Cesena FC (Italy)

Cesena FC (Italy)

Italian football was always one of European football’s greatest powerhouses. It always had its giants, and it now seems that it’s just as popular nowadays as it was back in the day, especially the 90’s. But I think the people really miss a couple of the old historical teams in the country. And I am sure everyone has a favourite Italian team they remember from the 90’s or early 00’s that they watched or played with on old video games. A country that has given us so many talented players and wonderful moments in football, it has also had it’s fair share of turmoil and controversies over the years as well. I wont go into all of that as that is probably for another book, but what I will say is, Italian football is not stranger to a ‘Forgotten Club’. There were so many I could have chosen from, and I had different ones listed out. But in the end, I had to settle for just two, with this club being the first of them. Both these clubs have long histories, and both are probably the longest chapters in this book. While some clubs have been and gone, and we try not to forget them, this next club will certainly never be forgotten. It is Cesena FC, a club with a chequered past but now a bright future as it tries to climb it’s way back up the Italian footballing pyramid. Before I tell you about their story, I want to say a big thank you to Bence Horvath, the man who got the interviews and wrote this story, and who has been a great supporter and contributor of Forgotten Football Clubs. He also helped with the Luxembourg club story as that is where his passion lies. Thank you Bence. This chapter and all other chapters are dedicated to you and the hard work you have done for Forgotten Clubs. Here is Cesena FC’s story.

Cesena has an exceptionally long history to be proud of. Cesena Calcio was founded in 1940, although there was still some footballing life in the city in the ’20s and ’30s. The most important team then was US Renato Serra Cesena who already played their matches in black and white shirts. The club played in various divisions from 1921 to 1936 but the Italian league revealed in 1939 that RSC lost their license for the top two leagues. Then came the historical moment, from when our story starts with Marzio. Marzio is one of the biggest supporters of the club ever, following the Seahorses from 1968. His story with the club started in a beautiful and unique way when he first visited a home match. He was a child and his parents had no interest in going to football matches. But guards were checking at gates that no child could get in the stadium alone. So, he had to look for men alone and stand by one of them. It was successful, and the atmosphere of the stadium made Marzio a supporter of the black-and-whites for a lifetime.

The official date of the foundation was 21 April 1940. The club was named AC Cesena 1940 and formed by three people: Conte Rognoni, Renato Piraccini and Arnaldo Pantani. In the picture above Pantani is the second from the left, former player of US Renate then manager and technical director at AC Cesena, Conte Rognoni became president and Piraccini took the role of the sporting director. The club takes the colors of Renato Serra and the city itself, while the story of the seahorse in their badge is unknown even by Marzio.

He says” It’s sure that the animal already was in the first logos of Renato Serra but we don’t know why did they choose a seahorse”.

The team however found success in no time. They played in Serie C in their first year which was a shorter season because of the war situation in the whole of Europe. In their first year, Bologna was in the third league as well, even though they had a handful of national team players. Nonetheless, Cesena defeated them 2-0 and 5-0, respectively. Marzio adds,

“This 5-0 was like a miracle at the time. So unbelievable of a miracle that newspapers and radios said 0-5 to Bologna instead as they thought they were misinformed.”

When the war was over, the club found themselves in the Serie B (It was both B and C because the two leagues formed one big 96-teams championship) but they struggled to survive. Eventually, they did but only in their first season: their second one saw them being relegated and spend the next two seasons in the Serie C. They played the next three seasons in the C league and surprisingly played each season in the lower positions until they finished in the last place in the spring of 1951. In the last season they played with András Kuttik on the bench who brought in the Chinese-born Hungarian striker, Lajos Kovács. Kovács became the first foreign player at the club, and the fans liked him as well, although he didn’t stay for long. Both Hungarians (Kuttik and Kovács) were released after a few months because the club didn’t appreciate their passion for regularly looking at the bottom of the glass. But there is something that even Marzio doesn’t know.

 “We don’t have information about Kovács’s career’s latter stages. If you have or find information about him since he left Cesena, please inform us. The people in Cesena would be very grateful if you find something about him after leaving our club.”

