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00:00A bit of a winter break and my meniscus popped.
00:09To not let them see what they would do to me, they gave me a total anaesthesia.
00:13Because I told them, I have to go to the Europeans.
00:19Ours is a team sport, but to perform you have to be put in the best conditions to do it.
00:24Actually, my comfort zone is everything that I know and that makes me feel good.
00:41This is part of my comfort zone and it is a comfort zone that I built.
00:45Simply entering this place makes me feel calm, it makes me feel at ease.
00:51Heartfulness is a practice that focuses on the heart.
00:55So doing meditation on the heart brings benefits not only to the mind, but also to the body.
01:03As an athlete, I find it.
01:06You also realize what happens inside your body during, for example, performance, during training.
01:13It is very important, especially as a goalkeeper, where you also have a lot of free time during the game, during training,
01:23to be able to understand where you are moving your attention.
01:28I almost have the feeling of integrity, of integrity.
01:31I feel good, but why do I feel good?
01:35Already before I realized, and I was already starting to do a job on myself,
01:39to try to understand how to manage what happened to me during the games.
01:45Then I realized that you don't have to manage, you just have to accept what happens to you.
01:51And it's the best way to show your talent.
01:55Because I challenge any athlete, any athlete or any person, but in any job,
02:02not to realize that the best performances come just when you've let go of everything.
02:11Just because in whatever you do, your qualities come out
02:19when you know you are yourself, beyond the pressures and expectations of others.
02:28And sometimes the expectations are the same.
02:41The first time I met Laura, I was in Milan to interview her after her experience.
02:48And I really had the pleasure of meeting an exceptional professional athlete.
02:55What caught my attention was her active gaze.
02:59Laura, with her penetrating eyes, manages to transmit to you all the vitality, energy,
03:05the desire to excel that is inside her.
03:10The great freedom that Laura has is what manifests what is inside.
03:16Because she knows that what is inside changes her life in an extraordinary way.
03:31I don't like to be in my comfort zone.
03:34Since I was little, I've always felt the need to go.
03:43Then, actually, it was something that I've always carried with me.
03:47Because then I started to go to the national team.
03:50So, since I was 17, more or less, I was 16 years old.
03:54And I started to travel.
03:56I started to travel the world, to travel.
03:59And I liked to die.
04:01And from there, then, I got to 18 years old, which I finished in high school.
04:06And I remember that at the maturity exam, an English external teacher asked me,
04:14so what do you think about the maturity exam?
04:18And I said, look, honestly, I don't know.
04:22But I would like to play football and I would like to go abroad.
04:25Since I kept my promise, because I played the U20 World Cup in Japan that year.
04:32And then I had the opportunity to go 950 km away.
04:46How did I get to Germany?
04:48This is perhaps the funniest part, because I've always had this, as I said, this need to go.
04:56So I started looking on the internet for all the rankings and teams registered in major championships from all over the country.
05:13So Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Swiss, English.
05:22I downloaded all the names of the teams.
05:25One by one, I went to the sites to look for the women's team.
05:33And I would have sent something like 150 emails.
05:40I had received two answers.
05:43One of the two was the Gütersloh.
05:48In the laughing Gütersloh.
05:50It's an industrial city.
05:52I mean, purely industrial.
05:54In a small village scattered in the middle of nowhere.
05:57Germany had just hosted the World Cup and there was a crazy boom in growth.
06:03And they were the first professional league.
06:07And I remember that all the greatest players in the world went to Germany to play.
06:15I didn't know if I would have made it, I wouldn't have made it.
06:20The fact is that I had something inside of me that told me that that was the right choice.
06:26In Germany, I played for various teams in the first year.
06:31I played for Gütersloh so as not to fall behind.
06:34We fell behind.
06:36The second year I went to Serie B and we went up.
06:40Then I did a year of A.
06:42I went to Cologne.
06:44In Cologne I played in the Bundesliga.
06:47And from there I made my first real leap and I arrived in Fribourg.
07:01There I approached, in addition to football, also various jobs.
07:09I went to Germany where they gave me 400 euros in Gütersloh.
07:15So I couldn't live there.
07:18And then they gave me this job, which was in an assembly line.
07:24I worked from 7 to 3 in the afternoon.
