Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an
Italian football
Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only ...
club based in
Cagliari,
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
. In the 2022-23 season, they compete in
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 ...
. As of 2021–22, the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,416-seat
Unipol Domus, adjacent to their future new stadium site.
Founded in 1920, they won their only ''
Scudetto'' in
1969–70, when they were led by the
Italian national team's all-time leading scorer,
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
. The triumph was also the first by a club from south of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. The club's best European performance was in the
1993–94 UEFA Cup, losing in the semi-finals to
Internazionale
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...
.
As with the flag of its city, Cagliari's colours are blue and red. The club badge incorporates the
flag of Sardinia.
History
Before Serie A
Cagliari became the first ever out-right champions of
Serie C
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 ...
during the 1951–52 season; prior to that in the league, the championship was shared amongst more than one team. They spent the 1950s from then on in
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 ...
, losing a promotion play-off in 1954. After descending to Serie C in the early 1960s, Cagliari's rise would be meteoric, eventually achieving promotion to
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 ...
in 1964.
First Serie A adventure: 1964–1976
The squad for the ''Rossoblus debut season in Serie A featured players like defender
Mario Martiradonna, midfielders
Pierluigi Cera
Pierluigi Cera (; born 25 February 1941) is a former Italian footballer who played as a midfielder or as a defender, most notably for Cagliari, and the Italy national football team.
Club career
Cera was born in Legnago. During his club career, ...
,
Nené and
Ricciotti Greatti
Ricciotti Greatti (born 13 October 1939) is an Italian former footballer who played as a midfielder.
Career
A central midfielder, Greatti began his career at Fiorentina before moving on to Palermo and Reggiana.
Greatti joined Cagliari in 1963. H ...
, and forward
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
. A poor first half of the season, however, saw Cagliari in last place with nine points at the halfway mark. An astonishing second half of the season saw Cagliari defeat the likes of
Juventus and
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and finish in seventh place with 34 points. Two seasons later, Riva finished as Serie A's top scorer for the first time while Cagliari finished with the league's best defensive record.
During the summer of 1967, Cagliari played a season in North America as part of a fledgling league called the
United Soccer Association
The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...
. This league included teams from Europe and South America set to play in American and Canadian cities, with each club bearing a local name. Cagliari played as the
Chicago Mustangs, and finished joint second in the league's Western Division with 13 points, two behind the division champion and eventual league champion
Los Angeles Wolves. The league's leading scorer was Chicago/Cagliari's
Roberto Boninsegna
Roberto Boninsegna ( born 13 November 1943) is an Italian former football player, who mainly played as a forward. After retiring, he worked as a football manager. As a player, he represented the Italian national side at two World Cups, reachin ...
, who scored ten goals while playing in 9 of the team's 12 games.
Cagliari first emerged as serious Serie A title contenders in
1968–69 with a three-horse race involving them,
Fiorentina
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...
and Milan. Fiorentina would win the league, but the following season would bring ultimate glory. With
Angelo Domenghini joining the side, Cagliari would win the title in 1970 with only two games lost, 11 goals conceded (the fewest in any major European league to date) and Riva as league top scorer once more. Players like Albertosi, Niccolai, Boninsegna, Gori, Cera, Domenghini and Riva played in Italy's
1970 World Cup final team.
The 1970s would see a gradual decline (though were title contenders two years after their one and only ''Scudetto'' win). Cagliari were finally relegated in 1976, with Riva's career having effectively ended during that season.
Up and down again: 1976–87
After relegation, Cagliari lost a play-off for promotion the following season and would return to Serie A in 1979. Players like
Franco Selvaggi,
Mario Brugnera (a survivor of the 1970 team) and
Alberto Marchetti ensured a respectable four-year stay in the top flight before a second relegation in 1983. The 1980s would then prove to be a darker time compared to the previous two decades with relegation to Serie C1 in 1987.
There and back: 1987–2000
Cagliari spent two seasons in Serie C1. In the first one it barely avoided relegation in Serie C2. In 1988,
Claudio Ranieri
Claudio Ranieri Grande Ufficiale OMRI (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian football manager and former player. He will be the new head coach of club Cagliari from 1 January 2023.
Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in ...
was appointed coach, and led the team to two successive promotions, to Serie B in 1989 and to Serie A in 1990. The first two seasons back in Serie A saw Cagliari fight relegation, with safety being achieved by excellent second half runs. But the
1992–93 season would see Cagliari fight for a European place and succeed under the management of
Carlo Mazzone
Carlo "Carletto" Mazzone (born 19 March 1937 in Rome) is an Italian retired professional association footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back.
Playing career
Mazzone played several seasons for A.S. Roma, as well as for SPAL and Ascoli ...
. The following season saw a best-ever run to the
semi-finals
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
of the
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
, taking out
Juventus in the quarter-finals before being eliminated 5–3 on aggregate by compatriots
Internazionale
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...
, having won the first leg 3–2 at home.
The next few years would see Cagliari return to mid-table anonymity, before a struggle in
1996–97 saw Cagliari relegated after losing a play-off to
Piacenza
Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
. Once more they bounced back after just one year, but their next stay in Serie A lasted just two seasons.
