History
The Ginnastica
Sampierdarenese was founded in 1891, opening its football
section in 1899. Also around this time, a club named Society
Andrea Doria was founded in 1895, and began to increase their
focus on dedicating itself to football.
Andrea
Doria: early league participation
Andrea Doria did
not participate in the first Italian Football Championship which
was organized by the Italian Federation of Football (F.I.F.) since
instead they had enrolled themselves into a football tournament
which was organized by the Italian Federation of Ginnastica. The
club eventually joined the competition for the Italian Football
Championship 1903, 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.
Post-World
War I
After World War
I, Sampierdarenese finally began to compete in the Italian
Championship, the first season back Andrea Doria were not present.
However, in 1920 Doria returned and the two clubs met in the
championship for the first time; Doria won in both games (4-1 and
1-0); they also were crowned winners of the Liguria region.
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 F.I.G.C.
run competition, whereas Andrea Doria played in the C.C.I.
variation.
Sampierdarenese
won the Ligura section and then went onto the semi-finals,
finishing top out of three clubs; this lead 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 May 21, 1922. Still intensely difficult
to separate, the match went into extra time with Novese eventually
winning the tie (and the Championship) 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
won one game 2-1, while Sampierdarenese were victorious 2-0 in the
other. At the end of the 1926-27 season, the clubs merged under
the name La Dominante Genova.
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 3rd just missing
out on promotion. The next season, under the name Liguria
they had a disastrous year, finishing bottom of the table and were
relegated.
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.
The 15 July 1937
saw Sampierdarenese, melting itself with Corniglianese and Rivarolese
with the club using the name Associazione Liguria Calcio;
this saw them reach 5th place in Serie A during 1939. In the early
1940s, the club was relegated, but bounced straight back up as
Serie B champions in 1941.
Merger
After World War
II, both clubs were competing in Serie A; 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 took place that would stick for
the two teams, together they formed Unione Calcio Sampdoria.
The first
president 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. In the same month of the merger, the new club
demanded that they should share the Stadio Luigi Ferraris ground
with Genoa; the agreement was carried off without problems.
Consequently, the stadium was prepared to accommodate the games of
both clubs.
As if to further
show that the merger really was equal parts of both previous clubs,
a new football kit was designed for the club; it implemented the
blue shirts of Andrea Doria with the white, red and black
mid-section of Sampierdarenese.
European
and domestic successes
In 1979 the club,
then playing Serie B, was acquired by oil businessman Paolo
Mantovani, who invested in the team in order to bring Sampdoria to
the top flights. In 1982 Sampdoria made their Serie A return, and
they won their first Coppa Italia three years later. In 1986
Vujadin Boskov was appointed as new head coach; the club won their
second Coppa Italia in 1988, being admitted to the UEFA Cup
Winners' Cup 1988-89, where they reached the final, being defeated
2-0 by Barcelona. A second consecutive triumph in the Coppa Italia
gave Sampdoria a spot in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup 1989-90, which
they finally won defeating Anderlecht after extra time in the
final. This was followed only one year later by their first (and,
as of 2007, only) scudetto, being crowned as Serie A
champions with a five points advantage to second-placed Inter
Milan. The winning team featured several notable players, such as
Gianluca Pagliuca, Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini, Toninho
Cerezo, Pietro Vierchowod and Attilio Lombardo, with Vujadin
Boskov as head coach. In the following season, Sampdoria reached
the European Cup final, and was defeated again by Barcelona at the
Wembley Stadium.
Since this period
Sampdoria have made a limited number of appearances in European
cup competitions. During the 1994/1995 campaign they reached the
semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup before being
eliminated on penalties in a memorable tie against Arsenal. The
club also participated in the 1997/1998 UEFA Cup but were
eliminated by Atletico Bilbao of Spain in the First Round. The
2005/2006 season also proved to be a significant one, with
Sampdoria returning to European competition for the first time
since their promotion back to Serie A, with the club narrowly
missing out on Champions League qualification and entering the
UEFA cup. During this campaign, the team was minutes away from
qualification to the last 32 when Lens of France eliminated them
by beating them 2-1. The club recently also took part in the
2007/2008 UEFA Cup, entering via the Intertoto cup. However it was
to be a short and disappointing campaign, with Sampdoria being
eliminated on away goals by AaB of Denmark in the First Round.
Decline
and resurgence
On October 14,
1993 Paolo Mantovani suddenly died; he was replaced by his son
Enrico. During Enrico Mantovani's first season (1993/94) Sampdoria
won one more Italian Cup and placed 3rd in the national
championship. During the following four seasons many players from
his father's team left the club but many important acquisitions
were made which kept Sampdoria in the top tier of the Italian
Serie A. Players the likes of Enrico Chiesa, Juan Sebastian Veron,
Ariel Ortega, Vincenzo Montella, Clarence Seedorf, and Christian
Karembeu were all major signings.
Despite this, 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, a known Italian oil businessman. Two
of Garrone's most important initial moves were to inject new cash
into the club and to appoint Walter Novellino as new head coach.
Sampdoria returned to Serie A in 2003 lead by talisman Francesco
Flachi, and ended their first season in eighth place. In the Serie
A 2004-05 they lost a spot in the UEFA Champions League to Udinese
in the final matchdays of the season, ending in fifth place. This
was followed by a poor season; despite this, Novellino was
confirmed for one more season and Sampdoria ended the 2006-07
Serie A campaign in ninth place. As the 8th placed team in Serie A
were not granted a UEFA licence, Sampdoria were able to enter the
UEFA Intertoto Cup 2007 as a result. Novellino announced his
farewell to Sampdoria soon after, with Walter Mazzarri unveiled
shortly after as his replacement.
The 2007-08
campaign started very early for Sampdoria, which defeated PFC
Cherno More Varna in the Intertoto Cup and Hajduk Split in the
second qualifying round of UEFA Cup. The club took actively part
in the transfer market, persuading Vincenzo Montella to make a
comeback at Samp and signing Antonio Cassano from Real Madrid on a
loan basis.
By
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.C._Sampdoria
|