07:28Then I went home, ate a snack, time to sleep for a moment and went to training.
07:34And every day, every day was like that.
07:38The more complicated thing was that working in an assembly line,
07:44standing for 7 hours, because we couldn't sit down at all.
07:48Let's say it wasn't an optimal thing in terms of performance.
07:53But you had to do it.
07:55The following year, I went to Erfurt.
07:58And there I changed jobs.
08:00So I went to work in a bakery.
08:03I started at four in the morning, four and a half.
08:08And then I finished around noon, half a day and a half.
08:13And then I went home.
08:15So I had time to rest, because then we trained in the evening.
08:20Then I did various jobs.
08:22I've always worked in a fan shop.
08:24I worked in a bar as a waitress in a restaurant.
08:28I was the image girl.
08:31And I have to say that what I bring home today is an important baggage of experience.
08:41At the beginning, working was a necessity.
08:45Because I couldn't do anything, I couldn't just play football.
08:49Because I didn't earn enough, I couldn't support myself.
08:55And then, over time, it became a choice.
09:00Because it gave me the opportunity to see different contexts.
09:06To use a different language.
09:10The language of sport, in the end, is very common, very simple.
09:16The opportunity to see different contexts gave me...
09:20Instead, it pushed me to learn new words.
09:24Also ways to communicate, to speak differently.
09:27Because in a shop you have a very direct way of speaking.
09:35They are brief, concise information.
09:38Often they are orders that are given to you.
09:41Or you do this.
09:43When, instead, you go to work in a bakery, you are behind a counter.
09:47You have to approach it in a different way.
09:49So it's the customer.
09:51When you go to a restaurant, it's the same thing.
09:53But it's not the customer who asks you.
09:55It's you who asks the customer what he wants.
09:57So they are ways of communicating.
10:01Which then teach you a lot.
10:05Also at the level of relationship with the person outside.
10:09And this is part of getting out of the comfort zone.
10:15Because until you stay locked in the environment you know.
10:23Sometimes you don't realize everything that is out there.
10:39I had a devastating year in Fribourg.
10:46I had Laura Benkert in front of me.
10:49She was the club's starting goalkeeper for years.
10:56And then she was a national.
10:59She was one of the goalkeepers of the German national team.
11:02In the first six months I played a single game.
11:05Although I think it was in my best shape ever.
11:16Then in the second six months I was unlucky.
11:22Why?
11:23But it was obvious.
11:25Because I stayed there in winter.
11:29Even though I wanted to change.
11:32I stayed there.
11:34The first training session after the winter break.
11:37My meniscus broke.
11:39And it all happens for a reason.
11:41At that moment I didn't understand why.
11:45Because I saw it all black.
11:48I knew I had to stay.
11:50I knew I had to do something else.
11:52I knew that.
11:53I knew that.
11:54The fact is that with the I knew, you don't go anywhere.
11:57Because you've hurt yourself.
11:59You have to accept what is there.
12:01And you have to move on.
12:03So I set myself the next goal.
12:06Which were the Europeans.
12:08Because in the meantime I was the starting goalkeeper of the national team.
12:13So there were the Europeans in Holland.
12:19And I got under the iron.
12:26They didn't know if it would have been a partial meniscectomy.
12:34So they would have simply removed a piece of my meniscus.
12:37Or if they would have done the suture.
12:39The difference is that with the first surgery in a month you are on the field.
12:44With the suture, in Germany, which are very wide with the times,
12:50they told me six months.
12:52And it was February.
12:54So in June I had to start the pre-European with the national team.
13:00In order not to show me what they would have done to me,
13:03they did a total anesthesia.
13:05Because I told them, I have to go to the Europeans.
13:07When I wake up, Christian says,
13:10So, I have two news.
13:13The first is that the operation went very well.
13:18The second is that they did the suture.
13:22And I burst into tears.
13:25How many tears I pulled out at that moment.
13:29After throwing out all those tears,
13:34I probably started to see it clearly.
13:38And I said, okay.
13:40If this is what I have to face, there is no problem.
13:43Because I am on the field in June.
13:46In May I was on the field.
13:49And in June I started the pre-meeting with the national team.
14:00I had the good fortune of having Christian by my side.
