few hours before the end of the season, Roberto Mancini called all 33 players along with their families to Forte Village in Santa Margherita di Pula in the province of Cagliari, so they could prepare for the European challenge that will see the Azzurri debut on the 11th of June at the Olympic Stadium in Rome against Turkey.
The UEFA European Football Championship is the highest football tournament for men’s national teams, and the final stage, which can only be accessed through qualifying rounds, is known as UEFA EURO followed by the year of its publication.

The trophy awarded to the winning team is called the Henri Delaunay Cup in honor of the first secretary-general of UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) and promoter of the first edition of the 1960 event. Perhaps not everyone knows that there are two versions of the trophy: the first was used from 1960 to 2004 and was made by the goldsmith Chobillon designed by Arthus Bertrand, while since 2008, the winning team receives a cup which is aesthetically similar to the first but with a few differences.

The new trophy is made by the famous goldsmith house Asprey London. It’s 18 centimeters taller and weighs 2 kilograms more than the previous one, but the most obvious difference is the removal of the square parallelepiped base on which the names of the winning nations were inserted. Also, in the new version, the name of the winners is no longer engraved on the pedestal, but on the back of the trophy and the language used for the engravings has passed from French to English. Finally, the small figure with the ball that stood in the back of the trophy was also removed.
The tournaments in the first editions between the sixties and seventies had a small number of participants that increased in the following years due to events that marked the birth of new European states, such as the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, and the political disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Over the years, the increase in the number of national participants in the qualification phases has changed the number of those admitted to the final phase: in fact, between 1960 and 1976 only four teams were participating in the final stage, but since 1980 edition up until 1992, the number was increased to eight. From 1996 until 2012 there would be sixteen participants, while since 2016, it has passed to twenty-four teams.
We must remember that no nation has participated in all the editions of the European Championship: Germany is the one that counts the most participations, thirteen out of sixteen overall, and since 1972, it has always qualified for the final stage. Germany also shares the same number of wins with Spain: three. Spain also has another record: it was the only national team to win the competition twice in a row, in 2008 and 2012. Four teams won the European Championship at their first participation in the final stage: the Soviet Union in 1960, Spain in 1964, Italy in 1968 and West Germany in 1972.
The Henri Delaunay Cup was won twice by France, while the Soviet Union, Italy, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece and Portugal won it once.

Italian National Soccer Team at Forte Village: the rally waiting for UEFA EURO 2020

The Italian National Football Team has chosen Forte Village Resort to relax and begin the preparations for UEFA EURO 2020, the prestigious continental competition that will see the Azzurri challenge first in Turkey (11th June) and then in Switzerland (16th June) and Wales (20th June).
The pre-European training camp includes a training session a day, from Monday 24th May to Thursday 27th May, and will end on Friday with the friendly Italy-San Marino at the “Sardegna Arena” in Cagliari.

Here is what will be the program of the National:
• Monday 24th May
Meeting at the Forte Village Resort in Santa Margherita di Pula (CA)
• Tuesday 25th May
10.30 am – Training at the Forte Village Resort
• Wednesday 26th May
10.30 am – Training at the Forte Village Resort
• Thursday 27th May
10.30 am – Training at the Forte Village Resort
12 pm – Press conference of the Ct at the Forte Village Resort
• Friday 28th May
20.45 – Friendly Italy-San Marino at the ‘Sardegna Arena’ in Cagliari

The structure of Santa Margherita di Pula, surrounded by the beautiful sea of Sardinia and 50 hectares of magnificent gardens, will welcome the Azzurri and their families for a retreat-holiday that will allow players of the National team to combine work and relaxation before moving to Coverciano, where they will begin the second phase of the retreat in view of the European challenge.

25SANTA MARGHERITA DI PULA, ITALY – MAY 26: Players of Italy in action during training session at Forte Village Resort on May 26, 2021 in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy. (Photo by Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
At Forte Village, the Azzurri will continue their daily training in the excellent sports facilities at the resort. There is a grass football field and a Performance Centre with state-of-the-art gym equipment, sharing every free moment with their families among natural beauties and exclusive treatments such as the thalassotherapy path of Acquaforte Thalasso & Spa.
Not only relaxation, privacy and fun for the family but also safety: the resort has applied the most advanced health procedures regarding Covid-19 since last season, to allow guests their freedom without limitations. To this end, the Fort Village developed the “Covid Protection Protocol”, a security protocol that for the 2021 season has been strengthened to protect the health of guests without sacrificing the opportunity to have a serene and carefree holiday.

Looking for the right place for a safe and carefree holiday in the name of relaxation and fun? Discover the Forte Village Resort in Sardinia.