#237 Women can do anything they want with Arianna Criscione

Arianna started her career in the USA, playing for university teams, UCLA Bruins, where she was a part of the #1 recruiting class in the nation and then Boston College, where she was female student athlete of the year.   In 2008, she moved to Europe, to pursue her dream of becoming a professional player. At the time there was no professional league in the US and Europe was her only option.   Her first stop was Sweden, where she played for Danmarks IF, and then off to the land of pizza and pasta, Italy where she played from 2009 to 2014 at Torres Calcio Femminile on the island of Sardinia, where she we won three domestic titles, a Coppa Italia and three Italian Supercups while also playing numerous games in the UEFA Women's Champions League. And getting her first caps with the Italian National Team.   During the summer of 2014, she decided she wanted a new challenge and made a quick pit stop in the Netherlands where she joined reigning Dutch Champions, FC Twente before - in January 2015 - making her first foray into French football with AS Saint-Étienne, where she stayed until May 2016.   In St Etienne she had the worse thing happen in the best possible place, a season ending injury, which doctors thought would be career ending having torn her ACL, MCL, PCL and both meniscus all at the same time. But after 18 months of intense rehab and a lot of determination she returned triumphantly to the field and returned to Sweden for a second time with Kungsbacka IF before taking on the challenge at another French club, US Saint-Malo in 2017.   She currently plays for PARIS SAINT GERMAIN in the French league while also holding a position in the business side leading the women's sponsoring initiative.   In 2018 she decided to pursue a promise to her mother of returning to school and getting a masters. She completed a master in Football Business in Switzerland. Which allowed her to become the only player in PSG history to have two contracts with the club one as a player on the women's pro team and a second in the marketing department as Women's Sponsorship Manager.   She is one of the only players, if not the only player in Europe to have two contracts within a major club. In the episode, we spoke about: - What was it like mentally dealing with 5 injuries all at once? - Where do you get your mindset from? - What drew you to the game? - Why did you pick to play for Italy? - How challenging is it for a woman's team to step out of the men's  team shadow? amongst many others You can learn more about Arianna and connect with her on Instagram.    For more information about James Roberts (the host of the podcast), visit jamesowenroberts.com and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram