The club was founded on 7 September 1893 Since the club was set up to represent England abroad, the original shirts worn by the organisation were white, the same colour as the
England national team shirt. Genoa competed in the first Italian Championship in
1898 at
Velodrome Humbert I in Turin. Genoa returned for the
following season, this time with a few changes; the name of the club was altered to
Genoa Cricket & Football Club, dropping the
Athletic from its name. A change in shirt colour was also in order, as they changed to white and blue vertical stripes; known in Italy as
biancoblù. Genoa won their second title in a one-day tournament which took place on 16 April 1899, by beating Internazionale Torino 3–1 for the second time. On their way to winning their third consecutive title in
1900 they also beat local rivals Sampierdarenese 7–0; a winning margin which would not be bettered by any team in the league until 1910. The final was secured with a 3–1 win over
F.B.C. Torinese. and some from
Switzerland, such as
Daniel Hug who came from
FC Basel. The rebuilding of the squad also saw the creation of a new ground in the
Marassi area of Genoa, when built it had a capacity of 25,000 and was comparable to British stadiums of the time; it was officially opened on 22 January 1911.
Garbutt revival With the introduction of the
Italy national football team, Genoa played an important part, with the likes of
Renzo De Vecchi; who was
azzurri captain for some time,
Edoardo Mariani and
Enrico Sardi earning call-ups. Englishman
William Garbutt was brought in as head coach to help revive the club; Garbutt was the first professional manager in Italy and was renowned for being highly charismatic, and also for constantly smoking his
tobacco pipe. The war took a harsh toll on Genoa as players Luigi Ferraris, Adolfo Gnecco, Carlo Marassi, Alberto Sussone and
Claudio Casanova all died while on military duty in Italy; while footballing founder
James Richardson Spensley was killed in Germany. The squad during these two championship victories included;
Giovanni De Prà,
Ottavio Barbieri,
Luigi Burlando and
Renzo De Vecchi.
Genova 1893 period Due to the strongly British connotations attached to the name, Genoa were forced to change it by the
fascist government to
Genova 1893 Circolo del Calcio in 1928. The club competed in a proto-European Cup in the form of the
Mitropa Cup, where they went out in the quarter-finals after losing heavily to
Rapid Vienna. They followed this with a runners-up position back at home in the league, they finished behind
Ambrosiana in the
1929–30 season; this would be their last top level championship runners-up spot to date. During the
following season Genova finished in third place, this was a particularly tight season with winners
Ambrosiana-Inter finishing only three points ahead of the club. That summer
Italy competed in the
1938 FIFA World Cup and won, three Genova players formed part of the triumphant squad in the form of
Sergio Bertoni,
Mario Genta and
Mario Perazzolo. The club finished the decade on a high, maintaining a top five foothold in the top level of the Italian football league system. In the years just after the war, the club were still popular with the fans, with people previously associated with the club such as
Ottavio Barbieri and
William Garbutt returning for managerial spells. Genoa also had a new rival in the form of Sampdoria, who were founded by a merger of
Associazione Calcio Andrea Doria and
Sampierdarenese in 1946 and would groundshare at
Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Post-war period After the Second World War the ability of Genoa to finish in the upper ranks of
Serie A declined in a significant manner; throughout the rest of the 1940s the club were middle-table finishers. The
1948–49 season saw three highly significant results, Genoa beat
Inter 4–1, the famous
Grande Torino side 3–0 and
Padova 7–1. The 1950s started in poor fashion for the club, they had bought Argentine
Mario Boyé from
Boca Juniors but he stayed only one season and the club
were relegated after finishing bottom of the table, but after two seasons they achieved their return after winning Serie B, ahead of
Legnano.
Ragnar Nikolay Larsen was a notable player for the club during this period and they sustained mid-table finishes for the rest of the decade. Genoa won the same competition again two years later, the final was held at the
Wankdorf Stadium in
Bern, Switzerland; Genoa defeated
Catania 2–0, with both goals from
Giampaolo Piaceri to take the trophy. triumph The celebrations for the club did not last long however, as the year following their last cup success they were relegated down to Serie B again. This time their stay in the second tier of the
Italian football league system would be far longer than previous relegations, the club was unstable as it changed manager each season.
Mixed times Throughout the 1970s, Genoa would mostly play in the second tier. Under the management of
Arturo Silvestri the club made its way back to Serie A for the
1973–74 season, but they were relegated straight back down. For the return of
Il Grifone to Serie A a couple of seasons later, the squad featured the likes of
Roberto Rosato,
Bruno Conti and a young
Roberto Pruzzo. This time they stuck it out in the top division for two seasons before succumbing to relegation in
1977–78; the relegation was particularly cruel as the side above them
Fiorentina survived on goal-difference of just a single goal, the two teams had played each other on the final day of the season ending in a 0–0 draw. The relegation was bad for the club in more ways than one, they lost some of their top players who could have offered them a swift return; such as Roberto Pruzzo's move to
Roma where he would go on to have great success. After a couple of middle-table finishes in Serie B, Genoa earned promotion during the
1980–81 season under manager
Luigi Simoni, the club finished as runners-up behind only
AC Milan who had been relegated the previous season for their part in the Totonero betting scandal. Still with Simoni at the helm as manager, Genoa were able to survive in Serie A for their returning season, finishing just one point ahead of the relegated AC Milan. In a dramatic last day of the season, Genoa were trailing 2–1 to
Napoli with five minutes left, until on the 85th minute
Mario Faccenda scored the goal that secured the point needed by Genoa, starting an owing friendship between the two club's fans. A couple of seasons later in
1983–84, Genoa would not be so lucky, despite beating champions
Juventus on the final day of the season, the club were relegated even though they finished the season with the same number of points as surviving
Lazio; this was because Lazio had recorded better results in matches against Genoa.
