There is a clip on Loradana Paletta’s Instagram, featuring the 14-year-old playing for the New York City FC’s U15 Academy team with 150,000 likes. A teammate crossed the ball in from the right flank, but the defender, in black, stooped down, then up, attempting to generate enough power on the header to get the ball clear.
The ball bounced twice out of the penalty box before Paletta, in a pigtail and wearing the No. 72, flicked it up and over her marker without breaking her stride. She watched it fall, timing her volley and smashing the ball into the far corner of the goal with her weaker left foot in black and white LOTTO boots.
“It was pure instinct,” Paletta, the first girl in U.S. soccer history to make a boys’ MLS team with NYCFC, told amNY. “I touched the ball, and I was like, ‘Now I’m gonna bang this in.’ And I did.”
Yet, she was the first to say shooting, “is not really my strong suit,” and is still perfecting it.
A talented midfielder who has already been called up to represent her country at the U17 level, Paletta made a difficult goal look so easy, gliding past boys around the same age as her. Over the summer, the Syosset, Long Island native became Italian sports equipment giant LOTTO’s first NIL partner on this side of the pond. From Andriy Shevchenko, Clarence Seedorf, and Cafu, LOTTO added America’s next soccer prospect to its list of legends.
“LOTTO has always backed players who are bold and ahead of their time — Loradana represents the future of the game in the United States,” Mike Magee, LOTTO’s head of talent for US soccer and former MLS MVP, told amNY. “She is breaking barriers, playing fearlessly against boys, and doing it with humility and confidence. Making her our first U.S. NIL signing was about impact and connecting LOTTO’s heritage to the next generation of soccer.”
Italian soccer roots run deep in the Paletta household — the family supports Inter Milan thanks to her father, Alain. Her two older brothers, Leonardo and Gianluca, play as well.
She would get thrown and bumped around in the backyard when they train against each other, but Paletta would still get right back up each time, attempting to do the same to a pair of brothers two and three years older than her.
“They would treat me like I was an 18-year-old,” Paletta said. “I had to make my mark, and I respect that. That just gave me drive, and I beat them one day.”
It’s perhaps cultivated the perfect environment for her to play on boys’ teams, knowing that she could get bumped off the ball more easily, but having the technical skills and know-how to get past them. She described herself as a “six, eight, or ten,” more commonly known as the defensive, box-to-box and attacking midfield roles a player performs in the middle of the pitch.
At her first camp on a boys’ team, Paletta was at “peak” confidence and made her mark in a one-versus-one drill immediately.
“They play [the ball] through, and you have to turn and go towards goal,” Paletta recounted. “I got the ball, did a crazy move, got my separation, and scored. Everybody just went pit silent, thinking, ‘We can’t mess with her.’”
Interestingly, she models her game after Sergio Busquets, the legendary Spanish and Barcelona veteran who made a name for himself as one of the best defensive midfielders of all time.
“He [shows] everybody that you don’t have to be fast and strong,” Paletta said. “The biggest thing that you have to have is up here in your mind and your brain.”
Like her favorite player, Paletta is quietly confident and wants to “keep control of the game,” focusing her game on composure and intelligence. It’s a complete 180 from her favorite pre-match song: “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys.
Besides scoring, Paletta also loves a good tackle to “get myself into the game.”
But when prompted with a choice, Paletta preferred to play a teammate through on goal because, “I feel like it’s just not about myself, but about my teammates as well — it’s a team game,” she said.
It’s an elite athlete mentality from a high school freshman, and it’s been consistent throughout every aspect of her life. She was selected for the U17 USWNT camp in July, but was not called up for the age group’s women’s World Cup in October. It hasn’t fazed her one bit — she knows she’ll get another chance.
“Since they didn’t win it this year, it’s definitely my biggest goal to win it with my team,” Paletta said. “I’m close with them, I made better connections, and I feel like we would definitely have a good chance of winning it [next time].”