 After the relegation, dark times came for the club. They played only in amateur divisions in that decade and had to play their home matches at the summer trotting racecourse field. All they could be pleased about is that they finally got a new stadium La Fiorita at the end of the decade in 1957. This is what Cesena FC (the rebranded club) is playing currently. It has a capacity of 23,860 and this was amongst the possible venues of the Euro 2016 (as we know, France’s plan was chosen instead).

The team successfully recovered in their new stadium and got promoted to Serie C. There was a huge turnaround in Cesena’s fate. A turnaround that had seen them emerging into a stable Serie A team! But that all started with Dino Manuzzi’s arrival. We asked Marzio who that man was, and he shared all the details with us about the man behind the success.

“Cesena’s turning point was Manuzzi, who arrived in the 1964/65 season. He worked so hard; he was a president who didn’t have much money. He was just a modest entrepreneur in fruit and vegetables. He only had one warehouse for his business, but he was very intelligent and astute” he says, adding

“He built a great youth academy and was very careful about spending the money. Our Serie A team at the time featured at least 5 academy graduates every match.” Who we see is an unbelievable man who brought a team to its well-deserved place in the Serie A. And he did this in person, without big investments or coaching team. He was so big favourite among the fans and in the club that La Fiorita was renamed after him after his death in 1982.

 

In the coming years came the club’s biggest matches, they played exciting ones against Sivori’s Juventus or Rivera’s Milan who were arguably considered as the greatest team at the time. We arrived in Marzio’s favourite decade in the club’s history.

“It was wonderful. A small team from a small city in the Serie A.. the Serie A itself was smaller as well, it only contained 16 teams, so it was slightly easier to stay up unlike nowadays when it’s impossible for such a small team.”

 Let us admit it, he’s right. Today’s game focuses on the bigger and wealthier teams more, however, I think there are lots of people who’d be interested in seeing traditional teams like Cesena finding their way to the top tier.

 

“In those years, remembers Marzio, Cesena was a strong defensive team. And our midfield had similarities with the Netherlands’ national team”. One thing for sure, a lot of analysts and tacticians would love a team like this nowadays

In the season 1975-76, Cesena’s last match of the season was extremely crucial: they played against Juventus, and if Juve won, they’d have won the Scudetto but Cesena also needed a win to be involved in next year’s UEFA Cup. Cesena won the match, Torino won the title, and the Seahorses qualified for Europe for their first-ever (and last) time in their history. But as we can see now, they weren’t ready for that number of matches, losing 4-3 on aggregate against Magdeburg in the first round of the UEFA Cup, and being relegated from Serie A the same season.

But do not forget, it was a fairly big club with a lot of supporters by the time they got relegated, with all Juventus, Milan (three times) and both Rome clubs suffered defeats along those four years. The record attendance in La Fiorita was in the 1974-75 season when Cesena beat Milan in front of 36,000 supporters. The other thing the club could start to build on is the impressive youth system. The decade saw them winning two National Primavera (youth) Championships and the famous Viareggio International Youth Cup one occasion in 1980 (besides playing six seasons in the top division and winning two Serie B’s with the senior team).

As usual, we asked the questions to the person in the know about the club, in this case Cesena. Here is what Marzio had to say when we posed them to him.

Who was your favourite player in the Cesena shirt?

Marzio: I have four, all of them are attackers. [Dario] Hübner, [Massimo] Agostini and [Ruggiero] Rizzitelli from Italy, and [Walter] Schachner from Austria.”

Who do you consider the best player ever to wear the Bianconeri shirt?

Marzio: “It’s hard to decide. Rizzitelli is one of our own, he grown up in the city, then later played at Roma and Bayern, then went back to his beloved Cesena, married and still lives there. Pierluigi Cera was also class, he gained a silver medal in the WC 1970 and worn the captain’s armband at the club for five years. Contrarily, the best foreign at the club was arguably Schachner who played at two World Cups.”

What were the reasons for going bankrupt?

Marzio: “I don’t really know what to say. What I want to say possibly wouldn’t be shown in the article... There are always people behind those teams and companies.”

How important was having a great academy to get promotion in the Serie A again?

Marzio: “Cesena has a large academy system which collects all the players from the Romagna region, and a lot of academy products were later used in the first team.”

Who do you think is the best player from the youth academy in the last 15 years?

