A team playing on Italian soil, but representing the Republic of San Marino, has already entered European competition. It's La Fiorita, a team that managed to reach the second round of the Conference League two seasons ago and concluded its European campaign in this competition in the first round earlier this season. After a 1-0 defeat in the first leg, La Fiorita succumbed 2-0 to Luxembourg's UNA Strassen at the San Marino Stadium. Despite the defeat and the exit, the match went down in history not only for the San Marino club but also for Italian football, setting a record for the debut of a player born in 2010. In the 90th minute, Thomas Bonifazi came on and, at 16 years and 16 days, became the third-youngest player ever to make his UEFA Conference League debut, as well as the youngest player in San Marino and Italy to play in a European club competition. ’A great joy for this young talent and for La Fiorita who interprets football in a key of modernity and tradition, an inseparable combination for a small reality, and with the pride of participating in the preliminaries of a continental cup – he declared to
Alessandro Cianciaruso, president of the San Marino club, said: "In recent years, we've been able to play in the first rounds of all three European competitions, already making history. We'll increasingly give young players the opportunity to develop and develop.".
