DelPriore learning on the fly
Club Roma Wolves midfielders Gianluca DelPriore is it Italy with Sangiuliano City. Photo by: RUTH WANLESS.
Like many athletes, Gianluca DelPriore was thrown for a loop by the COVID pandemic.
The 19-year-old St. Catharines native was hoping to perhaps land a soccer scholarship at a Division I school in the United States, but with the pandemic playing havoc with sports, the St. Francis Secondary School graduate looked elsewhere to continue his soccer career.
“Honestly, when I was in Grade 9 I had gone to Italy with (Roma coaches) Davide (Massafra) and Federico (Turriziani) so I always planned to go back,” DelPriore said. “It went well there but I wasn’t ready. I was only 14 and planned to go back but got involved with playing in the States so I decided to go to a Division I school and go that path but then COVID hit.”
DelPriore ended up back in Italy last spring and is there once again now training with Sangiuliano City.
“It was a crazy experience,” he said. “I was on my own for the first time really. It was me doing everything for myself.”
On the pitch, there were also striking differences.
“I was talking to one of the directors there and he told me soccer was a religion,” DelPriore said. “They take it very, very seriously. Every kid grows up there wanting to play soccer so it’s very serious.”
DelPriore was originally supposed to play with the club but paperwork issues permitted him only to practice.
“It was amazing,” he said. “A lot of the players were from the First League, so they are all very good players and very passionate. It’s a very high level.”
DelPriore, who played last summer for the Club Roma Wolves of League1 Ontario Men’s Premier Division, feels the step up in competition can only help grown his game.
“If you play with better players, you’re going to get better. That’s just how it goes,” he said. “I found right away I had to increase my speed of play with the ball — less touches, faster, everything.
“Over here you are doing amazing and you think you can go over there and be one of the best, then you see there are players already above you and you have to catch up to them.”
DelPriore, who also played with f Massafra at Empire Niagara, had a strong season for the Wolves last summer.
“Gianluca is a player that has contributed immensely to balance the team,” Turriziani said. “He works very hard in both attacking and defending, and is very coachable. Gianluca gives his support all match, and is one of the few midfielders that knows how to attack the box during the offensive phase.”
This the fourth and final story on players from Club Roma who have been training and playing in Italy.
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