ASD Casale Foot Ball Club (formerly AS Casale Calcio) is an

Italian football Football ( ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Brazil (with five), runners-up in two finals both against Brazil, (1970, 1994) and ...

club, based in

Casale Monferrato Casale Monferrato () is a town in the Piedmont region of Northwest Italy, northwestern Italy, in the province of Alessandria. It is situated about east of Turin on the right bank of the Po River, Po, where the river runs at the foot of the Montfe ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. The club plays in

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

. The team's nickname ''nerostellati'' ("the starred-blacks") refers to the team's colours of black with a white star on the chest.

History

When the club was founded in 1909 Casale was at the geographical center of the new footballing movement in Italy.

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Ital ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

were all leading clubs in the

Italian football league system The Italian football league system, also known as the Italian football pyramid, refers to the hierarchically interconnected league system for association football in Italy. It consists of nine national and regional tournaments, the first three b ...

and Casale soon joined their ranks. In May 1913 Casale became the first Italian club to defeat an English professional team when they beat Reading F.C. 2–1. Reading won all the other games on this tour, defeating Genoa,

, Pro Vercelli, and even the Italy national team. In the following season, Casale won their first and only national title. Italian football was then organized on a regional basis and the national championship was divided into three stages. Casale topped the Ligurian-Piedmontese division and proceeded, along with second-placed Genoa, to compete in a division comprising the top northern teams, the others being

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

and

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. Having won that division, Casale defeated central-southern champions

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

7–1, 0–2 in the two-leg final. After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Casale remained in the top division for a couple of decades, representing what had been the cradle of early

. With the development of professionalism, Casale was progressively relegated to lower divisions, 1934 being their last year in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

. The club was later refounded twice, in 1993 and 2013, after financial problems. In 2013, it took the current name of Casale Foot Ball Club. A heated rivalry exists between the fans of Casale and

Alessandria Alessandria (; ) is a city and commune in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. It is also the largest municipality of the region. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, ...

Notable players

:''See also :Casale FBC players'' Five players who appeared in the scudetto-winning team of 1913–14 played in the Italy national team, all making their international debuts between 1912 and 1914: *

Luigi Barbesino Luigi Barbesino (; 1 May 1894 – 20 April 1941) was an football in Italy, Italian association footballer and manager from Casale Monferrato in the region of Piedmont. A midfielder, he was a List of one-club men in association football, one club ...

* Giovanni Gallina * Angelo Mattea * Giuseppe Parodi * Amedeo Varese One of Casale's biggest stars, however, was the full back

Umberto Caligaris Umberto Caligaris (; 26 July 1901 – 19 October 1940) was an Italian international association football, footballer who played, normally at left-back, for A.S. Casale and Juventus FC, Juventus, before ending his career with Brescia Calcio, Bres ...

whose career with the club ran from 1919 to 1928. During his period with the ''nerostellati'', he made 37 appearances for

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

, featuring at the

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad () and officially branded as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The opening ceremony was held on 5 July, but some competitions had al ...

and winning a bronze medal at the

1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the IX Olympiad (), was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had previously bid for ...

before leaving Casale for

. His total of 59 caps stood as a record for about 40 years.

Eraldo Monzeglio Eraldo Monzeglio (; 5 June 1906 – 3 November 1981) was an Italian association football coach and player, who played as a defender, in the position of full-back. Monzeglio had a highly successful career as a footballer, although he also later ...

, later to represent Italy on numerous occasions, including the

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

and

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

World Cups, made his Serie A debut with Casale in 1923–24. The following season, however, he moved to

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. Piero Operto,

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

of the

Grande Torino The was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superga air di ...

perished in the

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster (, "Tragedy of Superga") occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino F.C., Torino association football, football team (popularly known as the ''Grande ...

, played with Casale in the years 1946–1948.

Honours

National titles

**Winners: 1913–14 *

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

**Winners: 1929–30 *

Coppa Italia Dilettanti The Coppa Italia Dilettanti (Italian for: Italian Amateurs Cup) is an annual knock-out competition for teams from the fifth and sixth levels of Italian football: the Eccellenza and the Promozione. All ties except for the final, which is held at t ...

**Winners: 1998–99

Sub-national titles

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

**Winners: 1937–38 (Girone C) *

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

**Winners: 1988–89 (Girone A) *

**Winners: 1973–74 (Girone A), 1985–86 (Girone A) **Promoted: 2003–04

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Casale Football clubs in Piedmont and Aosta Valley Association football clubs established in 1909 Italian football First Division clubs Serie A clubs Serie B clubs Serie C clubs Serie D clubs Serie A–winning clubs 1909 establishments in Italy Sport in Casale Monferrato