The wheelchair basketball team, sponsored by Menarini, was presented today. The challenges of the Italian Serie A and Eurocup 3 are already on the horizon

FLORENCE, 24th November 2025 – Ten international talents, differing in both age and experience but united by the desire to make a difference, both in Italy and Europe. After the opening match of the 2025/2026 season, the new roster of the Volpi Rosse Menarini wheelchair basketball team was officially presented today, welcomed by members of the Town Council of Florence to a press conference in the historical Palagio di Parte Guelfa, ready to start competing in the FIPIC Serie A championship and the Eurocup 3.

This year, both at home at the Palavalenti gym and away, coach Antonino Savio Favano and assistant coach Antonio Calamai will be leading a team of players with very different backgrounds. From Spain to Finland, from Sweden to France, via Italy and Brazil, the Volpi Rosse Menarini team can count on a truly international team of players. Captain Luciano Felipe Da Silva, and team veterans, Francesco Marotta, Bilal Oujedid, and Carlos Anderson Silva Ferreira, have welcomed new arrivals, Frédéric Bauche, Xabier Iragorri Alconada, Andrea Papi, Sini Paukkeri, Ludvig Sjöström, and Matteo Veloce to their ranks.

Le Volpi Rosse Menarini con Letizia Perini (assessora allo Sport Comune di Firenze); Massimo Porciani (vicepresidente vicario Comitato Italiano Paralimpico); Alberto Giovanni Aleotti (azionista e membro del Board Gruppo Menarini); Valeria Speroni Cardi (Global Head of Press and Media Relations Gruppo Menarini); Ennio Troiano (Global Head of Human Resources Gruppo Menarini)

“We are proud to have such an important sporting organisation in our city – highlighted Florence’s Town Councillor for Sports, Letizia Perini – The Eurocup matches add to an already exceptional Serie A season. The Volpi Rosse Menarini are a point of reference here in Florence, thanks to their ability to engage and promote the values ​​of sport and inclusion. I want to thank the Menarini Group, which has supported the team over the years, the team, its management, and the coaching staff for their invaluable work in the community, which has raised an interest in wheelchair basketball, demonstrating that every citizen can engage in sporting activities as an opportunity for the own personal and collective growth. I would like to invite all Florentines to fill the stands of the Palavalenti gym and to passionately and enthusiastically support the team which shall represent Florence and hold our flag high in both Italy and in Europe”.

“Wheelchair basketball is part of the history of sports for people with disabilities – says Massimo Porciani, deputy vice president of the Italian Paralympic Committee and president of the Tuscany CIP – And it's a great pleasure for me to see that in my region, Tuscany, there are teams that engage in this movement, and a team that has honoured it for years by playing with ever-increasing vigour in the top division of the Italian championship. All the very best to the Volpi Rosse Menarini!”.

The team is now facing the matches of the Italian championship, a necessary testing ground for the Eurocup 3, scheduled from 12th to 15th March 2026 in Amsterdam.

“This year, we've chosen to focus on players with a significant growth potential in order to build a solid foundation for the future – explains Ivano Nuti, president of the Volpi Rosse Menarini – Our goal in Serie A is to improve on the results we already achieved last season. On the European front, however, we're looking forward, with great determination, to the Eurocup in March, in the hope of reaching the quarterfinal tournament in the Netherlands”.

Founded in 2005, the Volpi Rosse Menarini team has become a symbol of how personal growth can be achieved through sport: the passion, talent, and determination of these athletes have made every match a tangible example of inclusion. By their side is the Menarini Pharmaceutical Group which has been supporting the team as title sponsor since 2011 and shares the fundamental values ​​of solidarity and sporting ethics.

Le Volpi Rosse Menarini

“It is as if we are communicating vessels, the Volpi Rosse Menarini and our Group share, every day, the same values ​​that we believe in – commented Lucia and Alberto Giovanni Aleotti, shareholders and members of the Menarini Board – What has always distinguished the team is their tenacity, necessary to keep on improving and look to the future with confidence and commitment. Go for it Volpi Rosse Menarini!”.

But the story of the Volpi Rosse Menarini does not end here as they also dedicate time to promoting inclusion and awareness projects amongst students in schools in Florence with the support of Menarini, such as the “Oltre l’Ostacolo” (Beyond the Obstacle) and “Movimento in Allegria” (Movement in Joy) initiatives.

The sponsorship of the Menarini Group goes beyond Italy too as they also support a Spanish wheelchair basketball team, the Menarini Joventut, from Badalona (Barcelona) with the aim of encouraging, day after day, a greater sense of awareness within a more attentive and inclusive community.