More than half of the team is made up of some of the 800 women who are employed by the Vatican, as well as male employees’ wives and daughters.
Most of the players are amateurs, although three have played football at a high level in the past, including the captain and striker, Eugene Tcheugoue, from Cameroon.
The team is being managed by Susan Volpini, the secretary of the Women in the Vatican Association.
For a few months now, the group of around 20 women meet once or twice a week to train on the grounds of the Pius XI sports centre in the shadow of the Dome of St Peter.
Following their friendly against AS Roma, which they lost, the team will play an international match in Vienna this month, by taking part in a tournament organised by the Vatican’s children’s hospital, Bambino Gesù.
Pope Francis has reportedly given his blessing to the new team.
“Pope Francis has given considerable impulse to women within the Vatican, therefore this initiative is an extension of that,” Danilo Zennaro, a representative of the association that organises the Vatican’s football activities, told The Guardian.
“We’ve had a men’s team for 48 years so it was only right to offer the possibility to women who work within the Vatican to practice the sport.”