Once and again: 2000 onwards
Cagliari spent the next four seasons in Serie B, until in
2003–04 with Sardinian-born veteran striker
Gianfranco Zola
Gianfranco Zola (; born 5 July 1966) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He was most recently the assistant manager of Chelsea.
He spent the first decade of his playing career playing i ...
, the team won promotion. In
2005–06, the first season without Zola, the team changed their manager three times before
Nedo Sonetti
Nedo Sonetti (born 25 February 1941) is an Italian football manager and former player, who played as a defender.
Biography
Sonetti was born in Piombino, southern Tuscany and lives now in Gorle.
Playing career
As a defender, Sonetti played in ...
, appointed in November, was able to save the team from relegation, especially thanks to the excellent goal contribution from Honduran striker
David Suazo
Óscar David Suazo Velázquez (born 5 November 1979) is a Honduran retired professional footballer turned coach who played as a striker.
Suazo played more than 300 league games and scored over 980 league goals in Italy during a span of 7 yea ...
.
Apart from finishing 9th in
2008–09 season, Cagliari regularly finished in the bottom half of Serie A under a sequence of managers, before being relegated in
2014–15. They gained promotion back the following season as champions of Serie B.
In 2014 the company passed, after 22 years of
Massimo Cellino's presidency, into the hands of Tommaso Giulini, president and owner of
Fluorsid, a multinational in the chemical sector. Relegation took place in the first season but the team won the
Serie B championship in 2016, returning permanently to the top division albeit always finishing in the second half of the table.
Stadium
Cagliari moved from the
Stadio Amsicora
Stadio Amsicora is a multi-use stadium in Cagliari, Italy. It was used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and was the home of Cagliari Calcio. The stadium was able to hold 34,000 spectators at its height. Its capacity has since been d ...
to the
Stadio Sant'Elia in 1970, after winning their only league title. It was renovated for Italy's hosting of the
1990 FIFA World Cup where it hosted all of
England's group games, ostensibly to confine the team's notorious hooligans to an island.
Disputes with the city council over renovation of the publicly owned stadium meant that Cagliari played their final home games of 2011–12 at the
Stadio Nereo Rocco in
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...
on the Italian mainland. For most of the following season, the club played at the
Stadio Is Arenas in the neighbouring municipality of
Quartu Sant'Elena
Quartu Sant'Elena (; sc, Cuartu Sant'Aleni; ), located four miles East from Cagliari on the ancient Roman road, is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It is the third biggest city of Sardinia with a populat ...
. It was deemed unsafe by the league, forcing them to play behind closed doors before leaving the ground in April 2013. The Sant'Elia was demolished for a new stadium in 2017, and the club moved to the temporary
Sardegna Arena next to it.
Colours, badge and nicknames
The official red and blue colours of Cagliari mirror those featured on the ''stemma'' of
Cagliari.
The red parts of the stemma are a reference to the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
of the
House of Savoy, a family which was previously the monarchy of Italy and more relevantly to Cagliari in particular, the
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...
.
The blue part of the ''stemma'' features the sky and the sea, also a
castle; this is because the old historic centre of Cagliari is walled and called the ''Castello''.
Due to the use of these colours on their shirt in halves, the club is commonly nicknamed ''rossoblu''.
Cagliari have had several different logo designs during their history, all of which feature the
flag of Sardinia.
Usually the badge also features the club colours; if there is a change, the main difference has been the colour of the border or the shape.
Since June 2015, the badge features an "Old French"-shaped
escutcheon with red and blue halves, with the club's name written in white just above the flag of Sardinia. The Moors' heads have, for the first time, been turned to the right as of 2015 so as to match the Sardinian flag after it was updated in 1992.
Due to the fact that Cagliari are the main club from the island of Sardinia, they are nicknamed the "''Isolani''" ("Islanders").
Honours
European
*
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...
:
**
Semi-finalists (1):
1993–94
National titles
*
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 ...
(Tier 1):
**
Winners (1):
1969–70
**
Runners-up (1):
1968–69
*
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 ...
(Tier 2):
**
Winners (1):
2015–16
**
Runners-up (4):
1953–54,
1963–64,
1978–79,
2003–04
**
Third-place (2):
1989–90,
1997–98
*
Serie C
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 ...
/
Serie C1 (Tier 3):
**
Winners (4): 1930–31
Group South,
1951–52,
1961–62, 1988–89
**
Runners-up (1):
1960–61 Group B
*
Coppa Italia
The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since.
History
The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...
**
Runners-up (1): 1968–69
**
Semi-finalists (1):
1999–2000
*
Coppa Italia Serie C
Coppa Italia Serie C ( it, Serie C Italian Cup), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972.
Format
There are a total of six rounds in the ...
