image

Football Cities: Rome

The Colosseum, the Vatican, the Pantheon, piazza’s galore and two fierce football rivals. We could only be talking about one football city, Rome.

The last few cities we covered on the series involved one or two big clubs and then a smattering of other noteworthy teams who were either famous a while ago or had achieved some remarkable feats in their early history. Today’s city is very different because similarly to our first edition in Hamburg, there are only two clubs but both possess a level of notoriety all over Europe.

The reason for the cities lack of other clubs will soon become clear but we’ll start with the older of the two clubs S.S. Lazio. They were formed in 1900 in the Prati district of Rome and were playing at an amateur level until 1912 when they finally joined league competition. They didn’t find any success until the 1950’s when they won their first Coppa Italia, losing three playoff finals in their early days.

However, one of the clubs proudest moments came in 1927 when Italy’s new found fascist regime wanted to merge all the Roman clubs into one to make a team that could rival the dominance of the northern Italian clubs. The club that was founded as a result was A.S. Roma, Lazio’s mortal rivals, but that rivalry only stands today because Lazio resisted the merger and remained as the other team in the capital.

They play in a sky blue and white kit which they have for most of their history. The colours are a reference to the city’s Greek history and represent the flag whilst the eagle on the badge is a nod to the Greek god Zeus which has earned them one of their nicknames, the Eagles.

As mentioned before, I Biancocelesti weren’t that successful early on and had to wait until the 90’s for their best spell as a club. In total Lazio have won two Serie A titles, seven Coppa Italia’s, five Supercoppa Italiana’s, one UEFA Cup Winners Cup and a UEFA Super Cup.

With the history of the club, they’ve also produced or recruited some of the greatest players to have played the game. Alessandro Nesta, a club legend, came through the academy at Lazio and even captained the side for a few seasons over a total of nine years in Rome. The club have also had the likes of Simone Inzhagi, Roberto Mancini, Miroslav Klose, Pavel Nedved and of course the infamous Paul Gascoigne.

Their city rivals as we’ve already mentioned are A.S. Roma, who were founded in 1927 by a government merger of three other Roman clubs (Roman FC, SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS) in an attempt to have a team that could compete with the northern giants in Milan and Turin. They very nearly had early success as well finishing league runners up to Juventus in 1931 before eventually claiming their first Scudetto just over a decade later in 1942 to become the first team in Rome to win one.

The team play in a deep red and gold kit which has earned them their nickname, I Giallorossi. The badge also bears a she-wolf feeding two young children, which is a nod to the myth of how Rome was founded with Romulus and Remus. The Wolves are the fifth best supported team in Italy behind Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Napoli but are just ahead of Lazio who are sixth. In the city itself, most of the Roma fans are said to live centrally whilst the Lazio fans are predominantly found in the northern regions of the city, to form a sort of umbrella shape around the Roma-heavy districts.

In terms of actual silverware, I Giallorossi have just pipped their city rivals domestically with three Serie A (or Scudetto) titles, nine Coppa Italia’s and two Supercoppa Italiana’s. However, they are yet to have the same continental success as Lazio having only won the Fairs Cup in 1961. Both teams have also spent time in Serie B with one league win each to their names but are now Serie A mainstays.

Roma have also possessed some elite world talents in their history with their own homegrown hero, Francesco Totti, spending his career at the club. He is Roma’s all time top goalscorer and most capped player whilst also being the second highest scorer of all time in Italian league history with 250 goals. The club have also had the likes of Cafu, Daniele De Rossi, Carlo Ancelotti and Gabriel Batistuta all don the red and gold.

Despite the fierce rivalry that the two clubs contest in the Derby della Capitale, both teams still share the same stadium at the Stadio Olimpico. Both sides want to move as well with Roma planning a move away since 2014 to a new ground that was inspired by the Colosseum on the banks of the River Tiber. However, plans for their ground halted in February of last year with building yet to begin. Lazio meanwhile want to move to the site of Flaminio Stadium which hosted their games for a season in the late 80’s. As yet no plans have been finalised for that move though.

In spite of that uncertainty, the two clubs remain a household name around Europe and although the city has never achieved the same success as the clubs of Turin and Milan, their fortunes may well change in the near future with Maurizio Sarri at Lazio and Jose Mourinho now at Roma with heavy backing.

Uploading
Select your currency
GBP Pound sterling
EUR Euro
P