Eleven young players, one Serie A club, and a week living the life of an Italian academy footballer.
In 2025 we took a group of young Canadian players to Genoa to train inside Genoa C.F.C., the oldest football club in Italy. Eight came on a Genoa soccer experience. Three more came on official trials with the club’s academy. For a week they wore the club’s kit, trained with its youth teams, stood on the pitch before a Serie A match and ate their way through the city that gave the world pesto.
Here’s how the week unfolded, and the stories behind every stop.
Genoa C.F.C.: Italy’s oldest football club
The sign pointing the way to the academy gives away the club’s roots. Genoa was founded in 1893 by English residents of the city as the Genoa Cricket and Football Club, which is why it still uses the English spelling of its name rather than the Italian Genova. It won Italy’s first national championship in 1898 and nine titles in all, still the fourth-most of any Italian club.
At the club museum, a wall of match shirts traces more than a century of that history. The earliest are plain white, followed by white and blue stripes, before the red and blue halves the club has worn for most of its life. Above the cases hang pennants from clubs Genoa has played across Italy and beyond. Its supporters call the team the Grifone, after the golden griffin on the crest, and the players the Rossoblù, the red and blues.
The academy: training with the Grifone
The heart of the week was on the training pitch. Our players pulled on Genoa training kit and joined the academy’s youth teams for their sessions, under the same coaches and the same demands as the club’s own players.
For the three trialists, every session counted. They were assessed by the academy staff on the same terms as any young player the club is watching. For the eight on the experience, it was a first-hand look at how a Serie A club develops talent: the tempo, the tactical detail and the standard expected every single day.
The goalkeepers had their own dedicated sessions, working alongside Genoa’s academy keepers on pitches set into the hills above the city.
LUAD tip: Pack boots for artificial turf as well as grass. Many academy training pitches in Italy are synthetic, and firm-ground studs aren’t always allowed on them.
Match day at the Luigi Ferraris
On match day the group went pitchside at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa’s home since 1911 and one of the oldest stadiums in Italian football. It’s named after Luigi Ferraris, a Genoa captain killed in the First World War. The four brick-red towers at its corners were added when it was rebuilt for the 1990 World Cup.
Lanyards on and Genoa scarves around their necks, the players stood on the grass as the stands filled. Coaches and parents joined them for a team photo beneath the banner that reads Forza Vecchio Cuore Rossoblù: “come on, old red-and-blue heart.”
Then came kickoff. The home end rose as one, scarves stretched overhead beneath a banner reading “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the anthem Genoa’s supporters have made their own. For young players who have only seen Serie A on a screen, standing that close to the noise is something they won’t forget.
LUAD tip: Serie A kickoff times are often confirmed only a couple of weeks ahead for TV. Keep match day flexible, dress warmly for evening games in winter, and bring photo ID, as tickets in Italy are named.
Behind the scenes: the press room
Away from the pitch, the players took their seats at the desk in Genoa’s press room, microphones in front of them and the club’s red-and-blue backdrop behind. The slogan across it reads Dall’inizio, per sempre: “from the beginning, forever,” a nod to the club’s 1893 founding. It’s the room where Genoa’s players and coaches face the Italian media every week, and for a few minutes it was theirs.
Living Genoa: caruggi, focaccia and pesto
Genoa surprised us on our MSC Grandiosa cruise, and it won over this group too. The historic centre is one of the largest medieval old towns in Europe, a maze of narrow caruggi lanes that open onto Renaissance palaces. In the evening, the bars set their tables out along the alleys and the whole quarter comes alive.
Then there’s the food. Genoa is the home of pesto, and the players worked through plenty of it, alongside pizza, pasta and long team dinners in family-run trattorias. The adults held their own lunches, where the rigatoni went quickly.
LUAD tip: Do breakfast the Genoese way. Order a slice of focaccia with your cappuccino at any bakery, and dip it in. Locals swear by it.
From trialist to Canada cap
One of our three trialists in Genoa was Shola Jimoh. In January 2026, he started for Canada’s men’s national team in a 1–0 friendly win over Guatemala in Los Angeles, playing 63 minutes. At 17, he was the youngest player named to the camp.
The Brampton native came up through the Canadian Premier League and played for Canada at the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup. We’re proud to have been a small part of his path, and it’s a reminder of how far the young players we take abroad can go.
Your team’s trip, planned beautifully
One week took our players from the academy’s training pitches to the grass of the Luigi Ferraris, through the press room and a century of club history, and on to a plate of pesto in the old town. That’s what a football trip to Italy can be.
At LUAD Travel, we arrange the club access, training sessions, match tickets, flights, hotels and meals, so players and coaches can focus on the football.
Ready to put your players on an Italian pitch? Get in touch at info@luadtravel.com or visit luadtravel.com to start planning your team’s trip.
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