Marzio: “We bought Luis Jiménez when he was young and he was with the club in the toughest times but if we strictly think about our academy players, I have to say [Emmanuele] Giaccherini who played at the National Team and Juventus since leaving us.”

We now go back in time to 1981 when one of the greatest players the club ever had did arrive. Walter Schachner was born in Austria and took part in both WC 1978 and 1982 with Austria, the latter while playing for the Seahorses. He had so big influence among the fans that the core ultras group renamed themselves ’Weisschwarzbrigaden’ (Black-and-white Brigade in Schachner’s language, German) – however, as Marzio noted, ”There are some who think the renaming wasn’t because of Schachner’s arrival, but I think it really was”.

In this year the club experienced some smaller successes, such as the defeats of AS Roma, which came in the season 81/82. But that year was not just about great results, the big owner of the club, Dino Manuzzi passed away in 1982. He was involved in a car crash in 1980 and passed the business to his nephew Edmeo Lugaresi. After Dino’s death Cesena instantly renamed their stadium Stadio Dino Manuzzi. And even though the great victories, the club fell back to Serie B the season after. And in the ’2-point-for-win’-era, contests for positions in the league tables were much tighter and Cesena eventually found themselves involved in the relegation battle year after year – that was a big disappointment, even if they survived safely every time. But they still had to wait for the promotion, which came no sooner than in the spring of 1987.

“The next epic wins since the Roman one came in that season – adds Marzio. “In the playoffs where we had a chance to get promoted if we were the best from us, Lecce and Cremonese. Cesena 0-0 Lecce, Lecce 4-1 Cremonese, Cesena 1-0 Cremonese. The last match was a Lecce – Cesena to decide who goes up. In the final, there were about 15,000 Lecce supporters against only 5/6,000 of us, but we won 2-1 at the neutral venue in San Benedetto del Tronto.”

It was a very strange season in Serie B, with Cagliari getting relegated and Lazio only surviving the drop in a relegation tiebreaker. But Cesena got to Serie A and that is what counts. The 87/88 Serie A season started badly for them, going winless through seven matches (which consisted of 3 draws and 4 losses). But they find their way to success and won four out of four matches after that, playing against Fiorentina, Juventus, Como, and Hellas Verona, respectively.

At the end of the season they were in a calm mid-table place and probably that is what they wanted for the following year. Unfortunately, their next season got much more exciting, and it’s from the bad kind of exciting. Before the last match, Cesena stood with 26 points, Verona – their opponents – only one point behind, and some relegation places were not decided. Udinese (with 25) and Lecce (28) were also involved in the battle. Udinese won their last match while Lecce lost, but the yellow reds were already safe. The Cesena – Verona match decided everything. Who loses, goes with Udinese, who wins, stays up. It seemed like it will be a draw (which would be good for Cesena) but a goal ended the excitement: it was scored by Agostini from Cesena, one of the favourite players of the fans at the time.

So, the Bianconeri maintained their place in the top league and signed two Brazilians too: Amarildo and Silas. Amarildo was the better of them, scoring a sum of 13 goals while with the team, even in the tougher times.

“Amarildo was so religious and he had a strange habit. Before every match he gave a Bible to the defender who marked him the other day” – says Marzio, who emphasizes, “he did this even against the biggest teams”

They were prepared to jump a level – they had a quite good squad with now Amarildo, their stadium was expanded to a capacity of 23,860 and fans were also behind the club, and do not forget the fact that their manager was called Marcello Lippi (yes, the man who won the WC in 2006 with Italy). But the two Brazilians weren’t enough as the team gained only 19 points which were only enough to finish in the 17th position from 18. The club remained in the Serie A for years – the closest when they got to a promotion, was in 1994 – the first season of Marzio’s new job. He loved the team, so he worked for 10 years in the stadium.

“In my first four years I was like a guard at an expensive sector. I had to make sure that nobody with cheaper tickets would get there. Then I worked for one year at the banners but I didn’t like it so I switched. In my last five years, I worked in the private parking – but I only had a task until the match started, from then, I could watch the whole match. It’s a fantastic stadium, one of the most beautiful in the country. Excellent visibility, all covered, only seats.”

