Replay 2.0 project mentors Paola and Laura, together with mentee and activity coordinator Patritzia organised five meetings with the under-12 athletes of the Gianesini sports club and discussed important topics of fair play, unhealthy competitive spirit, friendship in sport, and discrimination. They helped them devise, write and draw a comic strip and through its conception the athletes talked about their personal experiences related to their sporting careers.

The comic strip focused on the value of friendship and the team spirit athletes must have and the young athletes put the idea of group identity and teammates before the result. The importance of the figure of the coach was also brought up several times. The comic strip portrays the figure of the coach as a villain, because many boys stated that they had had very strict and unsympathetic coaches, only focused on the results of the games and little on the human value of the players.

The selection of the group was quite successful, as the boys are in the pre-adolescent phase, a delicate phase that deserves attention and more tools for personal and football growth. Overall, they were very happy and showed great enthusiasm participating in the project’s activities. The group of athletes today works with two young coaches, who also had a meeting with project mentor Giuseppe.