The squad of Italian Serie A side Parma will be arriving in Malta on Monday afternoon for a one-week training camp ahead of their forthcoming Serie A commitments, starting with the clash with Juventus on January 6. They will be staying in Malta until January 4.
2009 has been a most successful year for the club after securing promotion back to the Serie A and the current fourth place.
Accompanying the Parma squad, technical staff and officials, will be the families and girlfriends of the players besides a large number of supporters who will also spend this week in Malta. They will be accommodated at the Le Meridien St. Julian’s.
The team will be holding its training sessions at the MFA Training Grounds. According to the club’s website, the first session will be held on Monday afternoon. Two sessions will be held on Tuesday at 10:30 and 15:30, one session each on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, two sessions on both Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 and one final session on Monday 4.
On Wednesday, Parma will be taking part in the Malta Christmas Cup – a mini-tournament based on 45-minutes matches – together with Hibernians and Valletta. The tournament will be played at the Hibernians Stadium, with the first game kicking-off at 20:00.
In the first game, Valletta take on Hibernians. The loser then faces Parma and in the third game, Parma take on the winner of the match Valletta-Hibs. If the result is still draw at the end of the 45 minutes, penalty-kicks will decide the issue. Three points will be awarded for wins at the end of the 45 minutes, two points for wins on penalties and one point for defeats on penalties.
Tickets are available for €10 from L-Amerikan – Valletta, Teamsport – Iklin and Hibernians Football Club.
The Parma squad is currently made up of the following players:
Antonio Mirante, Nicola Pavarini, Stefano Russo, Paolo Castellini, Paolo Hernan Dellafiore, Pablo Ezequiel Fontanello, Alessandro Lucarelli, Massimo Paci, Christian Panucci, Mohamed Lamine Traore, Cristian Zaccardo, Luca Antonelli, Alessandro Budel, Nicolas Andres Cordova, Blerin Dzemaili, Daniele Galloppa, Francesco Lunardini, Alessio Manzoni, Mc Donald Mariga, Stefano Morrone, Andrea Pisanu, Damiano Zenoni, Nicola Amoruso, Jonathan Ludovic Biabiany, Valeri Bojinov, Davide Lanzafame, Alberto Paloschi.