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 (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
2023–24	Serie C Group A, 8th of 20
Website	http://www.fcprovercelli.it
	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

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.^{[citation needed]}

The first official match for the football division of S.G. Pro Vercelli took place on 3 August 1903 against the Forza e Costanza.^{[citation needed]}

The club won seven Italian Football Championships from 1908 to 1922: 1908, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, and 1921–22.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} They regained professional status for good after winning promotion and the Scudetto Dilettanti in the season 1993–94.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2006–07 Serie D, the team finished 9th in Girone A.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2008–09 Serie D, Pro Belvedere finished first in Girone B, winning direct promotion to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.^{[citation needed]} 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^[tone]^{[clarification needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} 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 semi-final 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^[vague]^{[according to whom?]} unsuccessful return to Serie B, finishing 21st of 22 teams and with a goal difference −30, the worst in the league.^{[citation needed]} Their placing in the league meant that they were relegated to Lega Pro Prima Divisione.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} Striker Ettore Marchi starred^[tone] 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.^{[citation needed]} Pro Vercelli finished 16th in Serie B in the 2014–15 season and 17th in the 2015–16 season.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Colours and badge

The historical colour of the shirts of Pro Vercelli is white.^{[citation needed]}

Honours

Serie A:

Winners (7): 1908,^{[citation needed]} 1909,^{[citation needed]} 1910–11,^{[citation needed]} 1911–12,^{[citation needed]} 1912–13,^{[citation needed]} 1920–21,^{[citation needed]} 1921–22^{[citation needed]}

Seconda Categoria:

Winners (1): 1907^{[citation needed]}

Serie D:

Winners (4): 1956–57,^{[citation needed]} 1970–71,^{[citation needed]} 1983–84,^{[citation needed]} 1993–94^{[citation needed]}

Scudetto Dilettanti:

Winners (1): 1993–94^{[citation needed]}

International

Tournoi de Pentecôte du Club Français:

Winners (1): 1927^[5]

Players

Current squad

As of 31 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	Davide Mastrantonio (on loan from Roma)
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
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
20	MF	ITA	Alessandro Louati


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

Out on loan