Italian Women: 13 Hottest Soccer WAGs

After my post about the hottest Italian soccer players, the guys in my office (I was the only woman there) kept hinting that I should give equal time to the WAGs, short for “wives and girlfriends.” For a while I told them it was my blog and I didn’t have to be fair. Then I gave in, and this list of Italian women who date or marry soccer players was the result.

>> Part two of the series (who knew it would be a series?) has more Italian women married to or dating soccer players.

If you don’t follow soccer (football, if you’re anywhere outside the U.S.), you may not realize that in Italy the partners of the big players can be as famous as the players themselves, and sometimes more so. What surprised me when I started digging is how many of them are serious TV professionals with careers that have outlasted their famous boyfriends’ playing days by decades. The first thirteen below are my original picks, all of them Italian, with an update on where each one is now. Below them are the names you need to know in 2026, and then the wives I called “noteworthy for their normalcy.”

So, in no particular order…

Ilary Blasi

Ilary Blasi: For years she was Italy’s most famous WAG: she married Roma captain Francesco Totti in 2005, in a wedding broadcast live on Sky with the TV money given to charity, and they had three children. The couple announced their separation in July 2022, and it was front-page news for months. Blasi started out as a child actress in commercials and a model, then became one of Italy’s busiest TV hosts (Le Iene, L’isola dei famosi, Grande Fratello VIP, which she returned to host in 2026). In 2024 she published a memoir about the breakup, Che stupida. La mia verità, and on 13 September 2026 she married German businessman Bastian Müller in a private ceremony in Ravello.

Giorgia Palmas

Giorgia Palmas: Born in Cagliari, Palmas finished second at Miss World in 2000, still the best result by an Italian. She then became one of the veline (the dancing hostesses) on Striscia la notizia and went on to present TV shows. Her WAG credentials come from Davide Bombardini, then a Bologna midfielder, with whom she had a daughter in 2008. Since 2021 she has been married to Filippo Magnini, a two-time world swimming champion, so she has traded soccer for the pool.

Marta Cecchetto

Marta Cecchetto: A model from Foligno, and the daughter of a professional footballer herself, Cecchetto met striker Luca Toni in 1997 and has been with him since 1998. They finally married in 2017, the year after he retired, near Fiesole. She was with him long before he won the World Cup, which is the kind of detail I find reassuring. (I know, I know.)

Manuela Arcuri

Manuela Arcuri: Arcuri’s WAG claim was a long relationship in 2003 with Francesco Coco, the former Milan and Inter defender. She is really an actress, best known for Italian TV drama, and she is still working: a film in 2026, and regular slots on Rai 1 talk shows. She married businessman Giovanni Di Gianfrancesco in 2022 (they have a son) and they announced their separation in 2025.

Martina Colombari

Martina Colombari: Miss Italy 1991, which is practically a WAG qualification in itself. She dated ski champion Alberto Tomba in the early 1990s, then married Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta in 2004; they have a son. She has kept working as an actress and presenter, including Pechino Express in 2023, Ballando con le stelle (Italy’s Dancing with the Stars) in 2025 and a part in Checco Zalone’s 2025 film Buen camino.

Sara Tommasi

Sara Tommasi: Tommasi, from Narni in Umbria, has an economics degree from Bocconi, Milan’s elite business university, and reached the Miss Italy finals before going into TV. At the time I wrote this she had dated Pippo Inzaghi, then Milan’s striker and now a coach. Her later story was much harder: she has spoken publicly, including on Le Iene in 2023, about living with bipolar disorder, and was the victim in an abuse case that ran through the Italian courts for a decade. She married her manager, Antonio Orso, in 2021, works as a TV commentator for Telelombardia and has kept releasing music.

Elisabetta Canalis

Elisabetta Canalis: A lot of the women on this page share one soccer tie-in: they dated Christian Vieri, the Italy striker who got around. Canalis, a velina on Striscia la notizia from 1999 to 2002, was one of them in the early 2000s. Americans know her better as George Clooney’s girlfriend from 2009 to 2011. She was married to American surgeon Brian Perri from 2014 to 2023 and lived in Los Angeles, and she is still on Italian TV; in 2026 she joined the cast of Tú sí que vales on Canale 5.

Elena Santarelli

Elena Santarelli: Santarelli, from Latina, has worked as a model most of her life and moved into presenting and acting. She has been with striker Bernardo Corradi since 2006 and married him in 2014; they have two children. Corradi has since retired and coaches Sampdoria. Soccer runs in her family too: her uncle is former footballer Ubaldo Righetti.

Elena Barolo

Elena Barolo: Remember Giorgia Palmas, up top? Barolo was the blonde half of that Striscia la notizia pair from 2002 to 2004, and the two stayed close. Her WAG credentials came from dating Roberto Stellone, then a Torino striker. She is from Turin, studied at the Istituto Europeo di Design, and is still on TV: a reality show with Ilary Blasi as host in 2025, commentary on Canale 5 and Alessandro Borghese - Celebrity Chef in 2026.

Francesca Lodo

Francesca Lodo: It amused me how often the same players’ names turned up next to different women. Do they compare notes? Lodo dated both Francesco Coco and his former Inter teammate Cristiano Zanetti, and lived with Zanetti for two years. She came up the usual route of modeling and Italian reality TV, and she is Giorgia Palmas’s cousin.

