A.C. Mantova
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Associazione Calcio Mantova is an Italian football club, based in Mantua, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1911. AC Mantova played the 2005-06 season in Serie B, after having been promoted from Serie C1 thanks to play-offs won in a double final match against A.C. Pavia (3-0, 3-1; 6-1 on aggregate).
Mantova played in Serie A for 7 seasons (1961/62 - 1964/65, 1966/67 - 1967/68, 1971/72), being nicknamed in its initial period as Little Brazil (Piccolo Brasile). The third team shirt, green and yellow, actually remembers that period, by far the best one in the team history. Mantova also played for 8 seasons in Serie B, and won it in 1970/71.
Mantova was cancelled two times from the Italian football panorama, in 1983 and 1994, both times because of insolvency.
Former famous players include Dino Zoff, Angelo Sormani, Roberto Boninsegna and Karl-Heinz Schnellinger.
Mantova begun the 2005/06 Serie B football campaign introducing itself as a strong potential candidate for promotion to Serie A, despite its lack of players experienced with these levels (almost the same squad which promoted to Serie B the previous season) and a coach, Domenico Di Carlo, on just his second year as first team football trainer. The team led the Serie B table for a long part of the season, gaining a unexpected interest by the media. However, Mantova was not able to maintain the head of the league in the end, and the team concluded its season in fourth place, gaining a spot in the promotion playoffs. Successively, AC Mantova won its playoff semifinal against Modena F.C. after two ties (0-0, 1-1), being qualified thanks to its best placement in the regular season. The first playoff final, against Torino, saw Mantova winning at home 4-2. However, Mantova was not able to maintain this advantage in the return match, lost 3-1 in Turin after extra time, which allowed Torino FC to be promoted in Serie A because of a better placement in the regular season.
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* 1 Current first team squad
As of July 2006
No. Position Player
1 Italy GK Mirko Bellodi
3 Italy DF Davide Mezzanotti
4 Italy MF Manuel Spinale
5 Italy DF Mattia Notari
20 Italy MF Alessandro Doga
11 Italy MF Vincenzo Sommese
9 Italy FW Gabriele Graziani
10 Italy MF Gaetano Caridi
23 Italy DF Valerio Di Cesare
14 Italy MF Claudio Grauso
19 Italy MF Massimo Brambilla
No. Position Player
22 Italy GK Pierluigi Brivio
30 Italy FW Marco Bernacci
32 Italy FW Alessandro Noselli
33 Italy MF Emiliano Tarana
39 Italy DF Nicola Donazzan
72 Italy DF Stefano Sacchetti
55 Italy DF Filippo Cristante
8 Italy MF Stefano Mondini
6 Italy DF Luca Franchini
21 Italy DF Federico Rizzi
7 Italy FW Cristian Altinier
Notable former players
* Switzerland Tony Alleman
* Italy Roberto Boninsegna
* Italy Gustavo Giagnoni
* Italy Dario Hübner
* Italy William Negri
* Italy Carlo Nervo
* Italy Paolo Poggi
* Italy Ettore Recagni
* Germany Karl-Heinz Schnellinger
* Brazil Angelo Sormani
* Italy Giorgio Veneri
* Italy Dino Zoff
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