Crotone

Full name	Football Club Crotone SRL
Nickname(s)	Pitagorici Squali (Sharks)
Founded	1923
Ground	Stadio Ezio Scida, Crotone, Italy (Capacity: 9,631)
Chairman	Salvatore Gualtieri
Manager	Franco Lerda
League	Serie B
2008-09	Lega Pro Prima Divisione – B, 3rd
Home colours Away colours

Football Club Crotone is a football club based in Crotone, Calabria. The club was formed in 1923 and was promoted to Serie B at the end of the 2008/2009 season. The team's colours are dark blue and red.

[edit] History

The first team from Crotone, Milone Crotone, was founded in 1923 and participated in several minor leagues including the so-called Prima Division, the equivalent of today's Serie C. Following World War II, a new club, Unione Sportiva Crotone replaced the previous one, playing seven seasons in Serie C. In 1963 the club was relegated to Serie D, but returned to Serie C the following year and played there for fourteen consecutive seasons, missing promotion in 1977 when finishing third behind A.S. Bari and Paganese Calcio 1926. In 1978, following the Italian football league reorganisation, Crotone was relegated to Serie C2 and the following year was declared bankrupt. A new club, Associazione Sportiva Crotone, started again in the Prima Categoria, the eighth level of Italian football. Crotone was promoted to Serie C2 in 1984/1985, but only for one season. Their name was changed to Kroton Calcio and the club was promoted again to Serie C2 after the 1986/1987 season, where it played until 1991. A second bankruptcy led to the foundation of Football Club Crotone Calcio with Raffaele Vrenna as chairman, starting in the Promozione (7th level). Crotone gained successive promotions to Serie C2 in 1997 and Serie C1 in 1998 winning in the play-offs first against Locri and then Benevento Calcio. They achieved promotion to Serie B for the first time in their history in 2000 with Antonello Cuccureddu as manager. Relegated back to Serie C1 in 2002, Crotone achieved Serie B status two years later through the play-offs (0-0 and 3-0 against A.S. Viterbese Calcio) and played there until 2006/07, where a 21st-place finish resulted in relegation back to Serie C1. 3 years in Serie B ended in relegation in 2007. 2008 saw Crotone reach the playoffs where they were beaten by Taranto. Crotone reached the playoffs again in 2009 and gained promotion to Serie B by beating Benevento.

[edit] Current squad

As of 22 August 2009^[1][2]

No. Position Player 1 GK Simone Farelli 3 DF Archimede Morleo 4 MF Antonio Galardo 5 DF Gennaro Scognamiglio 6 DF Nicola Beati 7 DF Antonio Zito (on loan from Siena) 8 MF Andrea Mazzarani (on loan from Udinese) 9 FW Gabionetta 10 MF Matteo Coresi (on loan from Foligno) 11 MF Nicola Petrilli 12 MF Massimo Fornoni 13 DF Elia Legati (co-ownership with AC Milan) 15 MF Andrea Briglia 16 MF Luca Di Matteo (on loan from Palermo)

No. Position Player 17 DF Andrea Mei (on loan from Internazionale) 20 MF Aniello Cutolo 21 FW Ayub Daud (on loan from Juventus) 22 DF Francesco Galeoto 29 MF Raffaele De Martino 30 DF Fabrizio Grillo 33 DF Marco Pedotti 36 DF Giuseppe Abruzzese 81 DF Valerio Quondamatteo 85 FW Antonino Bonvissuto (on loan from Bari) 90 FW Ettore Mendicino (on loan from Lazio) 91 FW Danino Grano 99 GK Emanuele Concetti

[edit] References

[edit] Notable former players

• Jamal Alioui
• Nicolás Córdova
• Jean-Pierre Cyprien
• Pasquale Foggia
• Antonio Mirante
• Gustavo Reggi
• Generoso Rossi
• Abdelkader Ghezzal

[edit] External links

• Crotone's official website