Rosaria Cannavò

Rosaria Cannavò: Cannavò, a showgirl and TV personality, once dated Antonio Cassano, the gifted and famously unpredictable striker, when he was at Sampdoria. That made me question her judgment. She then moved on to Christian Panucci, Roma’s defender at the time, who has since retired.

Federica Ridolfi

Federica Ridolfi: Ridolfi is a dancer first. She started at 17 with the Bagaglino company on Rai 1 in 1991 and made her name in variety TV. The daughter of actor Gianni Ridolfi, she married midfielder Giuliano Giannichedda in Rome in 2011, with Vincenzo Montella and Angelo Peruzzi among the guests; they have two children. She was born in 1974, which alternately impressed and depressed me when I wrote this. Fellow women over 35 will understand.

Alessia Marcuzzi

Alessia Marcuzzi: Marcuzzi has a son with Simone Inzaghi, now one of Italy’s best-known coaches, and afterwards spent five years with Carlo Cudicini, the Italian goalkeeper who played for Chelsea (he has since retired and still works for the club). She outgrew the WAG label a long time ago. She hosted Grande Fratello and L’isola dei famosi for years, co-hosted Sanremo in 2025, and now fronts The Traitors Italia on Prime Video.

New names for 2026

The boys in my office were right about one thing: the WAG story never ends. These are the Italian women you’ll see in the stands and on the sports shows now.

• Diletta Leotta: If you watch Serie A on DAZN, you know her face. Born in Catania in 1991, she has a law degree from Rome’s LUISS University, worked at Sky Sport, and since 2018 has been DAZN’s best-known soccer presenter; she hosted its World Cup show in 2026 and co-hosted the Club World Cup draw with Alessandro Del Piero. She married German goalkeeper Loris Karius (now at Schalke 04) on the island of Vulcano in June 2024. They have two children. Since 2025 she has also run her own team in the Kings League, the seven-a-side tournament, with Christian Vieri as co-president. The man really does turn up everywhere.
• Ilaria D’Amico: A journalist first: she hosted Sky Calcio Show for 15 seasons and Sky’s Champions League coverage, then left sports journalism in 2020 and has hosted current-affairs TV on Rai since 2022. She and Gianluigi Buffon, Italy’s legendary goalkeeper, have been together since 2013, have a son, and married in 2024.
• Federica Nargi: A Roman, and a velina on Striscia la notizia for four straight seasons from 2008 to 2012. She has been with striker Alessandro Matri since 2009 and they have two daughters. Matri has since retired and was a contestant on Ballando con le stelle in 2026.
• Chiara Nasti: A Naples-born influencer who married Mattia Zaccagni, Lazio’s captain and an Italy winger, in Rome in June 2023. They have two children.
• Alice Campello: An Italian model and blogger who married Spanish striker Álvaro Morata (ex-Juventus, Milan and Como) in Venice in 2017. They have four children. Morata announced in January 2026 that they were divorcing, and in May 2026 they said they were back together. WAG life, in one paragraph.
• Melissa Satta: Satta is in part two, but her story has moved on. After Vieri she married Kevin-Prince Boateng, divorced in 2020, and her more recent partners have come from tennis and business rather than soccer.

But we’re not done yet…

Because I’m a woman, I felt almost contractually obligated to honor not just the glamorous partners of these players but also the more ordinary women some of them married. My definition of normal: they didn’t get their start as models or showgirls, and they mostly stay out of the papers. By that definition, you’d be surprised how few WAGs qualify. That doesn’t mean they’re not lovely. It just means that without them, the rest of us would have nothing to hope for.

So, here are the WAGs who are “noteworthy for their normalcy:”

Daniela Cannavaro, Mrs. Fabio Cannavaro: Daniela is Fabio’s childhood sweetheart. How cute is that? They have been together for ages and have three children. She was routinely described as a regular housewife, perhaps the only one among the Italian WAGs. Fabio, the 2006 World Cup captain, now coaches Uzbekistan’s national team.

Tamara Pisnoli, Daniele De Rossi’s first wife: They married in 2006 and she didn’t appear to have had a showgirl career before life with Daniele. They had a daughter, Gaia, and separated in 2009. Since 2015 De Rossi has been married to actress Sarah Felberbaum, and he now coaches Genoa.

Sonia Amoruso, Mrs. Alessandro Del Piero: I couldn’t tell at first whether these two were married or engaged, but a reader named Sofia set me straight in the comments: they are married, with three children, and they have been together since 1999. Del Piero now works as a pundit for Sky Sport Italia.

Daniela Materazzi, Mrs. Marco Materazzi: I couldn’t find much about Mrs. Materazzi except that she’s Mrs. Materazzi. From the tattoos in this photo, though, she’s clearly as tough as her husband. They married in 1997 and have three children.

Gabriela Pagnozzi, Mrs. Alessandro Nesta: Gabriela and Alessandro married in May 2007 and have three children, the first born in 2006. Yes, for those counting, that’s before the wedding. I’m not judging, and neither should you.

Deborah Roversi, Andrea Pirlo’s first wife: Deborah and Andrea were together long before he became the playmaker for Milan and the Azzurri. They married in 2001, had two children, Niccolò (pictured) and Angela, and separated in 2014. Pirlo has since married Valentina Baldini and now coaches in the UAE. And if there was ever any doubt that little Niccolò is a mini-Andrea, just look at the kid’s eyes.

>> Want to see Italian soccer in person? Start with our guide to going to a soccer game in Italy.