Unione Calcio AlbinoLeffe is an Italian association football club representing

Albino Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and reddish pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albinos. Varied use and interpretation of ...

and

Leffe Leffe (; ) is a beer brand owned by InBev Belgium, the European operating arm of the global Anheuser–Busch InBev brewery giant. There are several beers in the range, and they are marketed as abbey beers. They are brewed in large quantitie ...

, two small towns located in

Val Seriana The Serio ( Lombard: ''Sère'') is an Italian river that flows entirely within Lombardy, crossing the provinces of Bergamo and Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left ...

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

. The club played in

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 ...

for nine consecutive years and narrowly missed promotion 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 ...

at the end of the 2007–08 season. It currently plays 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 ...

and has been in the Italian third tier since its relegation in 2011–12.

History

The club was created in 1998 as a result of the merger between former

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 ...

(fourth division) teams Albinese Calcio and Società Calcio Leffe, respectively from

and

, two neighboring towns. In their first season, the club finished 2nd in the

and won a promotion having defeated A.C. Prato in the Girone A Play-offs final. After rising to

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

(the Italian third division), they performed at the middle of the pack, finishing 9th in 2000 and 13th in 2001. However, in 2002, the ''Seriani'' went to the finals of the

Coppa Italia Serie C Coppa Italia Serie C (), formerly named Coppa Italia Lega Pro, is a straight knock-out based competition involving teams from Serie C in Italian football first held in 1972. Format There are a total of six rounds in the competition. It begins i ...

, where they defeated

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

2–1 at home before losing 2–3 on the road. They won the tournament on the tiebreaker (most away goals scored). In league play they again finished 13th. In 2003, AlbinoLeffe, under coach Elio Gustinetti, finished second in league play before heading to the promotion play-off. There, they defeated

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

in the semifinals, then had a surprising triumph over

Pisa Calcio Pisa Sporting Club, commonly referred to as Pisa, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Pisa, Tuscany. The club will compete in Serie A in the 2025–26 season. The club was fou ...

, which pushed them up to

. The team moved from the small ''Martinelli Stadium'' in

, where they used to play home matches before promotion to Serie B, to the bigger ''

Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia, known for sponsorship reasons as the Gewiss Stadium since July 2019 and as Stadio di Bergamo in UEFA competitions, is a stadium in Bergamo, Italy. It is the home of club Atalanta B.C., Atalanta and has a capacity ...

'' located in

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

, the chief-town of the province where both Albino and Leffe are located. Even though AlbinoLeffe was considered to be an outsider in Serie B, which historically includes several former

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

winners, the team remarkably managed to avoid relegation in the last two seasons. In 2005–2006, after a great comeback in the second half of the season following the appointment of

Emiliano Mondonico Emiliano Mondonico (9 March 1947 – 29 March 2018) was an Italian professional association football, footballer and Coach (sport), coach. He played as a winger (association football), winger. His playing career was spent mostly with U.S. Cremon ...

as new head coach, Albinoleffe ended the season in eighteenth place and managed to save itself from relegation by prevailing in the playouts against

Avellino Avellino () is a city and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

(score: 2–0, 2–3). The 2006–2007 Serie B campaign, the fourth consecutive for the small Lombard team, ended with a good tenth place, well ahead of the relegation zone. Historically, AlbinoLeffe's home games have been characterized by very low attendance, as shown by the average 2,400 spectators per game in the 2006–07 season, the most successful in the club history. With local hero Gustinetti back in charge of the team and despite a lineup composed of relative unknowns, the club's 2007–08 campaign started surprisingly well, with the team leading the Serie B table for a few weeks and arousing the interest of the national media, which began providing regular coverage of the team's games. This has thus far failed to improve the club's low home attendance, however. During the season, AlbinoLeffe confirmed as a potential candidate for direct promotion to Serie A, however a string of poor results, ended with four consecutive home defeats, the final one being a 0–4 loss to

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

, denied them the chance to achieve a place in the top two, and persuaded club chairman

Gianfranco Andreoletti Gianfranco is a compound Italian given name, consisting of Gian- and Franco. ''Gian-'' comes from Giovanni and is used in compound names. It is closest to John or French Jean. Gianni means "God is gracious" and Franco means "Free man" or "Frenchma ...

to sack Gustinetti, who then confirmed not to be in good relationships with the chairman, and appoint youth team coach

Armando Madonna Armando Madonna (born 5 July 1963) is an Italian football manager and former player. Career Playing A midfielder, Madonna made his professional debut in 1981 for Atalanta; he then spent five seasons with Piacenza before to return to Bergamo in 1 ...

as caretaker boss for the final regular season match and the following promotion playoffs. Even after a 1–0 loss to

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

, AlbinoLeffe managed to win at home in the second leg (2–1) and qualified for the final against

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

. In the first leg they suffered a 1–0 loss. On 15 June, the second match was played in Lecce and its result was 1–1, so AlbinoLeffe did not reach

. At the end of the 2011–12 season, it was relegated 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 ...

after 9 consecutive years in

. AlbinoLeffe following the systematic

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing (also known as game fixing, race fixing, throwing, rigging, hippodroming, or more generally sports fixing) is the act of playing or officiating a contest with the intention of achieving a predetermined result, v ...

as a club controlled by

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

-based organized crime was penalized 10 points in the

2012–13 Lega Pro Prima Divisione The 2012–13 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season was the thirty-fifth football league season of Italian Lega Pro Prima Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the fifth since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro. It was divided into two phas ...

