U.C. Sampdoria


Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria, is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria.
The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria.
Both the team name and jersey reflect this, the first being a combination of the former names, the second incorporating the former teams' colours in a single design. The team's colours are blue with white, red and black hoops, hence the nickname blucerchiati. Sampdoria play at Stadio Luigi Ferraris, capacity 36,536, which it shares with Genoa's other club, Genoa Cricket and Football Club. The derby between the two teams is commonly known as the Derby della Lanterna.
Sampdoria have won the Scudetto once in their history, in 1991. The club has also won the Coppa Italia four times, in 1985, 1988, 1989 and 1994, and the Supercoppa Italiana once, in 1991. Their biggest European success came when they won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1990. They also reached the European Cup final in 1992, losing the final 1–0 to Barcelona after extra time.

History

Early history (1891–1927)

Ginnastica Sampierdarenese was founded in 1891, opening its football section in 1899. Named to honour Andrea Doria, a club named Society Andrea Doria was founded in 1895, which increasingly focused itself on football training and competition.
Andrea Doria did not participate in the first Italian Football Championship which was organised by the Italian Federation of Football since instead they had enrolled themselves into a football tournament which was organised by the Italian Federation of Ginnastica. The club eventually joined the competition for the 1903 Italian Football Championship, but did not win a game in the tournament until 1907, when they beat local rivals Genoa 3–1.
It was not until 1910–11 that the club began to show promise. During that season's tournament, they finished above Juventus, Internazionale and Genoa in the Piedmont-Lombardy-Liguria section.
After World War I Sampierdarenese finally began to compete in the Italian Championship, after they bought a pre-war club of Genoa province: Pro Liguria of Bolzaneto. Thus, Samp and Doria met in the championship for the first time; Doria won in first-leg game, and they also arrived at second place after Genoa in the Ligurian Championship, qualifying for the National Round.
With the 1921–22 season, the Italian top league was split into two competitions; both of the clubs in Sampdoria's history were in separate competitions that year too. Sampierdarenese played in the FIGC-run competition, whereas Andrea Doria played in the CCI variation.
Sampierdarenese won the Ligura section and then went on to the semi-finals, finishing top out of three clubs; this led them to the final against Novese. Both legs of the final ended in 0–0 draws, thus a repetition match was played in Cremona on 21 May 1922. Still intensely difficult to separate, the match went into extra time with Novese eventually winning the tie 2–1.
After the league system in Italy was brought back into one item, Sampierdarenese remained stronger than Andrea Doria by qualifying for the league. By 1924–25, the clubs were competing against each other in the Northern League; Doria who finished one place above their rivals and won one match 2–1, while Sampierdarenese were victorious 2–0 in the other. At the end of the 1926–27 season, the clubs merged by fascist authorities under the name La Dominante.

La Dominante Genova split: 1930s

Wearing green and black striped shirts, La Dominante Genova were admitted to the first ever season of Serie B, where they finished third, just missing out on promotion. The next season, under the name Liguria, they had a disastrous year, finishing bottom of the table and suffering relegation.
Because of this, both Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria reverted to their previous names as separate clubs. Sampierdarenese were back in Serie B for the 1932–33 season and finished in the upper part. The following year, they were crowned champions and were promoted into Serie A for the first time. Andrea Doria, on the other hand, battled out the 1930s down in Serie C.
15 July 1937 saw Sampierdarenese merging with Corniglianese and Rivarolese, with the club using the name Associazione Liguria Calcio. This saw them reach fifth place in Serie A in 1939. In the early 1940s, the club was relegated but bounced straight back up as Serie B champions in 1941.

Merger (1946)

After World War II, both clubs were competing in Serie A, but in a reverse of pre-war situations, Andrea Doria were now the top club out of the two. However, on 12 August 1946, a merger occurred to create Unione Calcio Sampdoria. The first chairman of this new club was Piero Sanguineti, but the ambitious entrepreneur Amedeo Rissotto soon replaced him, while the first team coach during this period was a man from Florence named Giuseppe Galluzzi. To illustrate the clubs would be equally represented in the new, merged club, a new kit was designed featuring the blue shirts of Andrea Doria and the white, red and black midsection of Sampierdarenese. In the same month of the merger, the new club demanded they should share the Stadio Luigi Ferraris ground with Genoa. An agreement was reached, and the stadium began hosting Genoa's and Sampdoria's home matches.

