This is the history of Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as UC Sampdoria or simply Sampdoria (), an Italian professional football club based in Genoa, Liguria.
History
Origins
Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria
The Società Ginnastica Comunale Sampierdarenese, founded in 1891,Sampierdarenese e Andrea Doria opened its soccer section in 1899. After a few championships in the lower categories, the club merged with Associazione del Calcio Ligure in 1919, thus winning the right to join the top league.
The gymnasts of Andrea Doria, founded in 1895, also began to broaden the disciplines they practiced, devoting themselves to soccer as well and occupying for this purpose the space in what is now Piazza Verdi, in front of which the Genoa Brignole station was being built. Andrea Doria did not participate in the first championships organized by the Italian Football Federation (F.I.F.) since it enrolled instead in the soccer tournaments organized directly by the Italian Federation of Gymnastics, to which it adhered, although Francesco Calì, the first captain of the Italy national team, played in the club from 1902 for several years. He made his championship debut on March 9, 1902, and participated in the following editions until 1913.
On July 27, 1927, at the behest of the fascist regime, Andrea Doria and Sampierdarenese were merged, giving rise to Associazione Calcio La Dominante, which in 1930 assumed the name Foot Ball Club Liguria. Later, in 1931, the FBC Liguria relegated to the third division and for this reason the club was broken up: thus Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria were reborn, which resumed their activities separately. Sampierdarenese succeeded in returning to the top division at the end of the 1933-1934 season, but on July 15, 1937, after a meeting at the “Casa del Fascio,” it was forced to assume the name Associazione Calcio Liguria, while retaining its social colors, following the merger of Corniglianese and Rivarolese; Andrea Doria, meanwhile, followed its path in Serie C until its dissolution in 1941. The Dorian club was reconstituted in 1944, while Sampierdarenese regained its historic name the following year.
The birth of Sampdoria After World War II had prevented regular soccer championships from taking place in 1943-1944, Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria returned to activity in 1945. At the end of the 1945-1946 National Division, Andrea Doria was ranked 10th in the Serie A Alta Italia, while Sampierdarenese was ranked 14th and last. Sampierdarenese was, therefore, to be excluded from the next edition of Serie A due to the exhaustion of places provided for in the championship regulations when, following the reunification of the North and South national leagues, it was decided to give preference to sports titles acquired over time: therefore, Sampierdarenese, by virtue of the past season played as AC Liguria, was admitted to the new 20-team single-round league at the expense of Andrea Doria, which had been readmitted to the top division as compensation for the forced merger into Dominante. This caught the Dorians off guard, who had already purchased, for the considerable sum of 3,200,000 lire, the rising star Adriano Bassetto from Vicenza. Thus an embarrassing situation was created: Sampierdarenese was in Serie A but with a disastrous economic-financial situation, while the “rich” Andrea Doria was relegated automatically to Serie B. After a series of meetings, the managements of the two clubs agreed, therefore, to join forces.Cfr. Gino Dellachà, Una storia biancorossonera - Il calcio a San Pier d'Arena dal tempo dei pionieri del Liguria alla Sampdoria, Genova, Edizioni Sportmedia, novembre 2016, p. 231.
The new club, the Unione Calcio Sampierdarenese-Doria known as “Sampdoria,” was formed on August 12, 1946, with the final merger between Andrea Doria and Sampierdarenese;However, some Dorian members still refused the merger, and in 1955 they again revived Andrea Doria, a club that would land in Serie D in 1957. Similarly, some Sampierdarenese members formed Sampierdarenese 1946. initially the planned naming was “Doria-Sampierdarenese” (Doria-Samp). The first president was Piero Sanguineti, who was soon replaced by ambitious businessman Amedeo Rissotto, while the first coach was Florentine Giuseppe Galluzzi. Sampdoria was immediately admitted to Serie A, by virtue of the top sports title inherited from Sampierdarenese,“La Liguria ha chiesto anche Loik e Mazzola”, Corriere dello Sport, sabato 31 agosto 1946. while Andrea Doria provided the sporting and economic resources.
In the same month, the new club returned to play on Andrea Doria's “historic” playing ground, namely what was the ground known as the “Cajenna” in the Marassi district, which has since become the Luigi Ferraris Stadium.
For the new club, a jersey was designed that combined the colors of both teams: the white and blue of Andrea Doria, with the white, red and black of Sampierdarenese. The result was a unique uniform, a blue jersey interspersed with two white stripes, one red and one black, with the coat of arms of Genoa (the cross of St. George) in the center. The team's symbol, on the other hand, is composed of a bundle of blue-ringed stripes placed diagonally, in the center of which is a black silhouette depicting the face of a typical stylized Genoese fisherman with beard, a distinctive cap, a pipe and his hair blowing in the wind. This figure is called “baciccia” in Genoese dialect.
Debut and the first derby Sampdoria's first match was played on September 22, 1946 in Rome at the old Stadio Nazionale. The first blucerchiata formation was as follows: Bonetti as goalkeeper; Borrini, Bertani and Zorzi in defense; Gramaglia (Sampdoria's first captain), Fattori, Bassetto and Fiorini in midfield; Fabbri, Baldini and Frugali in attack.
