Alessandria Calcio
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| Full name | Unione Sportiva Alessandria Calcio 1912 |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) |
I Grigi (The Greys), L'Orso (The Bear) |
| Founded | 1912 2003 (refounded) |
| Ground |
Stadio Giuseppe Moccagatta, Alessandria, Italy |
| Capacity | 10,040 |
| Chairman | Luca Di Masi |
| Manager | Piero Braglia |
| League | Lega Pro/A |
| 2015–16 | Lega Pro/A, 4th |
| Website | Club home page |
Unione Sportiva Alessandria Calcio 1912 is the professional Italian football club based in Alessandria, Piedmont.
In the current season, it plays in Lega Pro group A.
Founded in 1912, Alessandria spent 13 seasons in Serie A between 1929 and 1960 and 21 in Serie B (last in 1975); it also reached one Coppa Italia final in 1936. The most successful period in the history of the team was between World War I and World War II, when it was, with Novara, Pro Vercelli and Casale, part of the so-called Quadrilatero Piemontese ("Piedmont Quadrilateral"), which forged great players and gained important trophies.
One of the most famous players who has ever worn the characteristic gray shirt of the team is 1969 European Footballer of the Year award-winner Gianni Rivera; also, World Champions Luigi Bertolini, Felice Borel, Giovanni Ferrari and Pietro Rava, and famous footballers like Carlo Carcano and Adolfo Baloncieri played for Alessandria. With the promotion in 2009 in Lega Pro Prima Divisione, the team finally left a period of financial troubles, with internal problems that led the club to bankruptcy in 2003.
Football arrived in Alessandria in the end of 19th century; there are reports regarding a match played in which a team of Alessandria played against one from Genoa. In 1896, the Unione Pro Sport Alessandria was created, followed by the football teams of the athletic club Forza e Concordia, which wore dark-grey shirts, and Forza e Coraggio, with pearl-grey shirts. Unione Pro Sport took part in some exhibition tournaments with teams based in Turin and Genoa between 1897 and 1898; in 1897, it won the football trophy at the National Gym Competition in Genoa. On 15 March 1898, it was invited to join the constituents of FIF, then took part in the first official championship qualification round and, feeling itself penalized in favor of F.B.C. Torinese and Genoa CFC, it preferred to leave and keep on participating in tournaments organized by FGNI.
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