European and domestic successes (1979–1993)

In 1979, the club, then playing Serie B, was acquired by oil businessman Paolo Mantovani, who invested in the team to bring Sampdoria to the top flight. In 1982, Sampdoria made their Serie A return and won their first Coppa Italia in 1985. In 1986, Yugoslav Vujadin Boškov was appointed as the new head coach. The club won their second Coppa Italia in 1988, being admitted to the 1988–89 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, where they reached the final, losing 2–0 to Barcelona. A second consecutive triumph in the Coppa Italia gave Sampdoria a spot in the 1989–90 Cup Winners' Cup, which they won after defeating Anderlecht after extra time in the final.
This was followed only one year later by their first and only Scudetto, being crowned as Serie A champions with a five-point advantage over second-placed Internazionale. The winning team featured several notable players, such as Gianluca Pagliuca, Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini, Toninho Cerezo, Pietro Vierchowod and Attilio Lombardo, with Boškov as head coach. In the following season, Sampdoria reached the European Cup final and were defeated once again by Barcelona, at Wembley Stadium.

Decline and resurgence (1993–)

On 14 October 1993, Paolo Mantovani died suddenly and was replaced by his son Enrico. During his first season, Sampdoria won one more Coppa Italia and placed third in Serie A. During the following four seasons, many players from his father's tenure left the club but many important acquisitions were made which kept Sampdoria in the top tier Serie A. This included the likes of Argentine internationals Juan Sebastián Verón and Ariel Ortega, and international midfielders Clarence Seedorf and Christian Karembeu.
managed Sampdoria to fourth place and Champions League qualification in 2010
In May 1999 Sampdoria were relegated from Serie A and did not return to the top flight until 2002. Around this time, Sampdoria was acquired by Riccardo Garrone, an Italian oil businessman. Sampdoria returned to Serie A in 2003 led by talisman Francesco Flachi, and ended their first season in eighth place. After several more top-half finishes, manager Walter Novellino gave way to Walter Mazzarri in 2007.
With the signings of forwards Antonio Cassano from Real Madrid, and Giampaolo Pazzini in January 2008, Sampdoria ended the 2007–08 season in sixth position and qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup. The following season, they came fourth and qualified for the UEFA Champions League play-offs under manager Luigi Delneri, who left for Juventus. With the departures also of CEO Giuseppe Marotta, and both Cassano and Pazzini, and the squad being stretched by Champions League football, Sampdoria were relegated to Serie B after loss 2–1 at home to Palermo in May 2011.
In the following season, Sampdoria won the playoffs after defeating Varese 4–2 on aggregate in the play-off final in June 2012. After sixth-placed rivals Genoa in the 2014–15 season failed to obtain a UEFA license for the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, seventh-placed Sampdoria took their spot. Sampdoria has been owned since June 2014 by the film producer Massimo Ferrero.

Players

Current squad

Other players under contract

On loan

Managerial history

Colours, badge and nicknames

The club crest features a sailor in profile known by the old Genoese name of Baciccia, which translates to Giovanni Battista in Italian or John-Baptist in English. The image of a sailor is appropriate due to Sampdoria being based in the port city of Genoa.
The white, blue, red and black colours represent the club's origins with a merger between two teams, Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria, who wore respectively red/black and white/blue jerseys with a shield with Saint-George cross.

Supporters and rivalries

Sampdoria supporters come mainly from the city of Genoa. The biggest group are Ultras Tito Cucchiaroni, named after an Argentinian left winger who played for Sampdoria. The group were founded in 1969, making it one of the oldest ultra groups in Italy. They are apolitical, although there are smaller groups like Rude Boys Sampdoria, who are left-wing. The main support with flags and flares comes from the southern Curva, Gradinata Sud.
Sampdoria's biggest rivals are Genoa, against whom they play the Derby della Lanterna. When Sampdoria were relegated from Serie A in 2011, more than 30,000 Genoa supporters staged a mock funeral procession through the streets of the city carrying a coffin draped in blue.

Recent seasons

The recent season-by-season performance of the club:
SeasonDivisionTierPosition
1995–96Serie AI8th
1996–97Serie AI6th
1997–98Serie AI9th
1998–99Serie AI16th ↓
1999–00Serie BII5th
2000–01Serie BII6th
2001–02Serie BII11th
2002–03Serie BII2nd ↑
2003–04Serie AI8th
2004–05Serie AI5th
2005–06Serie AI12th
2006–07Serie AI9th
2007–08Serie AI6th
2008–09Serie AI13th
2009–10Serie AI4th
2010–11Serie AI18th ↓
2011–12Serie BII6th ↑
2012–13Serie AI14th
2013–14Serie AI12th
2014–15Serie AI7th
2015–16Serie AI15th
2016–17Serie AI10th
2017–18Serie AI10th
2018–19Serie AI9th

;Key
↑ Promoted↓ Relegated

Honours

Domestic

Serie A
Coppa Italia
Supercoppa Italiana
Serie B
European Cup
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
UEFA Super Cup
Wembley International Tournament
Amsterdam Tournament
Joan Gamper Trophy

World Cup winners