By RYAN TOLMICH
A decade after calling an end to her playing career, former U.S. Women’s National Team star Mia Hamm is set to join the front office of one of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Italy’s AS Roma announced Monday that Hamm has been named one of 13 members of the club’s Board of Directors. Hamm, who was a two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, will serve a three-year term.
Hamm made 275 appearances for the U.S. Women’s National Team in a career that spanned from 1987-2004. The 42-year-old scored a then-record 158 international goals before being surpassed by current USWNT forward Abby Wambach.
Roma currently sit second in Serie A after finishing runners up in 2013-14. The club was purchased by a Boston-based group in 2011 that includes Richard D’Amore, who rejoined the board. Former club president Thomas DiBenedetto and New York lawyer Joe Tacopina departed the board.
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What do you think of the Hamm hire? What do you expect Hamm’s primary role to be with the club?
Share your thoughts below.
Does Roma have a ladies team? I certainly wouldn’t mind having Mia Hamm involves in the Manager & Technical Director hirings for my ladies team (were I a club owner, etc.).
Hiring Jon Hamm would’ve made more sense than Mia
Funny but no.
Well that’s just weird……..Awesome for her but weird.
um why ROMA? why not DC United or La Galaxy?
and whats her job exactly?
Board Member
If you’d like to know more about what a board member does, the answer is “almost nothing”. At large publicly traded companies, they serve the function of evaluating the senior management and voting on executive hrings/firings.
Since Roma is privately owned, this is not really applicable (and it’s not clear that Hamm is a voting member anyway.).. As a reference, Cam Neely is also on the board, and he’s a hockey player-turned-exec with no soccer connections. Informal feedback is probably their most serious responsibility, should they choose to accept it,.
So the answer she probably gets flown to Roma a few times a year for a game. The board disappears into a conference room for an hour or two and give feedback on the direction of the club, which may or may not be discarded immediately. Then everybody goes out and gets drunk on chianti and the owner gets to feel like a big shot for having such important and trusted friends..
In short, if anybody ever offers you a seat on any board whatsoever, take it before they change their mind.
I think it’s super random. But ok. Good luck, Mia. We’re all rooting for you, always! 🙂
Ya, you can’t think that it’s anything other than random. I don’t know that she doesn’t have executive experience on some level though.
She will be fine.
Sounds random but maybe not. Connecting dots here…..so bare with me….. Boston groups owns Roma includes Thomas. DiBenedetto who owned or owns part of the Boston Red Sox. Mia is married to Nomar Garciaparra who played for the Red Sox. It may be a stretch but I can only assume that’s the connection.
Nice connection! Nothing is random. Good call.
close. DiBenedetto owns the Red Sox. Kevin Bacon wears socks. Mia loves bacon.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum
I hate Nomar…
I like it.
That is cool. Best of luck to her.
Classy and gutsy move by Roma. She knows a thing or two about the game that hopefully can be imparted to the rest of the club.
LOL, Mia will teach the game of soccer to those ignorant Italians, really? Her role is to be a board member, a corporate position. But it is a good PR move for the US audiences. All the best to her.
Pretty sure the person you responded to never said “teacher soccer to ignorant italians.” Not sure why you felt the need to respond like that.
My response was triggered by the following statement in the original post: “She knows a thing or two about the game that hopefully can be imparted to the rest of the club.” It’s condescending towards the club and the folks who run it, don’t you think?
more likely this is a move to interest the “usa female soccer fan” market in Roma. This is not cynicism, this is modern global football.