U.S. Avellino

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Avellino

Full name

Unione Sportiva Avellino SpA

Nickname(s)

Lupi ("wolves"),
Biancoverdi ("white-greens"),
Irpini (Irpinians)

Founded

1912

Ground

Stadio Partenio,
Avellino, Italy
(Capacity 26,308)

Chairman

Marco Pugliese

Manager

Guido Carboni

League

Serie B

2006-07

Serie C1/B, 2nd





Home colours





Away colours

Unione Sportiva Avellino is an Italian football club, based in Avellino, Campania. The club was founded in 1912. Its colours are white and green.

The club is currently playing Serie B in the season 2007-08 after having achieved promotion via the Serie C1 playoffs.

1 History
- 1.1 Post-War emergence
- 1.2 Rise
2 Current squad
3 Notable former players
4 Notable former coaches
5 Honours
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The club was founded during 1912 to give the town of Avellino a footballing representative. The early history of the club is quite obscure as they only competed at a lower level against regional sides. Avellino competed in IV Divisione from 1913 until after the Second World War; today's equivalent of that level is Serie D.

[edit] Post-War emergence

For the earlier part of their history the club did not achieve anything of note, until being placed in Serie C for the 1945–46 post-War season. In the 1946–47 season they narrowly missed out on getting through to the interregional final, after finishing third in their group.

Avellino beat out the likes of Catania, Reggina and Messina to win promotion to Serie B at the end of the 1940s. However, the club were accused of match fixing and the federation decided to strip them of their promotion, instead relegating them down to Serie D. Although they were able to return to Serie C after one season, Avellino were relegated back down to spend six seasons in a row at Serie D level.

Eventually Avellino returned, but they were very much a yo-yo club during the early part of the 1960s. Evidently in the space of just six seasons, Avellino gained promotion to Serie C in three of them and were relegated back down twice.

[edit] Rise

Avellino were promoted to Serie B in 1973 and Serie A in 1978. A truly remarkable feat for a southern provincial side was a 10-year stay in Serie A between 1978 and 1988, with the club holding a mid-table place for the majority of that period. Their best finish was 8th in 1987, with a team starring Angelo Alessio, Paolo Benedetti, Franco Colomba and Dirceu. The club has tended to shift between Serie B and C1 in the years since.

More recently, the club marked a Serie B return after defeating neighbours Napoli in the Serie C1/B play-off finals. A unsuccessful 2005-06 campaign ended in a loss on relegation playoffs to Albinoleffe (0-2, 3-2). The 2006-07 season, with Giuseppe Galderisi as head coach, then replaced by Giovanni Vavassori, ended in a second place in the Serie C1/B regular season; this was then followed by a successful campaign in the promotion playoffs, in which Avellino defeated Foggia in the finals, being therefore promoted to Serie B once again. However, this was followed by Vavassori's resignations on July 16, 2007, shortly after his confirmation as Avellino boss,^[1] being then replaced by Maurizio Sarri two days later.^[2] Sarri himself resigned one month later, being replaced by Guido Carboni.

[edit] Current squad

As of 2008-02-01^[3]

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Raffaele Gragnaniello
2	GK	Yury De Marco
3	DF	Riccardo Corallo
4	MF	Domenico Di Cecco (on loan from Chievo Verona)
5	DF	Andrea Mengoni
6	MF	Riccardo Nardini
7	MF	Alessio Tombesi (on loan from Parma F.C.)
8	MF	Alessandro Conticchio
9	FW	Alessandro Pellicori
10	MF	Alessio Sestu (on loan from Treviso)
11	MF	Marco Stella
13	DF	Ciro Oreste Sirignano
14	MF	Filippo Porcari (on loan from AC Milan)
16	MF	Michele Forani (from youth team)

No.	Position	Player
17	DF	Domenico Maietta
18	FW	Giacomo Cipriani
19	FW	Krisztián Kenesei
21	MF	Francesco Della Rocca (on loan from Bologna)
24	DF	Francesco Carbone
25	DF	Stefano De Angelis
27	DF	Rodrigo Defendi
28	MF	Maurizio Anastasi
29	FW	Gabriele Paonessa (on loan from Bologna)
30	DF	Nicolò Cherubin (on loan from Reggina)
31	GK	Armando Pantanelli
88	MF	Diego Matarazzo
99	FW	Mario Salgado