FC Pro Vercelli 1892

Pro Vercelli

Full name	Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892 S.r.l.
Nickname(s)	Le Bianche Casacche (The White Shirts) I Leoni (The Lions)
Founded	1892;132 years ago (1892) (as sport club S.G. Pro Vercelli)
Ground	Stadio Silvio Piola, Vercelli, Italy
Capacity	5,500
President	Franco Smerieri
Head Coach	Andrea Dossena
League	Serie C Group A
2022–23	Serie C Group A, 15th of 20
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. ^[1] The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven national titles (all won between 1908 and 1922). They currently play in Serie C, the third tier of Italian football.

History

Early league successes and decline

Main article: History of F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892

The origins of football in Vercelli go back to 1892 when it was founded as Società Ginnastica Pro Vercelli (Pro Vercelli Gymnastics Society), and 1903 with its Football Division.

The first official match for the football division of S.G. Pro Vercelli took place on 3 August 1903 against the Forza e Costanza.

The club won seven Italian Football Championships from 1908 to 1922: 1908, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, and 1921–22.

The introduction of professionalism in Italian football, and the rise of teams from larger industrial and business cities such as Milan and Turin, led Pro Vercelli to a slow but continuous decline. They played Serie A for their last time to date in 1934–35, and went ultimately relegated also from the 1947–48 Serie B, starting a long period out of the two top divisions of Italian football, even being relegated to Italy's amateur league, Serie D, in multiple times. They regained professional status for good after winning promotion and the Scudetto Dilettanti in the season 1993–94.

Bankruptcy and the new Pro Vercelli

In the early 2000s, Pro Vercelli also had to challenge crosstown rivalry from a new team, A.S. Pro Belvedere Vercelli (with the colours yellow and green), founded in the summer of 2006 as a merger between A.S. Trino Calcio (based in Trino, Piedmont), who played in Serie D and minor league team P.G.S. Pro Belvedere, founded in 1912.

In the 2006–07 Serie D, the team finished 9th in Girone A. A year later, in the Serie D 2007–08 season, the team finished 3rd in the same division, qualifying for the Serie D play-offs. It won its way to the group stage of the tournament, but failed qualify as one of the top 5 teams of the play-offs, all of which were later promoted to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.

In the 2008–09 Serie D, Pro Belvedere finished first in Girone B, winning direct promotion to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. Their debut season into professional football also featured, for the first time in the club's history, a crosstown derby with Pro Vercelli, but was not particularly successful, with the team lying in second-last place for most of the time in the 2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione, and promotion winning coach Luca Prina being replaced by the more experienced Gianfranco Motta.

Pro Belvedere were relegated after only one season but re-admitted to fill a number of vacancies in the league; at the same time, due to large debts, Pro Vercelli was not allowed to participate in the 2010–11 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione and so folded. In order to keep the old Pro Vercelli alive, Pro Belvedere changed its name to U.S. Vercelli Calcio and weeks later acquired honours and trademarks from the old Pro Vercelli, being thus allowed to switch its denomination to the current one, as well as to maintain the historical names and colours of the original team. ^[1]

In the season 2010–11 the team played in Lega Pro Seconda Divisione ranking 3rd and was eliminated from Pro Patria in the semifinal of the play-off, but on 4 August 2011 it was later admitted to Lega Pro Prima Divisione to fill vacancies. ^[2]

New successes: back to Serie B after 64 years

In the season 2011–12 of Lego Pro Prima Divisione the club was promoted to Serie B after 64 years, beating Carpi 3–1 in the final return of the play-off after the 0–0 of the first round. ^{[3] [4]}

The club had a very unsuccessful return to Serie B, finishing 21st of 22 teams and with a goal difference −30, the worst in the league. Their placing in the league meant that they were relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione.

In 2013–14 season, Girone A of Lega Pro 1, Pro Vercelli missed out on an immediate automatic promotion back to Serie B by a single point, finishing second in the league to Virtus Entella and eight points above third placed Südtirol. Striker Ettore Marchi starred throughout the season, scoring 15 goals. In the promotion play-offs, Pro Vercelli eliminated FeralpiSalò, Savona and ultimately defeated Südtirol in the final, thus returning to Serie B after only one season away. Pro Vercelli finished 16th in Serie B in the 2014–15 season and 17th in the 2015–16 season. They were again relegated to Serie C after the 2017–18 season. On 11 July 2019, former Italian international striker Alberto Gilardino took the job as head coach.

Colors and badge

The historical color of the shirts of Pro Vercelli is white.