:
**
Winners (1): 1988–89
Sardinian titles
*
Terza Divisione /
Prima Divisione (Tier 1):
**
Winners (6): 1922-23, 1923-24, 1924-25, 1927-28, 1936-37, 1945-46
**
Third-place (1): 1946-47
Friendlies trophies
*Torneo Campana Mutilati:
**
Winners (1): 1926-27
*Trofeo Sardegna:
**
Winners (5): 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021
*Trofeo Goleador:
**
Winners (1): 2016
Individual Player & Coach awards
;Top Scorer
*
Roberto Boninsegna
Roberto Boninsegna ( born 13 November 1943) is an Italian former football player, who mainly played as a forward. After retiring, he worked as a football manager. As a player, he represented the Italian national side at two World Cups, reachin ...
United Soccer Association
The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...
: 1967
*
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
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 ...
:
1966–67 (18 gol)
*
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
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 ...
:
1968–69 (21 gol)
*
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
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 ...
:
1969–70 (21 gol)
*
Patrick M'Boma Coppa Italia
The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since.
History
The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...
:
1999–2000 (6 gol)
;
Panchina d'Oro:
*
Massimiliano Allegri
Massimiliano Allegri (; born 11 August 1967), also known as Max Allegri, is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Juventus.
During his playing career, Allegri played in the Serie A as a midfielder ...
:
2008–09,
;
UEFA European Championship
The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...
*
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
:
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
*
Enrico Albertosi
Enrico "Ricky" Albertosi (; born 2 November 1939) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Regarded as one of Italy's greatest ever goalkeepers, he had a successful club career, winning titles with Fiorentina, Cagliari, and Mi ...
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
;
African Footballer of the Year
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
*
Patrick M'Boma: 2000
;
Estonian Footballer of the Year
*
Ragnar Klavan: 2018, 2019
;
Moldovan Footballer of the Year
*
Artur Ioniță: 2019
;
Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year
*
David Suazo
Óscar David Suazo Velázquez (born 5 November 1979) is a Honduran retired professional footballer turned coach who played as a striker.
Suazo played more than 300 league games and scored over 980 league goals in Italy during a span of 7 yea ...
: 2006
;
BBC African Footballer of the Year
*
Patrick M'Boma: 2000
;
African Nations Cup
The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...
*
Patrick M'Boma:
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
,
2002
;
CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
The CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship was a quadrennial, international, age-restricted football tournament organized by CONCACAF to determine which men's under-23 national teams from the North, Central America and Caribbean region qual ...
*
David Suazo
Óscar David Suazo Velázquez (born 5 November 1979) is a Honduran retired professional footballer turned coach who played as a striker.
Suazo played more than 300 league games and scored over 980 league goals in Italy during a span of 7 yea ...
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
;
Copa América
*
José Herrera:
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
;
Copa América Centenario
The Copa América Centenario ( pt, Copa América Centenário, french: Coupe Amerique Centennaire, en, Centennial Cup America; literally ''Centennial America Cup'') was an international men's association football tournament that was hosted by the ...
*
Mauricio Isla
Mauricio Aníbal Isla Isla (; born 12 June 1988) is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a right-back and midfielder for Chilean Primera División club Universidad Católica and the Chile national team.
Isla started his career in ...
:
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
,
;
Summer Olympics
*
Patrick M'Boma:
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
Divisional movements
Players
Current squad
Out on loan
Retired numbers
11 –
Gigi Riva
Luigi "Gigi" Riva (; born 7 November 1944) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward.
Considered to be one of the best players of his generation, as well as one of the greatest strikers of all time, Riva enjoye ...
,
Forward (1963–78)
13 –
Davide Astori,
Defender (2008–14) – posthumous honour
Notable former players
This shortlist only includes players with at least 100 appearances for the club and/or an appearance in an edition of the
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
.
Cagliari have a long history of Uruguayan players, numbering 16 as of 2014; the most used of them was
Diego López with 314 games, while others include
Enzo Francescoli
Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961), nicknamed "El Príncipe" ("The Prince"), is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as a attacking midfielder. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of ...
,
José Herrera,
Fabián O'Neill,
Darío Silva
Darío Debray Silva Pereira (born 2 November 1972) is a Uruguayan retired professional footballer who played as a striker.
After making a name for himself in his country and in Italy with Cagliari, he spent the following seven years of his car ...
,
Nahitan Nandez and
Diego Godin.
In addition, Uruguayan
Óscar Tabárez managed the team from 1994 to 1995.
Presidential history
Cagliari have had numerous presidents over the course of their history, some of which have been the owners of the club, others have been honorary presidents, here is a complete list of them:
Coaching staff
Managerial history
Cagliari have had many managers and trainers, some seasons they have had co-managers running the team, here is a chronological list of them from when they founded in 1920 onwards.
In Europe
Champions League
UEFA Cup
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
References
External links
*
Site about Cagliari's 1969–70 Serie A-winning season
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cagliari
Football clubs in Italy
Football clubs in Sardinia
Association football clubs established in 1920
Serie A clubs
Serie B clubs
Serie C clubs
Phoenix clubs (association football)
1935 establishments in Italy
Serie A winning clubs
United Soccer Association imported teams
1920 establishments in Italy
Sport in Cagliari
Coppa Italia Serie C winning clubs