The age-old rivalry between Roma and Lazio runs deep, but so far, the two Capitoline clubs have crossed paths rarely in women’s football.
Since Roma set up their women’s team in 2018, they and Lazio – who announced an affiliated women’s side in 2015 – have only played each other twice. Both encounters were in the 2021-22 Serie A Femminile season, by the end of which Roma qualified for the Champions League for the first time and Lazio suffered relegation straight back down to Serie B.
But Lazio are back in Serie A for the 2024-25 season, and the Derby Della Capitale is actually the first game on the schedule for two-time reigning champions Roma.
Ahead of the third women’s derby between the two sides, with Roma looking to maintain their 100% record in the fixture, here’s a summary of the players who have worn both jerseys over the years (not counting the likes of Manuela Coluccini, Eleonora Cunsolo and Claudia Ciccotti, who played for an unaffiliated Lazio CF prior to 2015 and were all founding members of the Roma Women squad in 2018).
Just like in men’s football – think of Arne Selmosson, Aleksandar Kolarov, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Pedro, among others – the animosity between Roma and Lazio hasn’t prevented some players from representing both clubs.
In chronological order of when they signed for the second of the two rivals they represented, here are the six women with history at both Roma and Lazio.
Emma Lipman (2018-19 Roma, 2020-21 Lazio)
The first female player to have spells with Roma and Lazio was Emma Lipman, the only English-born player (although she is a Malta international) to have represented the Giallorosse so far.
The defender, who had previously played for Leeds United, Manchester City and Sheffield FC and kindly gave an interview to Giallorossi Yorkshire in 2019, joined Roma upon their formation in 2018, but despite being a fairly regular starter, only spent a year at the club.
After spending the following season with Florentia, she returned to Rome to join Lazio in 2020, dropping down to Serie B in the process. Her spell there lasted just one season as well before she joined Como.
Lipman played 19 times for Roma in comparison to 16 for Lazio, scoring once for each.
Camilla Labate (2018-19 Roma, 2021-22 Lazio)
During Roma’s first season in women’s football, Camilla Labate split her time between the senior team and the Primavera, featuring as a full-back for the former and in a more advanced role with the latter.
Having been part of the Res Roma side whose licence Roma acquired, Labate then left for Sassuolo in 2019. After a spell with San Marino, she then signed for Lazio – the club she had always supported, emphasised by her choice of the 71 shirt number in reference to the 2013 men’s Coppa Italia final – in January 2021, spending 18 months there.
Chiara Vigliucci (2018-2022 Roma, 2022 Lazio)
In a rare move, Chiara Vigliucci moved from Roma to Lazio on loan for the second half of the 2021-22 season.
She had been at Roma since their inception as a youth player, making her senior debut and three more appearances during the first part of the 2021-22 season.
She gained more gametime with Lazio but suffered relegation with them by the end of her loan spell, after which she made a permanent move to Ternana.
Stephanie Ohrstrom (Lazio 2021-22, Roma 2022-2024)
So far, Stephanie Ohrstrom is the only female goalkeeper to play for Roma and Lazio, and also the only player to move from one to the other at the end of a contract. Already accustomed to Italian football thanks to her experience with Fiorentina, after the Swede’s 20-game spell with Lazio ended in 2022, she signed for Roma as a backup.
Although she only made six appearances for her new side, Roma won the Scudetto in each of Ohrstrom’s seasons with the club before she retired. Recently, she returned to Roma to work as a youth coach.
Flaminia Simonetti (Roma 2018-19, Lazio 2024-)
One of the Roma-supporting players who formed part of their original women’s squad, Flaminia Simonetti spent the 2018-19 season playing in midfield for the Giallorosse after previously donning the jerseys of Roma CF and Res Roma.
A loan move to Empoli immediately followed the campaign in which she was named Giallorossi Yorkshire’s most improved women’s player of the season, but rather than being reintegrated, she made a permanent move to Inter afterwards.
During her time with Inter, Simonetti earned her first senior Italy caps. After four seasons with the Nerazzurre, she joined Lazio this summer.
Martina Piemonte (Roma 2018-19, Lazio 2024-)
Like Simonetti, although without being a Roma fan, Martina Piemonte was part of the first Giallorosse squad in their inaugural season before developing elsewhere and ending up at Lazio this summer.
The Italian striker joined Roma from Sevilla in 2018 and scored in their first competitive game, but after only scoring five more times, she returned to Spain with Real Betis one year later. Spells with Fiorentina, Milan and Everton followed, until her move to Lazio earlier this week.
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