Malta National Team and US Sassuolo Calcio Femminile player Haley Bugeja has been named as the winner of the October 2020 Atlas Youth Athlete of the month award. During the month of October Bugeja distinguished herself with her Club US Sassuolo in the Italian Serie A Femminile where she secured the starting lineup jersey in all of US Sassuolo’s games played in October. Additionally she managed to score again in the League’s Match Day 6 against Florentia San Gimignano in a 3-1 win for US Sassuolo.

Bugeja had made a huge impact in the Italian Serie A Femminile when on her debut on 5th September 2020 as she has netted a brace in Match Day 3 in a 3-1 home win against Napoli Femminile. After the win against Napoli she was again on the score line in a similar 3-1 win away to Fiorentina.

Bugeja who tuned 16 earlier this year, managed to establish herself as one of the best ‘foreign players’ in the Italian’s women top flight football league.

Last week she added her tally by netting another goal against Hellas Verona in a 4-1 victory at the Stadio Comunale Enzo Ricci in US Sassuolo to make them 5 goals so far this season.

Bugeja will be called up again by National Football team coach Mark Gatt to feature in the UEFA Women’s EURO Qualifiers away double header against Georgia and Israel on 26th November and 1st December respectively.

This was the tenth award being awarded to a local youth athlete in the series of this joint initiative by Atlas Insurance and the Malta Sports Journalists Association to recognise the efforts by young sports athletes and thus encouraging them to continue to train harder in their respective sports disciplines.

The previous winners were:

Kayden Lagana (Tenpin Bowling) September 2020, Sacha Gatt (Swimming) August 2020, Richard Shulthies (Sailing) July 2020, Matthew Magro (Tenpin Bowling) June 2020, Thomas Borg (Para swimming) May 2020, Jake Vella (Swimming) April 2020, Tenishia Thornton (Weightlifting) March 2020, Dejan Grech (Pool) February 2020, and Rachela Pace (Athletics) January 2020.

Each month, the Malta Sports Journalists Association and Atlas Insurance encourage athletes under the age of 21 and their respective associations and federations to submit nominations for this award. Nominations can be submitted via email on [email protected].

The trophy for the October 2020 Atlas Youth Athlete of the month and the sports apparel voucher combined with this award will be handed to Bugeja later on this month when she will fly in to Malta just one day before she travels as a group with the Women’s Malta National team to Georgia.