Staff 
Tomorrow in the match with Japan Leo will arrive to 500 matches played with Italian volley national team.
The first time she wore the blue shirt (of the Italian national team) was the 21st June 1998: Leo made her début during the Montreaux Volley Master, it has been the first one of her 500 performances. That aim, that dream which became true, turned into the beginning of a roaring adventure.
Set after set Leo became the “regular mind†of the national team on the way to a maybe unexpected first place at the World Championship 2002 in Berlin.
The Gold Medal arrives. Finally the Italian National Team, after the Silver Medal at the European Championship 2001, writes a piece of history of the women’s volley and Leo is one of the protagonists.
The “Italrosa†(so is also named the italian women national team) doesn’t stop but it grows up among triumphs and disappointments: prestigious medals arrive (2 European Championships, 1 World Cup, 1 Grand Champions Cup, 2 Mediterranean Games, not forgetting the silver medal at the European Championship 2005), but also defeats from which it is not easy to pick up again.
In these years Leo was always present, with her unmistakable number 14, inside the front zone, ready to set tirelessly for all her teammates whom she shared joy and responsibility with.
Thanks to her humility and to her devotion – apart from her extraordinary talent- starting from 2007 her number 14 has been enriched by a strip which underlines it: from 4 years she is the Captain of our national team.
And even harder she took the team upon herself, she lifted up trophies after victories (3 gold medals right in 2007) but she also swallowed bitter pills of the defeats (particularly the Olympics 2008).
Now that she went far away from Italy to playing with the Galatasaray Istanbul, we all, keens on volleyball, feel the weight of her absence in the Italian League.
But then we find her on the court, in “azureâ€once again. She is always there, ready to deal balls, to defense and ready to help blocking. In those moments our hearts beat at once with hers, over and over again, after 500 matches.
No-one like her ever, no-one more than her ever.
500 times thanks to you Leo. Thank you for what you gave and give to volley, thank you Captain, thank you for all you are!
– Cristina, Manuela, Pietro – Foto Cucchetti/De Salvo
