RANCHI: As Italy take on India in FIH Olympic Qualifiers here on Tuesday night, there will be a lot of Argentinean presence on the pitch.
After all, most of the Italian players have Italian-Argentinian citizenship which allows them to choose between the two countries either because of their grandparents or because they were born there. And then there are three players - Lara Oviedo, Ivanna Pessina, and Camila Machin - who used to play for the women's national team in Argentina but have later shifted to playing for Italy.
Speaking on how this transition transpired, Lara, whose sister Ailin is also part of the team, said, "I came to play in Europe after I got out of the Argentina squad. They then contacted me from Italy with the goal of helping them qualify for the World Cup. I was hesitating at first because Argentina is my country but Italy is the country of my grandparents. So, I felt it was my second country. Of course, it was a hard decision but I took it because I wanted to help them play in the World Cup."
Well, she did help them achieve the goal as Italy played in the 2018 World Cup only for the second time in their history after having competed in the 1976 World Cup. And they did quite well to finish ninth in the 16-team tournament.
While women's hockey isn't that popular in the football-crazy nation, taking part in the World Cup did bring a change in the people's mindset towards the game.
"It was a big experience and objective. It was also very important for Italian hockey. We are now trying to even get better but it's of course not easy. Since the time I started playing, a lot more girls have started playing the game," added the most experienced player in the squad.
Having said that, Italian women's hockey still has a long way to go, and Lara dreams of a day when they will get to see the same kind of support for the game that one gets to see in India. That will take time and for the time being the road to success will be quite a difficult one and Lara is well aware of that.
Before coming here for the Olympic Qualifiers, the squad got to practise together only for about 30 days in Spain since August. "We had small camps that went on for a week after which all the players returned home and in total, we had about 30 such training days over the last part of the year," said the forward.
While that is surely not enough, her experience of playing club hockey in Belgium does help. Like her, many others also play club hockey in Spain and Belgium and some of them are also into other professions like law and physiotherapy but she is only one of the few who is into hockey full-time.
And hopefully, with her love for the game, she will one day be able to help Italian hockey see even better days in future.