Honours

• Serie A :

Winners (7): 1908, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, 1921–22

• Seconda Categoria :

Winners (1): 1907

• Serie D :

Winners (4): 1956–57, 1970–71, 1983–84, 1993–94

• Scudetto Dilettanti :

Winners (1): 1993–94

International

• Tournoi de Pentecôte du Club Français:

Winners (1): 1927 ^[5]

Players

Current squad

As of 19 January 2024 ^[6]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK   ITA Alex Valentini 3 DF   ITA Francesco Rodio 4 MF   ITA Simone Emmanuello 5 DF   ITA Alessandro Carosso 6 DF   ITA Agostino Camigliano (on loan from Ancona ) 7 FW   ITA Mattia Mustacchio 8 MF   ITA Ilario Iotti 9 FW   ITA Alessio Nepi 10 FW   ITA Gianmario Comi 14 MF   ITA Salvatore Santoro (on loan from Pisa ) 15 MF   ITA Alessandro Spavone(on loan from Napoli ) 16 FW   ITA Hamza Haoudi (on loan from Frosinone ) 17 MF   ITA Francesco Contaldo 18 FW   ITA Filippo Gheza

No. Pos. Nation Player 20 MF   ITA Alessandro Louati 22 GK   ITA Jacopo Sassi(on loan from Atalanta ) 27 FW   ITA Matteo Maggio 29 DF   ITA Roberto Iezzi 30 MF   AUS Massimo Forte 32 DF   ITA Giulio Parodi 33 GK   ITA Nicolò Vaccarezza 70 FW   ITA Antonio Pesce(on loan from Napoli ) 74 DF   ITA Daniele Sarzi Puttini 93 MF   ITA Mirco Petrella — DF   ITA Alessandro Citi(on loan from Juventus ) — DF   ITA Daniel Frey(on loan from Cremonese ) — FW   ITA Orazio Pannitteri (on loan from Crotone )

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK   ITA Matteo Rizzo (at Lumezzane until 30 June 2024) — DF   ITA Filippo Fiumanò (at Fermana until 30 June 2024) — DF   ITA Gianluca Clemente (at Ancona until 30 June 2024)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF   ITA Ousmane Niang(at Fermana until 30 June 2024) — FW   ITA Cristian Bunino (at Brindisi until 30 June 2024) — FW   ITA Simone Condello(at Fermana until 30 June 2024)

Managers

• Guido Ara (1919–26)
• József Nagy (1928–32)
• Guido Ara (1932–34)
• Pietro Leone (1935)
• Antonio Montico (1976–77)
• Giuliano Zoratti (1986–90)
• Bruno Baveni (1995–96)
• Agatino Cuttone (1999–2000)
• Renzo Gobbo (2002–03)
• Nello Santin (2003–04)
• Roberto Galia (2007)
• Gianluca Gaudenzi (2007–08)
• Giancarlo Camolese (2012–13)
• Cristiano Scazzola (2013–15)
• Claudio Foscarini (2015–16)
• Moreno Longo (2016–17)
• Gianluca Grassadonia (2017–18)
• Gianluca Atzori (2018)
• Gianluca Grassadonia (2018)
• Vito Grieco (2018–2019)
• Alberto Gilardino (2019–2020)
• Francesco Modesto (2020–2021)
• Giuseppe Scienza (2021)
• Franco Lerda (2021–2022)
• Massimo Paci (2022–2023)
• Massimo Gardano (2023–)

Bibliography

• Chiesa, Carlo. La grande storia del calcio italiano, pubblicato a puntate sul Guerin Sportivo.
• Rolandi, Luca (2013). Quando vinceva il quadrilatero 1908–1928. Gli anni d'oro del calcio piemontese. Ivrea-Torino: Bradipolibri.
• Tacchini, Alex (1998–2007). Il grande album della Pro Vercelli. GS Editrice.

See also

• Dynasties in Italian football

References

1. "Ecco la nuova F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892". Provercelli.Times.it (in Italian). 6 August 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2010.
2. "Calcio, Lega Pro; ripescaggi: 5 in I Divisione e Rimini in II". la Repubblica (in Italian). 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
3. "Lega Pro 1° A 2011/2012 Aufstieg". Weltfussball.de (in German). Retrieved 27 September 2015.
4. Pasquino, Stefano (10 June 2012). "Pro Vercelli in serie B, anche il Lanciano promosso". Tuttosport (in Italian). Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
5. "International Tournaments (Paris) 1904-1935".
6. "Pro Vercelli squad". Soccerway. Retrieved 26 September 2022.

External links

• (in Italian) Official website
• (in Italian) Unofficial website