Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, 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

Vercelli Vercelli (; ) is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC. ...

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 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 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 ...

, the third tier of

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. The first official match for the football division of S.G. Pro Vercelli took place on 3 August 1903 against the Forza e Costanza. The club won seven

Italian Football Championship Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

s from 1908 to 1922:

1908 This is the longest year in either the Julian or Gregorian calendars, having a duration of 31622401.38 seconds of Terrestrial Time (or ephemeris time), measured according to the definition of mean solar time. Events January * January ...

, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, and 1921–22. The introduction of professionalism in Italian football, and the rise of teams from larger industrial and business cities such as

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 ...

and

Turin 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 ...

, led Pro Vercelli to a slow but continuous decline. 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 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 ...

, in multiple times. They regained professional status for good after winning promotion and the Scudetto Dilettanti in the season 1993–94.

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

and minor league team ''P.G.S. Pro Belvedere'', founded in 1912. In the 2006–07 Serie D, the team finished 9th in Girone A. 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. 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 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 ...

. In the 2008–09 Serie D, Pro Belvedere finished first in Girone B, winning direct promotion to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. 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 successful, with the team lying in second-last place for most of the time in the

2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione The 2009–10 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione season was the thirty-second football league season of Italian Lega Pro Seconda Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the second since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro. It was divided into tw ...

, and promotion winning coach Luca Prina being replaced by the more experienced Gianfranco Motta. 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. 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. In the season 2010–11 the team played in

ranking 3rd and was eliminated from Pro Patria in the semifinal of the play-off, but on 4 August 2011 it was later admitted to

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

to fill vacancies.

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 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 ...

after 64 years, beating Carpi 3–1 in the final return of the play-off after the 0–0 of the first round. The club had a very unsuccessful return to Serie B, finishing 21st of 22 teams and with a goal difference −30, the worst in the league. Their placing in the league meant that they were relegated to

. 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. Striker Ettore Marchi starred 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. Pro Vercelli finished 16th in Serie B in the 2014–15 season and 17th in the 2015–16 season. They were again relegated to Serie C after the 2017–18 season. On 11 July 2019, former Italian international striker

Alberto Gilardino Alberto Gilardino (; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian professional football manager and a former player who played as a striker. He was most recently the manager of club Genoa. A prolific goalscorer, in Gilardino's early career he was compared ...

took the job as head coach.

Colours and badge

The historical colour of the shirts of Pro Vercelli is white.

Honours

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 ...

: :Winners (7):

, 1909, 1910–11, 1911–12, 1912–13, 1920–21, 1921–22 *

Seconda Categoria The Seconda Categoria is the 8th level (since 2014–15) in the Italian football league system. Each individual league winner within the Seconda Categoria level progresses to their closest regional league in the Prima Categoria level. Depending on ...

: :Winners (1): 1907 *

: :Winners (4): 1956–57, 1970–71, 1983–84, 1993–94 * Scudetto Dilettanti: :Winners (1): 1993–94

International

*Tournoi de Pentecôte du Club Français: :Winners (1): 1927

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Managers

Guido Ara Guido Ara (; 28 August 1888 – 2 July 1975) was an Italian association footballer and manager who played as a midfielder. Club career Hailing from Vercelli in the region of Piedmont, Ara is most noted for his entire playing career at his homet ...

(1919–26) * József Nagy (1928–32) *

(1932–34) * Pietro Leone (1935) * Antonio Montico (1976–77) * Giuliano Zoratti (1986–90) * Bruno Baveni (1995–96) * Agatino Cuttone (1999–2000) * Renzo Gobbo (2002–03) * Nello Santin (2003–04) * Roberto Galia (2007) * Gianluca Gaudenzi (2007–08) * Giancarlo Camolese (2012–13) * Cristiano Scazzola (2013–15) * Claudio Foscarini (2015–16) * Moreno Longo (2016–17) * Gianluca Grassadonia (2017–18) *

Gianluca Atzori Gianluca Atzori (born 6 March 1971) is an Italian football in Italy, football manager and former player, currently in charge of Serie D club Scafatese Calcio 1922, Scafatese. Career Playing Atzori started his professional playing career with R ...

(2018) * Gianluca Grassadonia (2018) * Vito Grieco (2018–2019) *

(2019–2020) * Francesco Modesto (2020–2021) * Giuseppe Scienza (2021) * Franco Lerda (2021–2022) * Massimo Paci (2022–2023) * Massimo Gardano (2023) * Andrea Dossena (2023–2024) *

Paolo Cannavaro Paolo Cannavaro (; born 26 June 1981) is an Italian former professional association football, footballer who played as a centre-back and most recently was the head coach of Serie C club Pro Vercelli. After beginning his career with S.S.C. Napol ...

(2024–)

Bibliography

* * *

References

External links

*
Unofficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro Vercelli Association football clubs established in 1892 Football clubs in Italy Football clubs in Piedmont and Aosta Valley Italian football First Division clubs Serie C clubs Serie A clubs Serie A–winning clubs 1892 establishments in Italy