Cagliari

Cagliari is a football (soccer) club from Italy.

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Cagliari Calcio is an Italy football (soccer) club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. Cagliari was formed in 1920 and currently plays in Italian Serie A, having spent a large part of recent years mainly in Serie A and Serie B.

They won their only scudetto in 1970, when they were led by Italy national football team all-time leading scorer, Luigi Riva. The team's colors are blue and red. The club's stadium is the 23,486 seater Stadio Sant'Elia.

History

Before Serie A

Cagliari became the first ever out-right champions of Serie C 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, 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 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 and Ricciotti Greatti, and forward Luigi Riva. A poor first half of the season saw Cagliari in last place with 9 points at the halfway mark. An astonishing second half of the season saw Cagliari defeat the likes of Juventus and AC Milan and finish in 7th place with 34 points. Two seasons later Riva finished Serie A 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. This league from Europe and South America to play in United States and Canada 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, who scored 10 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 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 Cera, Domenghini and Riva played in Italy's 1970 FIFA 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 80s 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 was appointed coach, and led Cagliari 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 season 1992-93 would see Cagliari fight for a European place and succeed under the management of Carlo Mazzone. The following season saw a run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, unprecedented for the Sardinian club.

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. 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, for most part in mid-table mediocrity. But 2003-04 would see the Rossoblu, led by Sardinian-born Gianfranco Zola, mount a successful promotion challenge and the following season saw Cagliari hold their own in Serie A with a respectable mid-table finish. The Serie A 2004-05 was a quiet one for the Sardinians, that obtained a good mid-table position (12th place).

The Serie A 2005-06, the first without Zola, started in the worst way possible for Cagliari, which changed its manager for three times, with Attilio Tesser, Daniele Arrigoni and Davide Ballardini alternating to the position of coach, before Nedo Sonetti, appointed in November, who was able to save Cagliari from a relegation also thanks to goals of Honduras striker David Suazo. For the Serie A 2006-07, Marco Giampaolo was signed as head coach, however he was fired after the 17th matchday and replaced by Franco Colomba. However, after a number of poor performances ending in a 2-0 home defeat to S.S. Lazio, Colomba was sacked, and chairman Cellino chose to reinstate Giampaolo as head coach. Giampaolo was confirmed for the Serie A 2007-08, and his contract was extended for two more years.

The 2007-08 season saw the flagship strikers David Suazo, Mauro Esposito and Antonio Langella leave for F.C. Internazionale Milano, A.S. Roma and Atalanta B.C. respectively, and the experienced goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti leave for Udinese Calcio. Cagliari reinforced itself with youngsters likes Robert Acquafresca, Alessandro Matri, Pasquale Foggia, Argentine Joaquín Larrivey and Slovenian Jan Koprivec . Nedo Sonetti returned to coach the Rossoblu in November 2007 after Giampaolo was relieved of his duties as a result of poor results in the first part of the 2007-08 Serie A season that saw them sink to the bottom of the Serie A standings. In January transfer windows, Cagliari made changes to their squad with goalkeepers Vincenzo Marruocco and Marco Fortin replaced by Marco Storari and Luca Capecchi, along with experienced striker Jedaias Capucho Neves.

Players
As of 2009-06-26

Out on loan

Retired numbers

11 – Gigi Riva, striker, 1963–1978

Notable former players

Including only players with at least 100 appearances in the club, or an appearance in a FIFA World Cup edition

- Enrico Albertosi
- Roberto Boninsegna
- Massimiliano Cappioli
- Pier Luigi Cera
- Angelo Domenghini
- Mauro Esposito
- Antonio Langella
- Alberto Marchetti
- Gianfranco Matteoli
- Francesco Moriero
- Roberto Muzzi
- Comunardo Niccolai
- Giuseppe Pancaro
- Luigi Piras
- Luigi Riva
- Franco Selvaggi
- Pietro Paolo Virdis
- Cristiano Zanetti
- Gianfranco Zola

- Daniel Fonseca
- Enzo Francescoli
- José Oscar Herrera
- Nelson Abeijón
- Fabian O'Neill
- Darío Silva
- Waldemar Victorino
- Gerry Hitchens
- Fanis Katergiannakis
- Patrick Mboma
- Julio Cesar Dely Valdes
- François Modesto
- Luis Oliveira
- Marco Pascolo
- Ramon Vega
- David Suazo
- Julio César Uribe

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:

onwards.

{. The red parts of the stemma are a reference to the coat of arms 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 blue part of the stemma features the sky and the sea, also a castle; this is because the old historic center of Cagliari is walled and called the Castello. Due to the use of these colours on their shirt in halves, Cagliari 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 Cagliari colours, if there is a change the main difference has been the colour of the border or the shape.

Currently the badge features an upright-oval which is coloured in blue and red halves, it features Cagliari's name in black. Inside this is an Old French-shaped Escutcheon (heraldry) with red and blue halves, with the colours the opposite way around to the outer layer; inside this is the Flag of Sardinia and Cagliari's foundation date, 1920 in football (soccer) in black. Interestingly, the badge was not changed to match the change in the Sardinian flag in 1992, when the moor's heads were turned to the right; in Cagliari logo the heads still look to the left.

Due to the fact that Cagliari are the main club from the island of Sardinia, they are nicknamed the Isolani.

Honours

National titles

- Runners-up (1): Serie A 1968-69

Campionato Sardo di I Divisione:

European titles

Atalanta, Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Chievo, Fiorentina, Genoa, Inter, Juventus, Lazio, Lecce, Milan, Napoli, Palermo, Reggina, Roma, Sampdoria, Siena, Torino, Udinese