In that certain season – 1993/94 – the club finished in fifth place – which meant they had to fight for the promotion in a tiebreaker against Padova. However, the match ended in a 2-1 loss, so the black-and-whites had to stay at least one more year in the second tier. The club pushed for the podium every year, but it wasn’t enough. In these years, the next true legend played at the club after Schachner. Dario ’Bison’ Hübner became the top goalscorer in Serie B 1995-96 but was part of the shock coming next year

They came in 18th in Serie B in 1997 which meant another relegation, this time to Serie C – the first time in thirty years. The club’s darkest times started, with four consecutive years spent in Serie C, and when they finally got promoted, they couldn’t remain in Serie B (losing in the playoff against Pistoiese) – the elevating changed from Serie A-Serie B to Serie B-Serie C. They then stayed in Serie C for three years, then promoted in 2003 after two incredible playoff ties against Rimini and Lumezzane. The next season they could do what nobody thought of: achieving another playoff-place – now in the Serie B. They failed to climb two leagues in two years but it was still a great overachievement of a newly-promoted team.

Obviously, everyone knew that after such season the performance will drop but they hoped they will not sit on a rollercoaster again to Serie C. They survived in the first year in the 15th place but were not able to repeat it. Next time they were bottom of the table after the 42 matches, which meant they took the step back one more time. Then came the man who very soon became extremely popular among Black-White fans. His name was Pierpaolo Bisoli and he did what even the biggest fans could not dream of at that time: he just brought them back to Serie A in two years. Yes, that is two consecutive promotions, an achievement that the club hasn’t done before (and since as well). It was an unbelievable feat, even if we consider that all Giaccherini, Schelotto, Volta, Antonioli, Bucchi, and Do Prado were part of the team then. On the last day of the championship, Lecce was in a comfortable position, but the final automatic promotion place between Brescia and Cesena had to be decided. Both teams faced opponents who fight for survival, especially Padova (Brescia’s opponent). Padova secured themselves (at least into relegation play-offs) with a win over Brescia while Cesena’s win came from a goal by Marco Parolo which helped them reach the second place. (By the way, Brescia won the four-team play-offs, and joined the Lecce-Cesena duo).

Everything looked good, but everything started going wrong. Campedelli became the new owner (the last owner of the club), and Bisoli agreed a contract to his former club Cagliari, who could not properly replace Allegri. Massimo Ficcadenti is announced as the new head coach as the club starts its first Serie A season since 1991. Things started well with a 0-0 against Roma, a 2-0 win against Milan and a 1-0 against Lecce: that is seven points and a first place! The club quickly had three consecutive defeats after that (maybe former president Edmeo Lugaresi’s death had its effect on the performance). Cesena struggled in the autumn but started winning games in winter, however a defeat against Chievo and Bologna (Cesena’s biggest rivals, at least that is what both Marzio and the Black White Skin says). The club however managed to win against Lazio, and later also against Brescia (in the first game of the year, in big snow). Cesena kept working hard and it was successful: at first, Bari collapsed significantly, earning just 24 points the whole season, meanwhile, Cesena put on some decent performances: they clinched the win in extra-time against Chievo, scored the equalizer against Juventus, and won against Sampdoria, Bologna, Cagliari, and Brescia while still managed to gain a draw against Parma and Fiorentina. Brescia started losing the plot like Bari, while Sampdoria still failed to have a real chance of staying up, so Cesena eventually did remain in the top league!

At the end of the season, Ficcadenti and the club part ways. A talented young manager, Marco Giampaolo arrived, with a great desire of winning. The owner supported him in everything and purchased Adrian Mutu and signed other talented players like Eder (later at Inter, now in China), Martínez (on loan from Juventus), Candreva (on loan, later at Lazio, now at Inter), Guana, Rodríguez (later at Torino and Hellas) and Ghezzal (played in the 2010 WC with Algeria). Everything seemed to be good, but they only got three points from nine matches, Giampaolo’s time has gone. The new coach Arrigoni lost against Lecce in his first match, which clearly showed the club’s direction. And exactly when things would start to come, heavy 4-1 defeats against Atalanta and Udinese pull Cesena back. At the end of the season, Mario Beretta is the new manager, but he could not do miracles, and Borriello’s goal in a match vs Juve sent the Seahorses to Serie B.

