Inside Lucia Di Guglielmo’s Move From Italy to the Washington Spirit

The NWSL club used traditional and data-driven scouting techniques to bring the Italian defender stateside. Now, Di Guglielmo is ready to deliver on the pitch, and win over fans in the process.

Lucia Di Guglielmo made her NWSL debut on Friday with the Washington Spirit. | Jordyn Harris-Imagn Images

Lucia Di Guglielmo wanted to try something different. Playing her entire career in Italy, including the past five years with Serie A club AS Roma, the Italian defender knew it was time to push the limits of her career. What better way to do that than coming to the United States?

“I’d been at Roma for many years, and I felt at home in Rome, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone, and I don’t think there is anything better than coming to the U.S.,” Di Guglielmo says. “When I realized the Spirit was interested in me, I was like, ‘wow, you can’t say no.’”

Before joining the Spirit, Di Guglielmo had never set foot in Washington, D.C., and only a family vacation to New York had previously brought her stateside. Even so, the Pisa, Italy native knew from her first conversations with the club that the Spirit was the right fit for her. 

“The first time I spoke with the coaches and the club, they impressed me a lot,” Di Guglielmo says. “For me, values are important, and when I’m choosing a club, I want us to share the same values. At the same time, I ask myself what I can give to this club. We spoke a lot, and I believed I could be the player and person they’re looking for.”

The right back is already a staple on the Italian women’s national team at just 28 years old. Her contributions to the squad, including during last summer’s UEFA Women’s Euros, caught the eye of Spirit’s recruiting staff. 

Adding to our back line 👏

Welcome to DC, Lucia! pic.twitter.com/QzGfYz3tc7

— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) December 31, 2025

“Someone like Lucia, she’s a real footballer,” Spirit’s sporting director James Hocken says. “To find a player who meets what we want in a style, which is obviously a little bit more technical, it’s someone who’s confident playing out of the back but also has the physical capacity to meet the demands of the league, it’s quite a rare thing to have both of those things, and Lucia proved that she could handle that.”

Through a combination of traditional scouting and data-driven recruiting, Hocken and his team identified players like Di Guglielmo and her Italian compatriot, Sofia Cantore, from Serie A Women, a league that has not seen many players transition to the National Women’s Soccer League. 

In 2025, Cantore became the first Italian player to join the NWSL. Since then, three other Italians, including Di Guglielmo, have signed with NWSL teams, an indication of the growth of Italian women’s soccer. Di Guglielmo, who faced off against Cantore in club play when Cantore was at Juventus, is happy to be on the same team now.

“I really like Sofia as a player, a person, and our paths in our careers have been quite similar,” Di Guglielmo says. “We both have had a lot of injuries, and many times I have told her that we are here because we work a lot and we deserve it.”

Cantore and Di Guglielmo’s performances in the 2025 Euros were more confirmation for Hocken and the Spirit. By that point, the team had already been watching both players for club and country, but seeing them play at that highest level proved what they already believed: These players can compete at the top level and be immediate contributors in the NWSL. They just needed to get them here.

“I have to give some credit to Sofia Cantore,” Hocken says of recruiting Di Guglielmo. “She’s the one who really opened that door. It’s rare enough to see Italians explore different areas of Europe, but to see them take the jump to another continent is even more rare. So when Sofia made the jump to the NWSL, she opened the door to that possibility. Then we saw Lisa Boattin go to Houston, and now Lucia has come over as well.” 

💥 Lucia di Guglielmo connects with the deflection to make Tre Fontane roar. Roma lead in the derby!

Watch live for free on DAZN ▶️ https://t.co/dIfKpURfZv #SerieAFemminile pic.twitter.com/4bCUtgFFUf

— DAZN Women's Football (@DAZNWFootball) November 17, 2024

Di Guglielmo got her first taste of NWSL action on Friday. Before joining the Spirit, she had only watched some of the club’s games on TV, and the atmosphere created by the fans was one of the first things that caught her eye. Earning her first start with the club in the home opener, she quickly worked her way into fans’ hearts with her stellar defending and moves on the ball. 

After the match, Di Guglielmo glowed when asked about the fans at “Rowdy Audi,” calling them “amazing” and “super welcoming.” This immediate embrace from one of the league’s best fan bases helped dull the sting of the Spirit’s 1–0 loss to the Portland Thorns, even with Di Guglielmo’s significant defensive contributions to the team. 

“I felt quite good in the group, and I think I was able to get the rhythm of the match from the beginning,” Di Guglielmo said after her NWSL debut. “But of course, here everything’s faster, more physical, but I like it, so I think I can improve a lot. I know I can give a lot more, but at the same time, I need time to adjust step-by-step, and I don’t want to rush it.”

Di Guglielmo’s debut proved Hocken’s scouting correct and showcased just a preview of what she can contribute to the Spirit moving forward. Her play was crucial to the team’s forward progress, possession numbers, and defensive stats, as she won eight of 11 duals.

Her new Spirit teammates were particularly effusive of Di Guglielmo following the match. Trinity Rodman and Hal Hershfelt wasted no time praising her in the postgame press conference.

“At halftime, I walked over to her in the locker room and said, ‘That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’ I’m not kidding, that was the craziest performance I’ve ever seen,” Rodman said.

“She’s so good at getting that last toe in; she saved our ass so many times tonight,” Hershfelt said. “There were like three or four times in the box where she just gets that final touch on the ball … she crushed it.”

As Di Guglielmo gears up for the rest of the season, she is looking forward to immersing herself in Washington, D.C.’s culture and getting to know her teammates. During her time in Rome, she learned that she thrives in environments that embrace diversity, which played a big part in her decision to join the Spirit. 

“In Rome we have many people from everywhere, and I really like to try and get to know them, their culture, it’s like travel without traveling,” Di Guglielmo says. “Everyone can bring something different, and for me, it means a lot to have this diversity in a team, a staff, and in a club in general.”

For now, Di Guglielmo is focused on being the best she can be for the Spirit and on making sure the fans know just how bought in she is to her new club.

“I really like to build relationships with the fans, so I hope we can do that as soon as possible,” Di Guglielmo says. “Fans were super important for me in Rome, and I can’t wait to have the fans here get to know me.”

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