In 2007, a group of friends in Rome had a dream to create a football team made up of the children of refugees and political asylum seekers. Eighteen years later, Liberi Nantes’ impact extends far beyond the football field.
This entirely volunteer-based sports association now offers a range of activities including women’s and men’s football, touch rugby, hiking and urban trekking and Italian language teaching through sport. Each year, the association touches the lives of over 200 people, many of whom are in a vulnerable position.
The name is inspired by a verse in Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’ that tells of shipwrecked people searching for safety. The rari nantes of Virgil became Liberi Nantes: swimmers navigating the waters of the Mediterranean to escape wars, persecutions and humanitarian crises. .
