It was a rainy day, one of many in this city of magical features and breathtaking views. In the heart of the old towne, in a room at number 28 of piazza San Michele, close to the apse of one of the city's main and most beautiful churches, football born in Lucca on 5 May 1905.
1905 - FOOTBALL COMES TO LUCCA
It was a rainy day, one of many in this city of magical features and breathtaking views. In the heart of the old towne, in a room at number 28 of piazza San Michele, close to the apse of one of the city's main and most beautiful churches, football born in Lucca on 5 May 1905.
1910-1920 HERE IS THE LUCCHESE
Virtus and Spes Livorno, Pisa, Prato, Itala and Libertas Firenze, Viareggio: the matches in which the “RossoNeri” are engaged cannot but recall the parochalism, which has been going on in these parts for centuries and continues to find favour even today.
1921-1930 - PROMOTION TO SERIE B ARRIVES
Enthusiasm for football was growing throughout Italy, and Lucca played its part in fuelling what has become since then, the most popular sport: up to 2500 people gathered at the Campaccio, this is the name of the stadium located at the Campo di Marte, to watch an endless sequence of heated derbies, very often enlivened by accidents.
1931-1940 - A DREAM CALLED SERIE A
The painful promotion to Serie B lasted only for a year: in 1931 the Lucchese lost the salvation play-off in Bologna against Udinese and sadly returned to the third series. However, the play-offs did not bring good results for the “RossoNeri”: in 1933, Viareggio goes to Serie B to the detriment of Lucchese at the end of a match played in Livorno.
1941-1950 - THE GOLDEN YEARS
During the war period, Lucchese ends up suffering the umpteenth haemorrhage of players who leave to the front: relegation from B is inevitable, and it arrives in the 1941-1942 season with a lonely last place that seemes to close the happy parenthesis of the Thirties.
1951-1960 - THE DESCENT INTO HELL
Thanks to the disposals of key players, Lucchese, not without difficulty, manages to save itself in the 1950-51 season, but relegation is only postponed for a year. And it will be so painful.
The “RossoNeri” play a double salvation play-off against Triestina.
1961-1970 BETWEEN HIGHS AND LOWS
The decade begins in the best way for Lucchese, who wins the championship and returnes, after much bitterness, to Serie B. Zavatti's formation, overcomes the fierce competition of the Cagliari football team and resumes the Cadetteri, managing to confirm the category in the following year.
1971-1980 THE BROKEN DREAMS
Serie C, for all the “RossoNeri” sportsmen who still remember the days of Serie A, can only be an intermediate stage, a stepping stone. With one promotion per group every year, only, the script is the same: the summer illusion clashes with the reality that sees the “RossoNeri” always in the top positions, but unable to take a flight.
1981-1990 THE GREAT BEAUTY
The relegation to C2 is followed by a series of mid-table Championships associated with continual company crises that bring the club into serious economic difficulty. Everything changed with 1984, when Lucchese was approached by Egiziano Maestrelli and Aldo Grassi, two large-scale retail entrepreneurs who bet on the city.
1991-2000 THE LOST SERIE A, THE FOUND SERIE C
Serie B electrifies everyone: spectators and enthusiasm grow, the stadium is enlarged in the guest sector to accommodate fans of many emblazoned teams. The fable of the Lucchese team that plays, entertains and wins conquers all far beyond the borders of the city.
2001-2010 ONE POLE TOO MANY
Grassi is increasingly alone at the head of the club, local entrepreneurs turn a deaf ear. Under these conditions it is not easy to set up a competitive team. The right season seems to be 2001-2002: former Rossoneri Donatelli, now sporting director, builds a respectable team that makes it to the play-offs thanks in part to Toni Carruezzo's goals.
2011-2020 THE DOUBLE BANKRUPTCY
In 2011, the club led by Giuliani and Valentini goes bankrupt. Lucchese has to restart from the Eccellenza with the name of FC Lucca. A group of local entrepreneurs led by Nicola Giannecchini, with Bruno Russo as Director and Giacomo Lazzini on the bench, raised the club's fortunes and it is immediately Serie D.
2021-to INFINITE
In the first championships of the current decade, Lucchese, despite the meagre financial means at their disposal, manages to reach the play-offs twice with first Pagliuca and then Maraia on the bench.
THE ONE AND ONLY LOVE
The “RossoNeri” fans have experienced and are continuing to experience moments of ups and above all downs. For too many years Lucca has been searching for a corporate stability that would allow, like it has happened in so many other, sometimes even less prestigious, squares, to be able to dream again.
APPEARANCES, GOALS, NATIONAL TEAM
When it comes to “RossoNeri” numbers, two names stand out above all others: Roberto Paci, who holds the highest number of appearances and goals scored with the “RossoNeri” jersey, and Aldo Olivieri, the unforgettable goalkeeper of the 1938 World Champion Italy team, who is the Lucchese player (later transferred to Torino) with the highest number of Azzurri appearances.
Among the players boasting a significant number of appearances is a large representation of that unforgettable team built by Maestrelli, Vitale and Orrico that gave the team the thrill of the last promotion to Serie B, and among those still active, Marcos Espeche, who from Eccellenza helped bring the Pantera back to Serie C. Among the bombers, next to Paci, another monument: Toni Carruezzo, who stopped just short of 100 goals in the Rossoneri.
Paci 375
Russo 351
Giusti 280
Campioli 261
Di Stefano 238
Espeche 236
Rastelli 222
Vignini 214
Petri Lamberto 200
Conti Mario 185
Paci 137
Carruezzo 96
Conti 62
Coppa 62
Andreoli 53
Rastelli 50
Bonino III 45
Marianetti 45
Fazzi 39
Michelini 39
Moscardini 39
Mannucci 39
Olivieri 12
Moscardini 8
Marchini 5
E. Bonino 2
Neri 2
Bertuccelli 1