U.S. Foggia

Foggia

Full name	Unione Sportiva Foggia srl
Nickname(s)	Satanelli (little Satans)
Founded	1920
Ground	Stadio Pino Zaccheria, Foggia, Italy (Capacity: 25,000)
Chairman	Tullio Capobianco
Manager	Raffaele Novelli
League	Lega Pro Prima Divisione B
2008-09	Lega Pro Prima Divisione B, 5th
Home colours Away colours

Unione Sportiva Foggia is an Italian football club, based in Foggia, Puglia. The club was founded in 1920. Foggia currently plays in Lega Pro Prima Divisione, having last been in Serie A in 1995.

The team gained some popularity in the 1990s when coached by Zdenek Zeman, because of its attacking, spectacular style of play, which brought Foggia continuously on the verge of UEFA Cup qualification.

Notable former players include Pasquale Padalino, Giuseppe Signori, Francesco Baiano, Brian Roy, Igor Kolyvanov, Igor Shalimov, Roberto Rambaudi and Dan Petrescu.

History

Foundation and early years

The club was founded in 1920 as Foggia Calcio. The club spent its early history playing football in the lower leagues, winning a championship in the dilettanti in 1933.

In 1957-58, a merger took place between Foggia Calcio and Foggia Incedit, forming Unione Sportiva Foggia as the club is today. In 1961-62, the team was taken over by President Domenico Rosa Rosa, a wood industrialist, and coach Oronzo Pugliese, who quickly led them to promotion to Serie B.

Reaching Serie A

History was made in the 1963-64 season, when Rosa Rosa and Oronzo Pugliese's Foggia reached Serie A for the first time. From 1964-65, Foggia managed to compete in three consecutive seasons in the top flight. On 31 January 1965, still under the guidance of coach Pugliese, Foggia recorded a historic 3-2 victory against Inter, who were at the time led by legendary manager Helenio Herrera. The season was crowned by the national call-ups of Micelli and Nocera who played for Italy against Wales. Italy won 4-1 and Nocera managed to get on the scoresheet. At the end of the season, Pugliese left to take charge of Roma.

Pugliese was replaced by Egizio Rubino, and Foggia, although with more difficulty compared to the previous season, managed to survive the drop again. The following year, however, Foggia was relegated. It wasa forgettable championship, after 10 matches Foggia had collected only three points and scored just 24 goals. Rubino was sacked and replaced by Bonazzini. The team improved under Bonazzini but failed to avoid relegation. At the end of the season, president Rosa Rosa also left the club, following their relegation.

Relegated at the end of the 1966-67 season, Foggia returned to the top flight in 1970-71, with Tommaso Maestrelli on the bench. Maestrelli would later win the 1973-74 scudetto with Lazio. Luigi Del Neri was, at the time, a Foggia player. The club was relegated again and returned back to Serie A in 1973-74, before another relegation which came after a 6 point deduction for alleged corruption relating to the referee of a home match against Milan. The coach that season was Lauro Toneatto. Foggia played two more seasons in Serie A in 1976-77 and in 1977-78, when they were once more relegated to Serie B.

Glory years

Following their relegation back to Serie B, Foggia were then dealt with a further blow with relegation to Serie C. They battled their way in Serie C1 throughout much of the 1980s. This was a particularly tough time for Foggia as their regional rivals, Bari, Lecce, Barletta and Taranto were all playing at higher levels.

In 1989, with the appointment of Czech coach Zdeněk Zeman, the club began to enter the greatest period in its history. The aggressive and entertaining football of the Bohemian coach was based on a 4-3-3 formation. Pressure, offside tactics and frenetic movement of both players and the ball made up the trademark style of Zeman's Foggia. The club first returned to Serie B, and then the following season in 1990-91, they won the Serie B by a large margin and returned to Serie A.

After returning to Serie A in the 1991-92 season, Foggia dei Miracoli , as they were known, proved to be competitive with any opponent and was appreciated by the press because of the attractive football they played. The term Zemanlandia was coined to indicate the style created by Zeman. The Foggia team also featured star players, especially attacking trio of Giuseppe Signori, Francesco Baiano and Roberto Rambaudi, as well as Russian star Igor Shalimov. That season, Foggia achieved the amazing feat of scoring 58 goals while also conceding 58. Foggia soon lost many of these quality players, including their three key forwards, and had to replace them with young talent. The club completed three Serie A campaigns finishing mid-table. In Serie A 1993-94, Foggia's fantastic football continued but the depleted squad was no longer as competitive and the club was relegated back to Serie B in 1995.

Zeman left to join Lazio at the end of that season, marking the end of Zemanlandia whilst the club was beset with financial problems. The Foggia glory days had come to an end.

Decline and Serie C

Following the drop, Foggia spent two seasons in Serie B achieving mid-table finishes, before another relegation followed at the end of the 1997-98 season. They did not fare any better down in Serie C1, with another successive relegation to Serie C2.

Playing football in Italy's fourth tier was far less glamorous than the Zemanlandia days but the club set itself on the long road back in 2002-03, when led by coach Pasquale Marino and key players Roberto De Zerbi and Michele Pazienza, they were promoted back to Serie C1.

