As the first female president in Ternana’s hundred-year history, the 23-year-old has ambitions to change the game
“T
here are still some preconceptions because football has long been a man’s world,” says Claudia Rizzo, “but I think things are changing. Women can bring a different point of view, an added value even in this field.”
At 23, Rizzo has made history. In September the entrepreneur became president of Ternana Calcio, a Serie C club from Umbria, becoming the first woman in the club’s hundred-year history to hold the role. “It’s a huge responsibility, but also an opportunity to bring something different,” she says. “I want to prove that women can lead in football just as they do in any other field.”
Rizzo was born in Rome to Gian Luigi Rizzo and Laura Melis, part of a family well known in Italian business circles. Her father heads the Villa Claudia group, a private healthcare company that runs medical clinics in Rome and Syracuse. The family’s interests have gradually expanded from healthcare into sport and agriculture, sectors that intertwine in Claudia’s story.
