SARDINIAN FOOTBALL: CAGLIARI & GIANFRANCO ZOLA

Cagliari Calcio, Sardinian Football Team

Today, The Grandma has visited one of her most admired football players, Gianfranco Zola.

They have been talking about football, about Cagliari Calcio and about Zola's career in the Calcio and in the Premier League.

Before her meeting with Gianfranco, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 16).

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Cagliari Calcio is a Sardinian football club based in Casteddu/Cagliari, Sardinia. The club currently plays in Serie A.

They won their only Scudetto in 1969–70, when they were led by the Italian national team's all-time leading scorer, Luigi Riva. The triumph was also the first by a club from south of Rome. Cagliari's colours are blue and red.

As of the 2018–19 the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,000 Sardegna Arena, adjacent to the future new stadium site.

The club's best European performance was in the 1993–94 UEFA Cup, losing in the semi-finals to Internazionale di Milano.

Cagliari became the first ever out-right champions of Serie C during the 1951–52 season; prior to that in the league, the championship was shared amongst more than one team. They spent the 1950s from then on in Serie B, losing a promotion play-off in 1954. After descending to Serie C in the early 1960s, Cagliari's rise would be meteoric, eventually achieving promotion to Serie A in 1964.

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The squad for the Rossoblu's debut season in Serie A featured players like defender Mario Martiradonna, midfielders Pierluigi Cera, Nené and Ricciotti Greatti, and forward Luigi Riva.

A poor first half of the season, however, saw Cagliari in last place with nine points at the halfway mark. An astonishing second half of the season saw Cagliari defeat the likes of Juventus and Milan and finish in seventh place with 34 points. Two seasons later, Riva finished as Serie A's top scorer for the first time while Cagliari finished with the league's best defensive record.

Cagliari Calcio Foundation in 1920

Cagliari first emerged as serious Serie A title contenders in 1968–69 with a three-horse race involving them, Fiorentina and Milan. Fiorentina would win the league, but the following season would bring ultimate glory.

With Angelo Domenghini joining the side, Cagliari would win the title in 1970 with only two games lost, 11 goals conceded, the fewest in any major European league to date, and Riva as league top scorer once more. Players like Albertosi, Niccolai, Boninsegna, Gori, Cera, Domenghini and Riva played in Italy's 1970 World Cup final team.

The 1970s would see a gradual decline, though were title contenders two years after their one and only Scudetto win. Cagliari were finally relegated in 1976, with Riva's career having effectively ended during that season.

After relegation, Cagliari lost a play-off for promotion the following season and would return to Serie A in 1979. Players like Franco Selvaggi, Mario Brugnera, a survivor of the 1970 team, and Alberto Marchetti ensured a respectable four-year stay in the top flight before a second relegation in 1983. The 1980s would then prove to be a darker time compared to the previous two decades with relegation to Serie C1 in 1987.

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Cagliari spent two seasons in Serie C1. In the first one it barely avoided relegation in Serie C2. In 1988, Claudio Ranieri was appointed coach, and led the team to two successive promotions, to Serie B in 1989 and to Serie A in 1990. The first two seasons back in Serie A saw Cagliari fight relegation, with safety being achieved by excellent second half runs. But the 1992–93 season would see Cagliari fight for a European place and succeed under the management of Carlo Mazzone. The following season saw a run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, unprecedented for the Sardinian club.

The next few years would see Cagliari return to mid-table anonymity, before a struggle in 1996–97 saw Cagliari relegated after losing a play-off to Piacenza. Once more they bounced back after just one year, but their next stay in Serie A lasted just two seasons.

Cagliari spent the next four seasons in Serie B, for most part in mid-table mediocrity. But 2003–04 would see the Rossoblu, led by Sardinian-born Gianfranco Zola, mount a successful promotion challenge and the following season saw Cagliari hold their own in Serie A with a respectable mid-table finish. The following season was a quiet one for the Sardinians, they obtained a good mid-table position, 12th place.

From 2004 to 2018, Cagliari has been playing in Serie A and B. Today, the Sardinian team plays in the Serie A again.

The official red and blue colours of Cagliari mirror those featured on the stemma of Cagliari. The red parts of the stemma are a reference to the coat of arms of the House of Savoy, a family which was previously the monarchy of Italy and more relevantly to Cagliari in particular, the Kingdom of Sardinia. The blue part of the stemma features the sky and the sea, also a castle; this is because the old historic center of Cagliari is walled and called the Castello. Due to the use of these colours on their shirt in halves, the club is commonly nicknamed rossoblu.

Cagliari have had several different logo designs during their history, all of which feature the flag of Sardinia. Usually the badge also features the club colours; if there is a change, the main difference has been the colour of the border or the shape.

Currently, the badge features an Old French-shaped escutcheon with red and blue halves, with the club's name written in white just above the flag of Sardinia. The moors heads have, for the first time, been turned to the right as of 2015 so as to match the Sardinian flag after it was updated in 1992.

Due to the fact that Cagliari are the main club from the island of Sardinia, they are nicknamed the Isolani or Islanders.

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Gianfranco Zola, born 5 July 1966, is Sardinian former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He is a football manager and coach and is the assistant manager of Chelsea.

He spent the first decade of his playing career playing in Italy, most notably with Napoli, alongside Diego Maradona and Careca, where he was able to win the Serie A title, and at Parma, where he won the Italian Super Cup and the UEFA Cup.

He later moved to English side Chelsea, where he was voted the Football Writers' Player of the Year in the 1996–97 season. During his time at the club, he won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, two FA Cups, the League Cup, and the Community Shield. 

In 2003, he was voted Chelsea's greatest player ever. He was capped 35 times for Italy from his debut in 1991, appearing at the 1994 World Cup, where Italy finished in second place, and Euro 1996.

After a stint with Italy under-21s, Zola began his club managerial career with West Ham United of the Premier League in 2008, before being sacked in 2010. He was manager of Watford from July 2012 until he announced his resignation on 16 December 2013. From December 2014 to March 2015 he managed Cagliari in Serie A.

He returned to Chelsea as the assistant of new Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri on 18 July 2018, ahead of the 2018–19 Premier League season.

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Do something. Anything. You're alive, and you'll only be for a few decades, and then it's done. You'll be in the ground, worm food. 

Make something and don't let fear consume you.

Gianfranco Zola