Stadium and colors

From the 2003–04 Serie B season and until 2019, AlbinoLeffe played its home games at the Atleti Azzurri d'Italia stadium in the city of

. Previously they played in Stadio Carlo Martelli of

. Following Atalanta's renovation works on the stadium, the club reached a venue sharing agreement with

Giana Erminio Associazione Sportiva Giana Erminio S.r.l. is an Italian football club based in Gorgonzola, Lombardy. The team currently plays in Italy's . History The club was founded in 1909 as ''Unione Sportiva Argentia'', and later adopted the current name ...

from the nearby city of

Gorgonzola Gorgonzola (, ) is a famously pungent Italian blue cheese made from unskimmed cow's milk; believed to have been created in the 9th century; now with use of its name controlled under the criteria of a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Gorg ...

allowing the club to play their home matches for the

2019–20 Serie C The 2019–20 Serie C was the 61st season of the Serie C, the third tier of the Italian football league system, organized by the Lega Pro. The season was scheduled to run from 24 August 2019 to 26 April 2020, however, on 9 March 2020, the Italian ...

season at the Stadio Città di Gorgonzola. In 2021, the club opened a brand-new stadium in the town of

Zanica Zanica (Bergamasque: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) of around 8,804 inhabitants in the Province of Bergamo in the Italy, Italian region of Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and south of Bergamo. Zanica borders the following municipal ...

with a capacity of 1,791 (with possibility of expansion to up to 5,500 in case of a promotion in Serie B) built next to the club's headquarters and training centre; the stadium was formally approved by the

Italian National Olympic Committee The Italian National Olympic Committee (, CONI), founded in 1914 and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is responsible for the development and management of sports activity in ItalyWithin Italy, CONI recognizes 48 national ...

in March 2019. The stadium makes AlbinoLeffe the first Serie C team to own their home stadium. the inauguration match was played on 21 December 2021, a

league game against Pro Patria. The club's official colors are dark blue and azure blue, also used for home matches, while the outfit worn by the players for away matches is red and yellow.

Honours

Domestic

** Winners (1): 2001–02 *

** Play-off Finals: 2007–08 *

**Runners-up (1): 2002–03 *

**Runners-up (1): 1998–99

Players

Current squad

Out on loan

Club officials

Board of directors

''As of 1 September 2023''

Current technical staff

''As of 1 September 2023''

Seasons

Notable former players

The footballers enlisted below have had international cap(s) for their respective countries at junior and/or senior level and/or a significant number of caps and goals accumulated throughout a certain number of seasons for UC AlbinoLeffe. * Andrea Belotti *

Alessandro Diamanti Alessandro Diamanti (; born 2 May 1983) is an Italian professional football coach and former midfielder who is the manager for Melbourne City Youth. In a professional career spanning 24 years, he has played for Prato, Empoli, Fucecchio, Fiorent ...

Federico Marchetti Federico Marchetti (; born 7 February 1983) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Maltese Premier League club Marsaxlokk. Marchetti began his professional club career with Torino in 2002, and was subsequently loane ...

* Federico Peluso * Marco Sau * Kewullay Conteh *

Karamoko Cissé Karamoko Cissé (born 14 November 1988) is a Guinean footballer who plays as a forward. Cissé also holds Italian nationality. Biography Born in Guinea in 1988, Cissé moved with his family to Sorisole, Italy in 2000. Club career After spendin ...

* Mehmet Hetemaj * Sergejs Vorobjovs * Mirco Poloni * Ivan Del Prato * Pierre Regonesi * Ruben Garlini * Damiano Sonzogni * Roberto Bonazzi * Marco Cellini * Francesco Ruopolo * Christian Araboni * Filippo Carobbio * Roberto Previtali * Alessandro Salvi * Andrea Soncin * Fabio Gavazzi

Notable former managers

* Elio Gustinetti *

* Massimiliano Alvini * Marco Zaffaroni

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:AlbinoLeffe Football clubs in Lombardy Association football clubs established in 1998 Serie B clubs Serie C clubs Sport in the Province of Bergamo 1998 establishments in Italy Coppa Italia Serie C winning clubs