We Are Athletes
Salvatore’s — or Salvo’s, as everyone calls him — story begins in Palermo, in the neighborhood where he grew up.
As a child, he dreamed of playing football, but life had already placed too many barriers in his way.
“I would go to the local pitches in my city to sign up, but they sent me away. They said they didn’t want to take responsibility if something happened to me.”
They didn’t feel comfortable welcoming a boy with a disability.
What began as a dream quickly became a wound.
Then came the loss of his father — a sudden trauma that left him shocked and alone.
“After my father died, I closed myself off. Food was the only thing that gave me comfort,” he says.
Pain turned into weight, eventually reaching 145 kilos. But even in the worst moments, football remained there, like a voice that never stopped calling.
Over the years, Salvo moved through different communities, from Rome to the Aosta Valley.
He changed cities, companions, homes. But one thing never changed: his desire to get back on the pitch.
The turning point came in Piedmont, where he met Marco Tealdo and coach Gianluca Gallina.
In Pinerolo, the first group — Pinerolo FD — was formed, giving Salvo the chance to truly start over.
“They told me that to improve my performance I needed to work on my physical condition, so I went to a nutritionist, followed the diet, focused on myself. And I did it.”
That moment — joining the team, wearing the jersey for the first time — marked a rebirth.
On the pitch, he found what life had taken from him: confidence, belonging.
No longer the “problematic kid,” but teammate, player, defender.
A man who learned to turn anger into commitment, energy into strength.
Since then, Salvo has become one of the group’s reference points — not only because of his experience, but also for the care he shows others.
He looks after the most agitated teammates, helps newcomers who step onto the field for the first time, and is always ready with a word of encouragement.
“There was a time when I was the one struggling to fit into the team. Now I’m the one helping others find their place,” he says with a smile.
Today he is one of the most active faces of the Juventus One project off the pitch as well: he takes part in school events through the “Juventus One @ School” initiative, where he shares his story with children and explains what it means to be part of a team.
“I like talking to the kids, helping them understand that it’s not true that a person with a disability can’t play. Actually, sometimes they can play better than those who think they know everything. We are not disabled. We are athletes.”
He says it with pride, without anger.
Because what football gave back to him wasn’t just the chance to play — it was the freedom to feel like himself.
And when he steps onto the pitch, wearing the black and white jersey, everything falls into place.
“When I play, I don’t think about anything.
I just hear my teammates’ voices, the ball moving, the coach calling out.
In those moments, I understand that everything I went through was meant to bring me here.”
His strength isn’t in shouting, but in being there.
In the training sessions he never misses, in the smile he offers newcomers, and in the sentence that sums up his story better than any other:
“We are athletes.”
