Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/19

The Vatican City national football team (Italian: Selezione di calcio della Città del Vaticano) is the football team that represents Vatican City. They are one of only seven fully recognised sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are Monaco, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. The football association of Vatican City was founded in 1972. The current president of the FA is Sergio Valci. The team has been managed by Giovanni Trapattoni in the past.

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II established a Vatican sports department to "reinvigorating the tradition (of sport) within the Christian community". In the past Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone suggested that the Vatican could field a team of men from catholic seminaries. About the prospect, the cardinal stated, "If we just take the Brazilian students from our Pontifical universities we could have a magnificent squad." The cardinal also noted that in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, there were 42 players in the final round who attended Salesian training centers worldwide.