14:04Who is my boyfriend for 12 years.
14:08And future husband.
14:10Christian has always been a constant.
14:13Since I met him, since 2012.
14:16We went to live together after five months.
14:20We have always been strong.
14:24My comfort zone was him.
14:27And I became him for Cri.
14:30Cri came with me right away.
14:33When I decided to leave.
14:36And he always followed me all the way I did.
14:40So, for me, he has always been the comfort zone.
14:45I knew I was going to the workouts.
14:48I knew I was going to the workouts.
14:52I knew I was going to the workouts.
14:55And I was sure.
14:57I knew I was going to work.
14:59And that was my place.
15:01Then the cats arrived.
15:03So, for me, the comfort zone is where there are hairy friends.
15:08So now, wherever I go, I see a cat.
15:12I feel at home.
15:22Before the European Championship.
15:25I got a call from Juve.
15:28I don't think about one or two.
15:31I go to Fribourg.
15:33And I go to Turin.
15:35The prospects were completely different.
15:38Because, compared to when I decided to leave.
15:42I left in 2012.
15:44There was practically nothing in Italy.
15:47Women's football was purely entertainment.
15:50There was a lack of the basic structure of women's football.
15:54When I came back.
15:56I found myself in a professional context.
15:59In a company with strong foundations.
16:02With important structures.
16:04That had a projectuality.
16:06Many male professional teams were planning to join the women's team.
16:12And so, what was expected was a future.
16:17In a way, in great development.
16:20Once I came back to Italy.
16:22I started studying again.
16:24I enrolled at the university.
16:26And I decided to carry on with my studies.
16:32Just to go and deepen.
16:35All the sports, anatomical, functional part of training.
16:41Also the psychological part.
16:44I was behind everything I did every day.
16:48And from there, my Italian career began.
17:04When you have the opportunity to interact with many people.
17:09You have the ability to recognize the needs of others.
17:13Because when I went to Germany.
17:15I found myself 18, 19 years old.
17:18Suddenly.
17:20In a new place.
17:22950 km away.
17:24I didn't know the language.
17:26I found myself doing a job I had never done before.
17:30And I realized I had needs.
17:33Needs.
17:35And the experience I have accumulated gives me the opportunity.
17:38Sometimes to see myself again.
17:40In the needs of my teammates.
17:43Especially in an international context like ours.
17:47In which every new person.
17:50Every new girl.
17:52Every new teammate.
17:54Makes me see a part of myself again.
17:58Abroad.
18:00For me it becomes important.
18:03To take a step back.
18:05And try to understand.
18:07How to put them in the best conditions.
18:10To feel at home.
18:12Because ours is a team sport.
18:14But to perform.
18:15You have to be put in the best conditions.
18:17To do it.
18:19And the first thing is.
18:21Help them create their comfort zone.
18:24My comfort zone is.
18:26Everything I know.
18:28And that makes me feel good.
18:30It's my Milan.
18:32It's the pitch.
18:34It's the dressing room.
18:36The gym.
18:38This place.
18:40They are my friends.
18:42My family.
18:44My teammates.
18:46My teammates.
18:48My teammates.
18:50My teammates.
18:52They are my friends.
18:54My family.
18:56They are close to me.
18:58My sister Christian.
19:00My cats.
19:04And actually.
19:08That's it.
19:12I don't need many things.
19:14To feel good.
19:16But I am a person.
19:18Who tries to go beyond.
19:20My limits.
19:22Even if I don't like.
19:24To be attached to things.
19:26For example.
19:28There are those.
19:30In the professional sport.
19:32Find the comfort zone.
19:34In a coach.
19:36In a coach.
19:38In a certain ritual.
19:40I don't like to find.
19:42My comfort zone.
19:44In those things.
19:46Because I don't like.
19:48To.
19:50To perform.
19:52Or to.
19:54Give my best.
19:56In a match.
19:58Or in a certain situation.
20:00So.
20:02I always try.
20:04To find myself.
20:06First of all.
20:08And to feel.
20:10Part of the context.
20:12Of the context I live in.
20:14But basically.
20:16Once I feel good.
20:18With myself.
20:20In any situation.
20:22I find the way.
20:24To give my best.