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

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

, 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 matches and is the home ground of A.S. Cittadella. The stadium holds 7,623. History The stadium was named after Piercesare Tombola ...

, 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 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

and

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

ranks. Cittadella won its first promotion to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, 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 ...

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. A ...

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 Stadio Euganeo is a football stadium in Padua, Italy. It is also used for athletics, concerts, rugby league and rugby union. It replaced the old and historical Appiani stadium. From 1994 to the present, it is the home of Calcio Padova. It has ...

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 Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

in the 2007–08 Serie C1/A playoffs, under the guide of head coach

Claudio Foscarini Claudio Foscarini (born 19 November 1958) is an Italian football coach who last was in charge of Padova. Career Early career He started his coaching career as youth coach for Virescit Boccaleone (who later merged with Alzano to form Alzano Vire ...

. 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 Udinese w ...

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 Veneti ...

, 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 S ...

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 Coppa ...

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 smal ...

(50% rights sold for €2.5M),

Matteo Ardemagni Matteo Carlo Ardemagni (born 26 March 1987) is an Italian footballer who plays as a forward for club Siena. Career Milan A product of Milan's youth team, he has made a few appearances as a substitute for their Serie A team. He was then sent ...

(sold for €3.75M). Moreover,

2010–11 Serie B The 2010–11 Serie B (known as the Serie bwin for sponsorship reasons) is the seventy-ninth season since its establishment in 1929, and the first one under the rule of the new Lega Serie B. A total of 22 teams contest the league, 15 of which ret ...

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 debut ...

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. I ...

. 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 Rolando Maran (born 14 July 1963) is an Italian Association football, football coach (sport), manager who was most recently the head coach of Pisa S.C., Pisa. His playing career as a Defender (association football), defender was spent mostly wit ...

(2002–2005) *

(2005–2015) *

Roberto Venturato Roberto Venturato (born 14 April 1963) is an Australian-born Italian football coach and former player, most recently in charge as manager of Serie B club SPAL. Playing career Venturato was born in Australia to Italian immigrants who moved back ...

(2015–2021)

Honours

Coppa Italia Dilettanti The Coppa Italia Dilettanti (Italian language, Italian for: Italian Amateurs Cup) is an annual knock-out competition for teams from the fifth and sixth levels of Football in Italy, Italian football: the Eccellenza and the Promozione. All ties exce ...

** 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