After the 2003-04 season, in which they finished mid-table but with good signs for the following year, Foggia were hit with financial problems and lost the coach Marino and all the best players.

The news sent the fans into despair but Giuseppe Coccimiglio took over the reins of the club and gave confidence to the new club which assumed the team's historic name, Unione Sportiva Foggia, and was able to keep their place in the league.

After two more seasons finishing in mid-table, during which there were five coaching changes, Coccimiglio was criticised for not paying players' wages, a situation which created instability. After complex negotiations, the company passed into the hands of a team of local entrepreneurs led by Tullio Capobianco.

The club spent the following years mid-table in C1, narrowly losing a promotion playoff in 2006-07 against Avellino which would have seen them return to Serie B. The following season, 2007-08, they again reached the playoffs, this time losing to Cremonese.

Fans

Football has always been a popular sport to follow in the city of Foggia, especially since the Zeman years. I Satanelli can also count on support from across the Province of Foggia.

The only twinning Foggia fans have is with the supporters of Cagliari and more specifically with the Sconvolts 1987 ultras. However, each group has personal friendships, notable are those with Monza, Latina and Budapest Honved.

Managerial history

Foggia have had many managers and trainers throughout the history of a club, in some seasons more than one manager was in charge. Here is a chronological list of them from 1923 onwards.^[1]

Name Nationality Years Roberto Fini 1923–1928 Severino Rosso 1928–1929 Béla Károly 1929–1932 Tony Cargnelli 1932–1933 Engelbert König 1933–1934 Silvio Stritzel 1934–1935 Giobatta Rebuffo 1935 Wilmos Wilhelm 1935–1936 Béla Károly 1936–1937 Angelo Benincasa 1937–1939 István Fogl 1939–1940 Rudolf Plemich 1940 István Fogl 1940–1941 Rudolf Plemich 1941 Angelo Benincasa 1941–1946 Piero Andreoli 1946–1947 Lajos Politzer 1947–1948 Angelo Benincasa 1948–1949 András Kuttik 1949 Vincenzo Marsico 1949–1950 András Kuttik 1950 Vincenzo Marsico 1950–1951 Tony Cargnelli 1951–1952 Cesare Migliorini 1952 Vincenzo Marsico 1952–1953 Cesare Migliorini 1953–1954 Lajos Kovács 1954–1955 Leandro Remondini 1955 Vincenzo Marsico 1955–1959 Leonardo Costagliola 1959–1960 Paolo Tabanelli 1960–1961 Leonardo Costagliola 1961 Oronzo Pugliese 1961–1965 Egizio Rubino 1965–1966 Luigi Bonizzoni 1966–1968 Serafino Montanari 1968 Tommaso Maestrelli 1968–1971 Ettore Puricelli 1971–1972 Lauro Toneatto 1972–1974 Cesare Maldini 1974–1976 Roberto Balestri 1976 Ettore Puricelli 1976–1978

Name Nationality Years Cinesinho 1978–1979 Giorgio Sereni 1979–1980 Ettore Puricelli 1980–1981 Vasco Tagliavini 1981–1982 Fernando Veneranda 1982 Lamberto Leonardi 1982–1983 Lamberto Giorgis 1983 Romano Fogli 1983–1984 Ettore Puricelli 1984 Lamberto Giorgis 1984–1985 Graziano Landoni 1985 G.B. Fabbri 1985 Corrado Viciani 1985–1986 G.B. Fabbri 1986 Zdeněk Zeman 1986–1987 Roberto Balestri 1987 Pippo Marchioro 1987–1988 Roberto Balestri 1988 Giuseppe Caramanno 1988–1989 Zdeněk Zeman 1989–1994 Enrico Catuzzi 1994–1995 Delio Rossi 1995–1996 Tarcisio Burgnich 1996–1997 Domenico Caso 1997 Beniamino Cancian 1997–1998 Domenico Caso 1998 Lorenzo Mancano 1998–1999 Fabio Brini 1999 Piero Braglia 1999–2000 Lorenzo Mancano 2000 Ignazio Arcoleo 2000–2001 Bruno Pace 2001–2002 Carlo Florimbi 2002 Pasquale Marino 2002–2004 Giuseppe Giannini 2004–2005 Massimo Morgia 2005–2006 Giorgio Rumignani 2006 Silvano Fiorucci 2006 Stefano Cuoghi 2006–2007 Fulvio D'Adderio 2007 Salvatore Campilongo 2007–2008 Giuseppe Galderisi 2008 Raffaele Novelli 2008–current

Famous players

This list of "famous" or "notable" sports persons has no clear inclusion or exclusion criteria. Please help to improve Wikipedia by ensuring that there is consensus on the inclusion criteria on the talk page.

• José Chamot
• Luis Oliveira
• Hernan Medford
• Francesco Baiano
• Pierpaolo Bresciani
• Luigi Di Biagio
• Massimo Marazzina
• Pasquale Padalino
• Roberto Rambaudi
• Flavio Roma
• Andrea Seno
• Giuseppe Signori
• Bryan Roy
• Dan Petrescu
• Igor Kolyvanov
• Igor Shalimov
• Robert Englaro
• Delio Rossi

References

External links

• Official site