subject: The Club That Has Yo-yoed Its Way Through The Italian Leagues [print this page] Cagliari Calcio is an Italian football team that are the main representatives of Sardinia. The club was formed in 1920 and currently plays in the Italian League Seri A. Over the years they have been what you would call a yo-yo club as they have gone from Serie A to B. But all was like that as they are one of the 16 teams that have won the scuddetto.
Lead by Italy's all-time National goal scorer who went by the name of Gigi Riva they were a force to be reckoned with. The season before they won they were close but were beaten by fiorentina by four points but also they beat Milan to the runners up berth with a superior goal difference and actually had a better goal difference than Fiorentina. The following year when they won it they had dominated the league with the best goal difference. They had concede 11 goals which is the fewest in any major European league to date and Gigi Riva like last season was top goal scorer, scoring 21 goals.
But it was from then that the team started to show their yo-yoing mentality as the next season they would finish seventh not even close to any European qualifying place and then the following they finished fourth and then slowly season after season averagely around 10th and then rock bottom within 6 years of winning the title. After that period that came back in 1979 but got relegated again in 1983 and then relegated further in 1987 to the Serie C1
One player who has already mentioned who the Cagliari Calcio faithful hold dear in their heart is Luigi Riva or more commonly known as Gigi Riva he is a player who spearheaded them to their only league title. He was known for his heading, left foot and his composure in front of goal. He scored 164 goals for Cagliari and stayed at the team for 14 years even though he had interests from big teams. He scored 35 goals in 42 games which meant he had a record goal rate of 0.83 goals per game for Italy becoming their all time top goal scorer. The number 11 the number that he wore has been retired at Cagliari. He is certainly a player that will be welcome to any Sardinia villas.
Their stadium is the Stadio Sant'Elia which is a stadium that hosted three matches in the 1990 Fifa World cup. It was built in 1970 after the success of Cagliari Calcio's first Scudetto and replaced the older stadium the Amsicora Stadium. At first the stadium could hold up to 60,000 people and actually broke that record in a match against Saint Etienne with approximately 70,000 people were recorded at the stadium. The stadium's capacity was almost halved for the 1990 World Cup with the capacity being reduced 39,905 and then 12 13 years later it was reduced to 23, 486 seats following their up and down form that saw them swapping the Serie A for the Serie B and vice versa. There have been plans for a new stadium to be built but there have been many problems. The council and mayor Emilio Floris had rejected the rejected early plans to build a new 25,000 seated stadium that would have been funded solely by Massimo Cellino. After many negotiations they got the go ahead to build one with construction planned to start in August 2009. However Cagliari Had new plans drawn up for an improved stadium that would accommodate 30,000 spectators, will have improved facilities, a sky box, restaurants and caf.
If there one team that represents Sardinia the best it is Cagliari take their team colours for example the red colour represents the coat of arms of the house of Savoy who were the family that were previously the monarchy of Italy and more relevantly to Cagliari in particular the kingdom of Sardinia. The blue represents the sky, sea and castle mainly this is a reference to the old historic centre of Cagliari which is called Castello. Although they have changed their logo throughout the years there is one thing that has reminded and that is that they have all featured the flag of Sardinia although the badge wasn't changed to match the change in the Sardianian flag in 1992, on the flag the moor's heads are facing to the right but on Cagliari's logo they still face the left. Also the fact that they are the main club from the island Sardinia they are nicknamed the Isolani.
