Yeah; Guagni was Fiorentina’s bandiera. She was often likened to Giancarlo Antognoni, who was their last, big player to have stayed with the team for their whole entire career.

I honestly thought she was going to be the first, women’s equivalent of Totti, Zanetti, and Maldini, i.e the one-club players who played with one team their entire careers.

But alas, women’s football doesn’t work that way. Women’s football is constantly in a state of flux and in the case of Italy ― Serie A Femminile is still not professionalized, so the players can leave when their 'contracts’ come to an end. Their ‘contracts’ are usually pretty short, and they don’t really protect the players as well. In Alia’s case, her ‘contract’ was terminated through a mutual agreement.

Even though I don’t like it, I understand why she’s leaving. In Spain, she’ll get to be semi-professional, which is better than being an amateur. She’ll also get paid more and have all the protections that a semi-professional status can give her.

More importantly, she’ll also have a greater degree of visibility as well, which is something that she can’t have in Serie A Femminile.

It’s really sad, and I get the sense that she didn't want to leave too. That was evident by how hard she was crying during her press conference.

I really do hope she does come back someday. I don't know if she will, but I get the feeling that she wants to, given how she has much she’s done for the team.

But more importantly, I hope she comes back given how much she loves the city. Firenze is, after all, her home.

I remember when Kaká left Milan and how upset all of us were when it happened. (In fact, I was so shocked that when I first heard the news, that I felt like I had died the moment it happened.)

But eventually, he came back for a season-long spell, and when he did, there was this line the Milanisti sang in celebration of his return. It’s a line from a song by Antonello Venditti ('Amici Mai').

And the chorus goes:

Some loves never end / They go on long journeys / And eventually, they come back

I hope the Violi can sing that song when Alia comes back too.