The match ended 3-1 for Roma, with the first historic blucerchiato goal scored by Bassetto, who would remain at Samp until 1953, becoming its first icon. For the home side, the phenomenal Amadei, another Italian soccer star, scored three goals.
In the same year, Sampdoria faced Genoa for the first time, in the first historic Genoa derby. It was played in a packed stadium on November 3, 1946: the result was 3-0 for the blucerchiati, with goals scored by Baldini, Fiorini and Frugali. In the return match, it was again Sampdoria that had the better of the match; 3-2 at the final whistle, with Bassetto's double and D'Alconzo's goal: Piacentini's own goal and Dalla Torre's goal were not enough for the rossoblù.
Another memorable result was the victory achieved against AC Milan on October 13, 1946, on the fourth day: after an initial disadvantage, sealed by the rossonero Gimona, the blucerchiati managed to recover the result with a double, between the first and second half, by the usual Baldini.
Early championships Overall, the first two seasons saw Sampdoria place in the last positions, while still managing to achieve salvation; in their debut in the top national competition, the blucerchiati did not disappoint, finishing in a more than honorable tenth place, a non-negligible achievement given the club's youth. The good placement in the standings was mainly due to Baldini and Bassetto, authors of 18 and 13 goals, respectively: they were nicknamed “the goal twins,”Storia della Sampdoria a title later assumed by Vialli and Mancini at the time of the historic 1991 Scudetto.
Then, after a year marked by a difficult salvation, Sampdoria surprised everyone by placing fifth. The 1948-1949 season was the season of attack with Baldini and Bassetto assuming the role of authentic protagonists, contributing decisively to the fifth place ranking. Due to their good results, Sampdoria saw an increase in national interest in them: this was demonstrated by the first convocation of a blucerchiato player to the national team. In fact, in 1949, thanks to his excellent performances with the blucerchiata jersey, Baldini was called up to the national team for the friendly match against Portugal: it was the debut of the first Sampdorian footballer with the blue jersey. The match, in which the player was a starter and attended by the first president of the Republic, Enrico De Nicola, was played at the Luigi Ferraris: a 4-1 win for the Azzurri was the final result.
The typical lineup during that season consisted of: Lusetti as goalkeeper; Gratton, Arrighini, Gaerd and Bertani in defense; Coscia, Lucentini, Gei and Bassetto on the midfield; Lorenzo and Sabbatella as forwards.
From Rissotto to Parodi In 1949, Sampdoria had a new president: it was Aldo Parodi, an ambitious man who was already president of Andrea Doria at the time of the merger; it seemed that with Parodi there could be a further leap in quality, but the reality was different. In fact, in the following season, the team did not go beyond thirteenth place.
1950s
Fluctuating results After the good placing two years earlier, Sampdoria had attracted an increasing number of fans, including many of the Genoese who had never been interested in the fortunes of the rossoblù colors. Thus, there were growing expectations on the part of the blucerchiati supporters, whose support, however, was not rewarded by the team and then-president Parodi.
The decade began with a twelfth-place finish, the result of a poor transfer window, the climax of which was reached with the sale of Giuseppe Baldini to rivals Genoa. Gei and Sabbatella arrived, authors of some important goals, but in that season the team conceded 76 goals: no other team, including Genoa, which was last in the standings and relegated to Serie B, did worse. Moreover, the era of the “atomic attack” was over, with a total of 51 goals scored.
President Parodi finally understood that the defense needed a radical transformation: from Novara came the experienced midfielder Oppezzo; from Lucchese came Moro, the goalkeeper of madness, bloopers and miracles par excellence; from Livorno came the central midfielder Fommei. And the transfer window yielded the hoped-for results: on the one hand, a good number of goals scored, while on the other only 40 goals conceded. The 1951-1952 season ended with a satisfactory seventh place, which allowed for the necessary improvement in relations between the president and fans, who had previously shown some disappointment over the team's poor performance.
Ravano's successes The following year, in which fans expected that there might be further improvement, was instead short on success. For the first time Sampdoria was involved in the struggle to avoid relegation: in the end, only two precious victories (against Inter, 2-0 away, and Palermo, 4-1 at Marassi, respectively) allowed the club to remain in the top division. In the summer of 1953, president Aldo Parodi stepped aside and was replaced by Alberto Ravano, whose long presidency (which lasted eight years) was characterized mainly by good results.
During Ravano’s first season as president, Adriano Bassetto left Sampdoria after making 196 appearances and scoring 93 goals. New arrivals included Testa, Podestà and Tortul, while Giuseppe Baldini returned after playing for Genoa. Sampdoria finished eighth in Serie A.
The following season, 1954-1955, characterized by the excellent performance of the young defender Bernasconi, who would later become a blucerchiato icon, was quite good: the ninth place finish, accompanied by convincing performances against the big ones (especially Juventus), satisfied the Sampdorian fans. In particular, the match played at Marassi on January 30, 1955 against the Bianconeri was memorable: 5-1 was the final result, with goals by Rosa, Ronzon, Baldini, Tortul and Conti for Samp, and Bronèe's goal for the Torinese.
The first big signings: from Firmani to Vicini