Associazione Sportiva Cittadella, commonly known as Cittadella, is an Italian professional football

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

based in the city of

Cittadella Cittadella ( vec, Sitadeła) is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around ...

Veneto it, Veneto (man) it, Veneta (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

, currently playing in . The team was founded in 1973 and play their home games at the

Stadio Pier Cesare Tombolato Stadio Pier Cesare Tombolato is a multi-use stadium in Cittadella, Italy. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home ground of A.S. Cittadella. The stadium holds 7,623. History The stadium was named after ...

, which has a capacity of 7,623 seats.

History

Cittadella was founded in 1973, after the merger of ''U.S. Cittadellense'' and ''A.S. Olympia''. The club spent most of its first years in amateur football, and then professional football at Serie C2 and Serie C1 ranks. Cittadella won its first promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

in 1999 after defeating

Brescello Brescello (; in the local dialect, in the Reggio Emilia dialect) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Reggio Emilia in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about northwest of Reggio Emilia. ...

in the playoff finals, and spent a total two seasons in the Italian second-highest ranked division, being then relegated in

2001–02 Serie B The 2001–02 Serie B is the 70th season since its establishment in 1929. It is the second highest football league in Italy. Teams Modena, Palermo, Como and Messina had been promoted from Serie C, while Reggina, Vicenza, Napoli and Bari had bee ...

. During their first stay in Serie B, the club played in Stadio Euganeo in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

and, in an attempt to expand the fanbase, was renamed ''A.S. Cittadella Padova'',

(''Padova'' in

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

) being the home province of Cittadella. Cittadella returned to Serie B in 2008, after defeating Cremonese in the 2007–08 Serie C1/A playoffs, under the guide of head coach Claudio Foscarini. In the 2008–09 Serie B season, the club was involved to projects focused to boost the capacity of the Stadio Tombolato to 7,500, in order to let the club play in their home town (with dispensation from the

FIGC The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

, since a stadium of at least 10,000 seats is required for Serie B). Thus, Cittadella played the first season games in

Stadio Omobono Tenni Stadio Omobono Tenni () is a football stadium in Treviso, Italy. It is currently the home of Treviso F.B.C. 1993. The stadium was built in 1933 and holds 10,001. After the inauguration in 1933, a friendly match between Treviso F.B.C. and Udines ...

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...

, about 40 km away. After some delays, the first

game played in

was played on 29 October 2008,

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...

being the opponents. The club escaped relegation in the final days of the season, thus ensuring another year of Serie B football to the local fans. The following season, Cittadella thrashed Lecce 5–1 and Mantova 6–0 to finish 6th, and only losing to Brescia in the playoffs due to Brescia's superior league placing, despite a late 1–0 win in the second leg. The club produced two strikers who later left for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

teams, namely,

Riccardo Meggiorini Riccardo Meggiorini (born 4 September 1985) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for an amateur side San Giovanni Lupatoto. Club career Early career Meggiorini took his first steps as a footballer at age eight, in a sma ...

(50% rights sold for €2.5M), Matteo Ardemagni (sold for €3.75M). Moreover, 2010–11 Serie B topscorer

Federico Piovaccari Federico Piovaccari (; born 1 September 1984) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Giugliano. Club career Early career Born in Gallarate, Piovaccari graduated from Pro Patria's youth setup, and made his debu ...

also left for

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

in 2011 for €3.5M, although Samp was relegated shortly afterwards from Serie A in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

. Cittadella was relegated again to

Lega Pro The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

in 2014–15. The club returned to Serie B for the 2016–17 season following their promotion from the

and has since regularly competed for the promotion play-off positions, including finishing as high as 5th place in 2019–20. They reached the promotion play-off final to Serie A in 2018–19 against

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

and, after winning the first match by 2–0 at home, conceded the comeback to Verona in the 2nd leg, losing 3–0 away after going down to 10 men when the score was still 1–0. Similarly, Cittadella also lost in the play-off final against

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

at the end of the 2020–21 season to again narrowly miss out on the club's first promotion to

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Notable players

:''See .''

Managers

* Rolando Maran (2002–2005) * Claudio Foscarini (2005–2015) * Roberto Venturato (2015–2021)

Honours

Coppa Italia Dilettanti The Coppa Italia Dilettanti ( Italian for: Italian Amateurs Cup) is an annual knock-out competition for teams from the fifth and sixth levels of Italian football: the Eccellenza and the Promozione. All ties except for the final, which is held at t ...

** Winners: 1979–80 *

** Winners: 2015–16 (group A)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cittadella Football clubs in Italy Football clubs in Veneto Association football clubs established in 1973 Serie B clubs Serie C clubs 1973 establishments in Italy