The debut at the Under-20 European Championship that ended a few days ago in Matosinhos showed us all the talent Martina Fantini possesses. Born in 2005, a native of Tuscany, and involved in professional volleyball for at least three years playing in Serie A2 and A1 between Rome and Faenza, Fantini will fly in a few days to Tempe, Arizona, for her first NCAA season in the Big 12 conference, joining Arizona State.
In a conversation, she reveals her journey and her initial decision to stay in Italy, before America worked its magic and convinced her to change her mind. The interview was conducted a few days before the Italian national team’s departure for Portugal.
Born in Tuscany, moved to Rome first and then to Faenza, where you played last season. Now ready to leave with the National Team. What has been your relationship with basketball so far, before leaving for America?
To date, basketball has brought me many experiences and many emotions. It took me away from home when I was in my first year of high school. I first spent a year in Ragusa, which was interrupted because of Covid. Then came Basket Roma, where I had four wonderful years, and now I played my last year in Faenza. I was not even 14 years old when I left, so I’d say my whole adolescence has centered around basketball. It’s something I feel deeply inside, something I am particularly attached to. I can’t imagine my life, or the next few years, without basketball. And it’s also one of the reasons why I decided to go to America, a decision that made me feel much happier because everything there revolves around it: class schedules are arranged around training, many people come to watch you, and there are many coaches following you. So having lived basketball for many years, it was an experience I wanted to try.
You are part of a generation of girls and boys who see America as an opportunity and a landing spot: is this something you talk about, have you talked with your teammates about it? Could it even be a decision made together, collectively?
I don’t think so. I talk about it with some friends who are already there, and they tell me about their experience, but the decision to go is obviously very personal and each one has their own reasons. We all have different motivations. Then we realize that actually many of us are going and we are happy about this, because maybe we feel less alone and have someone to share the experience with. But I believe if the conditions were right, we would all be very happy to stay in Italy. At the moment we share the problem of getting the visa: we keep in touch to check who has gotten an appointment, the timing. Once you have it, everything goes well. I imagine we’ll also comment on the impact over there, the first months will be tough.
Have you contacted anyone who is already in America to understand how they are doing?
Yes, I have talked with Nicole Benini, my teammate at Basket Roma. This year I contacted her a few times. Then I got in touch with some Italian girls who don’t play basketball but are involved in other sports at Arizona State, and they told me how they found life as Italians on campus. Also, in the current Under-20 team, there’s Piatti going to Florida, Zuccon going to America, Ceppellotti who has already done a year, and Candy (Edokpaigbe) as well.
Let’s get to how the idea of going to the United States and playing in the NCAA came about.
I confess that initially I wasn’t very sure; I wanted to study law in Italy. I hadn’t considered the NCAA because I was very determined, and I still am today. When I return from the USA, I want to do that and pursue those studies. But my agent advised me to test the waters and see if there were any interesting teams. I don’t close any doors; I’m someone open to embracing whatever comes my way, so I registered on the portal. I would have made the decision if I had received offers, but they might not have come. I had never looked into it before, nor had I ever thought about moving to America, but after talking with the universities that showed interest, I understood.
I will take an academic path that will help me once I return to Italy — Business Law — which will assist me with law. Also, the coach seemed like an empathetic person who has built an ambitious team. The campus is beautiful, enormous, with 70,000 students. I didn’t want to go somewhere remote; instead, it’s near Phoenix. There are many things to do, and I convinced myself to have a life experience that, in my opinion, must be tried. Also, the student section at Arizona State will be a lot of fun — I saw that during the games Shaquille O’Neal DJs.
In the capital, Fantini played for Basket Roma, a club that between 2022 and 2024 put together a roster full of young girls to compete in Serie B and A2.
Explain one thing to us: you said you registered on a portal when you decided to go to America. What is it?
I registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center, where you have to upload a whole series of information to verify that you meet all the requirements to be officially eligible. I don’t really think it’s a proper “portal,” but once you put your name in there, the calls from teams start coming.
