A professional soccer player claims she was fired from her club for being pregnant. Alice Pignagnoli, 34, told the Italian newspaper Il Resto del Carlino that her club, Lucchese, let her go became she has a baby on the way.
‘I’m pregnant and my team has stopped paying my wages,’ Pignagnoli said, per the Daily Mail. “In mid-October, I found out I was pregnant for the second time. I told Lucchese manager Mario Santoro, and I was told that a deal made last summer had to be respected, and that they no longer intended to pay me what I’m due.”
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Pignagnoli, a goalkeeper, has played for several different club teams since she began her career in 2007. This is her second child, and when she was pregnant with baby No. 1, Pignagnoli’s then-club Cesena renewed her contract. She recently went to Instagram to show off her baby bump and write a letter to her unborn child.
In the post, Pignagnoli said: “It’s been a very difficult few months. Walking away from the camp is, for me, always a mourning in all aspects. Then, contrary to what I expected, finding a hostile society like Lucchese, that hurt me as a woman, mother and athlete created a deep groove. I felt lonely, useless, incapable, an old toy to be thrown away.”
She continued: “I dream a world of love where women can be supported in one of the biggest and yet difficult tasks they face: not only generating life, but not feeling ‘wrong’ about their choices. A world where women are valued by their worth and not by the amount of children they have or don’t have.” Pignagnoli played for AC Milan, Torres, Mantua and Reggiana during her 16-year career. In 2011, she won the Italian Super Cup with Torres, a club in Sassari, Sardinia.