The club wanted to bounce straight back after the relegation, but for this, Igor Campedelli president hires his brother Nicola. The start is a total disaster, which results in a sack after 10 matches for Nicola and the whole Italian media laughing at the grotesque situation around the club. Bisoli is hired back to save things and he starts sorting everything, but the club’s financial situation was also worrying, to an amount that the president started asking the fans and the city to donate, without big impact. In 2013 autumn when the season started the club’s only objective was to financially survive. But the club is surprisingly successful and while sitting in a playoff place in the winter, they bought three additional players (one of them was a certain Gagliardini). At the end of the season, Cesena received its first-ever penalty: a not so significant 1-point deduction for late payments

 

The club performed slightly inconsistently but reached the top 8, which meant they need two wins to get promoted. They defeated both Modena and Latina and got back.

“The small guest sector of 1,000 Cesena-supporters exploded when the referee blew the whistle.” says the Black White Skin.

Mr. Bisoli did the unexpectable for the second time but started stumbling in Serie A so Bisoli got sacked after a loss against Atalanta away from home. Di Carlo, the new trainer had a great youth to work with: Kessié (now Milan), Caldara (Atalanta), Sensi (Inter), and Gomis (Torino) all climbed up the club’s youth ranks. However, a 2-3 loss against Sassuolo means that Cesena once again dropped and thus spent only one year up. The next season saw a lot of opportunities to get themselves in good positions but a defeat at home against Spezia costs them losing the battle. The club’s now financially poor, and Drago’s time at the club lasted for only 12 matches. Camplone, his successor really brought some great memories to the club: the promotion was still a dream, but a cup run which took them to the quarter-finals (they lost then against Juve 1-2) for the first time since 1971.

The next summer transfer window saw another change on the bench, now-former manager Castori arriving from unstable Carpi. The club’s goal was once again not to go bankrupt, but probably a promotion would not be enough to achieve this. The season ended with a 13th place meaning staying up, but everyone knew that in a month the club’s history will end. On 16th July, the board announced to step back from Serie B the next year. Only 8 days later the FIGC officially dissolved the club.

After all that, Romagna Centro (the other club in the region, founded as Polispotiva Martorano in 1973), who participated in Serie D in 2018, had a takeover of local businessmen and proposed to rename themselves as Cesena FC. The club became AC Cesena 1940’s phoenix club with most of the previous club’s fans also supporting the new one. They currently are in the 13th place in Serie C – Group B after reaching promotion from Serie D in their first season as Cesena FC (or RC Cesena).

A fan, only known as Black and White Skin, answered the questions posed to him about his beloved Cesena. Here is what he had to say.

Who do you consider the best to wear the Cesena shirt?

BWS: “The best and longest serving is arguably Ceccarelli. Born and raised in the town, he was a great player with 571 matches for the team.”

Who is the biggest legend of AC Cesena?

BWS: “The biggest legend is Walter Schachner. He only played for Cesena two years, but the ultras group’s renaming to ’Weisschwarz Brigaden’ tells everything about his status.”

Who is your favourite player from Cesena?

BWS: “Luís Jiménez, who’s an attacking midfielder. He played at Fiorentina and Lazio, West Ham, or Inter before. He played here in the 2010/11 season, showing us magical tricks and 9 goals!”

Who is your favourite from the 2010s Serie A team particularly?

BWS: “I already mentioned him, it also has to be Jiménez.”

Finally, who do you consider the best academy product of the club in the last 15 years?

BWS: “Stefano Sensi could be considered as the best. He arrived in our academy when only 15, was loaned a couple of times to San Marino and played a season for us in Serie B. His physical structure caused him a few injuries already, but still reached the national team, and he has a great future.”

The story of Cessna is one the longer and more detailed stories that we have covered here in this book, but one that truly caught the imagination. A club rich in history, with a strong and passionate fan base. So many ups and downs, finally going bankrupt in the age when modern football has supposedly billions. It goes to show that not all the money is being shared around and that even well-established clubs, like Cessna can become victim to disastrous financial circumstances. However, like many other clubs with strong fan bases behind them, they have come back as a phoenix club and no doubt their fan base will always see them as an original. Will they ever get back to the dizzy heights they were once at? Who knows? But if they do, we will be watching.