Which teams contacted you besides Arizona State, and how did your interactions with the Sun Devils go?
Well, I was contacted by Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and Idaho, but Arizona State seemed like the best opportunity, and also the best city. What I liked most about them was that from the very first call, everyone was there. In the first calls with other universities there was just the assistant coach introducing themselves, but at Arizona State they had the whole staff on the first call and they were very kind. They explained to me that the coach arrived this year — last year she won best coach in another conference (Molly Miller, from 2020 to 2025 at Grand Canyon, 32-3 record and a tournament trip in 24-25). She is a young woman, has two kids, and the whole staff immediately seemed very kind and empathetic. For me, this is very important because when you go overseas, it is crucial to have people on campus who are human and understanding — otherwise, I think it’s very difficult to do well.
They explained their project to me: the team is almost entirely new, they talked about how they envisioned me fitting into the team, which matched my own vision quite closely. I want to keep working on the power forward role, expand my range, and be a dynamic player. That is a quality they really liked about me and they see me in that perspective.
You committed late, so you haven’t visited the campus yet, right?
I decided at the end of April, beginning of May, so obviously there wasn’t time to arrange a visit, so in August I’ll be going to Arizona for the first time. However, they showed me the campus virtually, and I’ve already started keeping in touch with my teammates who have been training since June. Because the team is new, the coach wanted to start building the foundations immediately. They send me videos greeting me, they’re very sweet. The staff tried to explain what life on campus is like, but until you’re there, you don’t really understand because it’s a lot of different information. For example, Antonia Peresson (former guard at Georgia Tech, now playing in Villafranca) helped me by telling me that once I got there, I would understand everything.. They had me do an online orientation with other players via PowerPoint presentations to explain a bit about life in America. But I’ll really understand once I’m there.
Let’s talk about the team. We said it’s a new team, rebuilding, with a first-year coach, and it’s their second year in the Big 12. The Sun Devils haven’t made the tournament in a few years, but the university is ambitious. What kind of team did you find and what are the ambitions for next year? You’re the only European on the roster, right?
Yes, I’m the only European, and that scares me a little. I had set as a requirement not to be the only one, but perfection can’t be achieved. They are all American girls except for one Brazilian, but talking with the coaches, they told me their goal in the coming years is to recruit more European players because they really like the way we play. We Europeans have already had experience in senior teams, so we possibly have more vision and a different style of basketball. They haven’t recruited many yet because they focused on the portal, and many girls transferred this year.
Arizona State freshman Martina Fantini was great off the bench for Italy 🇮🇹 today in their opener vs Poland 🇵🇱 in the U20 Women’s EuroBasket
16 Points (6/10 FG | 4/4 FT)
8 Rebounds (2 Offensive)
4 Assists
2 Steal
1 Block
27 Efficient @SunDevilWBB pic.twitter.com/xBtAsKsoAI— Hoops HQ (@hhqsports) August 3, 2025
And what about NIL and the visa situation? How is it going? Do you think Italian and European recruiting can increasingly expand thanks to this?
The visa situation at the moment is complicated. The procedure is very long. They have to be sure about thousands of different things. I managed to get an appointment and I am waiting to attend it. As for NIL, I don’t know much yet.
You are a player who switches between the 4 and 5 positions. What are your goals for this first year in terms of your game? What do you think you need to improve and work on this first season?
My main goal for the first year is to improve physically. The physical impact, athleticism, and pace there are very high, and already being able to match that level would be a good aim for my first year. I believe it will take time, but it’s important because I think it’s the foundation of the game. For almost everyone, the first-year hurdle is about aggressiveness and physicality. It will take a lot of work in the weight room, but also, in my opinion, a lot of mental work on how to approach the game in that way. My desire to play as a 4 mainly comes from my physical attributes: I am very dynamic and don’t have a heavy body, so I would like to play at the 4. Of course, I also see myself as a player who can play the 5 position as well, that’s what I was born to play. I also really like that, being very dynamic, they don’t read the game much and so I can experiment even without the ball—making cuts and playing high post—which might help me build this style of play.
Do you already have an idea about your place in the rotation?
Since I haven’t been there yet, I don’t have a clear idea of the team I’ll face, but what gives me hope is that, being a new team, there aren’t well-defined hierarchies. I would be more worried if there was a player who has been on the roster for a long time and whom the coach trusts, but it’s all open and will also be a challenge— and I like that.
Women’s basketball in America is booming, and here in Italy we have just experienced a wonderful first part of the summer. You will be playing on ESPN next year, and in America it’s hugely followed—how does that make you feel?
It’s really great. In America, women’s sports are seen differently. There’s a different kind of following, people get attached, and it’s much more lived-in. In Italy, it’s hard for a team to have many followers or for arenas to be full, so I think it will be very exciting.
Do you already think you will do all four years in America?
I’m taking it one year at a time and will see what happens along the way. Obviously, the scholarship is for four years, so I hope to do well and stay. My idea is to complete the academic path.
It was the summer of the senior National Team’s European bronze medal: how did you experience this run as a spectator?
Well, we were all together at training camp because we were doing the first part during that period, and in the evenings we watched all the games together. It was really nice because having a senior national team that managed to convey so many emotions to us and to win such an important medal gives a very strong feeling. You know that something is moving behind the scenes—now even the Under-20 men’s team won what I think is a historic gold. You can see that something is restarting, and it’s beautiful; you can feel that the movement has a strong momentum, from the top all the way down to the youth levels.
Here is the U20 training camp. How is the preparation going, what ambitions do you have for this European Championship, and how do you think it will go?
The preparation has been very good, the group is very united, we get along very well with the coach, we have fun and work hard, which I think is very important. We have played four friendlies so far and they have all been positive. Although we had ups and downs within the same game, we won them all, so we did very well. Now we will have two more, this weekend against Belgium, to close the preparation cycle.
Let’s plan to catch up again in August 2026, exactly one year from now, for another interview. What would you be happy to have happened by then?
My goal is to find my place within the team. I hope to be able to play because it’s not guaranteed that those who go to America play in their first years. Personally, I hope to have improved a lot physically and technically in the areas we talked about earlier. And as a team, I think we are strong, very ambitious hearing what the coach says, so obviously to have the best possible season. Since I haven’t arrived yet, I don’t really know what the goals are.
After the incredible bronze won at the Under-20 European Championship by coach Alessandro Piazza’s team, we caught up with Martina a few days before she left for the USA for a couple of questions about the amazing tournament played by ItalBasket.
Tell us a bit about how the tournament went: here too many didn’t expect a medal after the group stage, but instead…
We came from an almost flawless month of preparation, we worked a lot and won all six friendlies played. However, the impact and the emotion of a European Championship are different; for some of us it was the first experience, and I believe the group stage helped us break the ice. Understanding what we had done wrong allowed us to find our dimension and identity again. The round of 16 is always the most important game, and we reacted incredibly, beating Latvia with a clear victory, which gave us confidence for the next stages. As a team, we were aware of our strengths, and the group stage helped us figure out how to best use them to achieve a result I think was more than deserved.
Many minutes at power forward coming off the bench, some even at center, and a great final marking Trygger: what kind of tournament was it for you?
Personally, I am very proud of my tournament. Last year, I couldn’t participate due to an injury, and the year before I experienced it with a different mindset. This year I felt more ready and had a strong desire to help the team. I am very happy to have turned the work done this year in Faenza into a nice medal.
On social media, the Arizona State coaching staff has been very present. How were the contacts with them during these weeks?
During these weeks, the Arizona staff gave me a lot of support. It made me very happy to see how much they already cared about me as a player and as a person, and I can’t wait to start this new journey. It is a very big and prestigious university, and I really appreciated the attention they gave me on social media, which I think shows a lot of commitment to the team.