European experience The club was purchased by
Calabrese entrepreneur
Aldo Spinelli in 1985 and despite no longer having Simoni as manager, Genoa were finishing in the top half of Serie B. After a slip in form during 1987–88 (failing to be promoted by a mere point in 1986–87, then having to struggle not to be retroceded the following season, being spared that fate again by a mere point), Genoa refocused their energy and were able to achieve promotion back into Serie A in 1988–89, finishing as champions ahead of
Bari. Subsequently, the club gained entry to the
UEFA Cup in the
1991–92 season. Genoa had a good run, making it to the semi-finals before being knocked out by
Ajax, that season's winners of the competition; notably Genoa did the double over
Liverpool in the quarter-finals, becoming the first Italian side to beat the
Reds at
Anfield. Unfortunately for Genoa, this success was soon followed by a 'Dark Age' following the departure of Osvaldo Bagnoli (who chose to move away from Genoa to spend more time with his daughter, whose health was rapidly declining) and the failure of the management to replace key players as they grew old or were ceded to other teams. Noted Genoa players during this period included
Gianluca Signorini, Carlos Aguilera,
Stefano Eranio,
Roberto Onorati and
John van 't Schip. Chairman Spinelli had a very different management approach from that of most businessmen turned football club owners. While his colleagues saw football as a marketing and
public relation investment and were quite ready to siphon funds out of their main business to keep their teams afloat and replenish their player roster Spinelli saw Genoa as another business whose main aim was that of generating revenue for its owner (namely, himself) and so was more than happy to sell esteemed players for hefty revenues of which just a minimal fraction was then re-invested in the team, often for the acquisition of lesser-valued replacements or virtual unknowns. Thus he proved all-too-eager to sell Uruguayan striker
Carlos Aguilera and to replace him with the markedly inferior
Kazuyoshi Miura from Japanese side
Yomiuri Verdy (a deal that especially pleased him since the Japanese sponsors were actually paying him to let Miura play in Serie A). The same season as their UEFA Cup run, they finished just one place above the relegation zone; in the seasons following Genoa remained in the lower half of the table. Chairman Spinelli sold Genoa in 1997, moving onto other clubs (
Alessandria and, then
Livorno). The late 1990s and early 2000s would be the most trying time in the history of the club, with constant managerial changes, a poor financial situation and little hope of gaining promotion, outside of a decent 6th-place finish in
1999–00. Things started to look up for Genoa; they won Serie B in 2004–05. However, allegations were raised that the club had
fixed a match on the last day of the season between themselves and
Venezia. The 3–2 victory in the match saw Genoa win the league, with a draw having been good enough to maintain its position in the end. The Disciplinary Committee of
FIGC saw fit to instead place Genoa bottom of the league and relegate them down to
Serie C1 with a three-point deduction on 27 July 2005. For their season in Serie C1 for
2005–06, Genoa were hit with a six-point penalty from the previous season. After leading for much of the season, they eventually finished as runners-up and were entered into the play-offs, beating
Monza 2–1 on aggregate to achieve promotion back into Serie B. The
2007–08 season, the first Serie A championship played by Genoa in 12 years, saw it finishing in a respectable tenth place, right after the "big ones" of Italian football. A careful summer market session saw chairman, Preziosi strengthening the core of the team while parting from some players on favourable economical terms (for example selling striker
Marco Borriello to
AC Milan for a hefty sum). Genoa's aims for the
2008–09 season were set on a UEFA Cup spot. This was achieved after a strong season which saw the team finish fifth in Serie A, besting traditional powerhouses like
Juventus,
Roma, and Milan, and winning both Genoa derbies against
Sampdoria, with
Diego Milito finishing among the top scorers of the championship. Genoa subsequently lost Milito and midfielder
Thiago Motta to
Internazionale, but were able to bring in striker
Hernán Crespo. Things however did not go as planned, with the injury-plagued team eliminated in the early stages of the Europa League and Coppa Italia and falling to a ninth-place finish in Serie A in
2010. In the
2010–11 season, Genoa, whose ranks had been revolutionised once again save for some long-serving players, struggled along in the mid-positions of the league; a slew of questionable results early in the season led chairman Preziosi to fire trainer
Gian Piero Gasperini, who had led the team since the
2007–08 season, and to select
Davide Ballardini as his successor. The newcomers, despite not securing memorable successes, kept the team steadily afloat in the "left part" of the ranking, managing to win two consecutive derby matches against rivals Sampdoria in December and May. The
2011–12 and
2012–13 seasons saw Genoa place in 17th both times, one spot away from relegation to Serie B. In the
2014–15 season, Genoa, in sixth place and set to qualify for the
UEFA Europa League qualifying round, were denied a UEFA license because they filed paperwork late and because the
Stadio Luigi Ferraris was not currently up to standard for UEFA competition. The spot was passed on to 7th placed
Sampdoria. This damaged Genoa's momentum, and Genoa coasted to an eleventh-place finish in the
2015–16 season. In
2016–17, Genoa avoided relegation in 16th-place, and once again finished mid-table in the
2017–18 season. In the
2018–19 season, Genoa mathematically avoided relegation from Serie A. They were tied on 38 points with
Empoli, but Empoli went down due to Genoa's superior head-to-head record. In the
2021–22 season, Genoa finished 19th in the league table to be relegated after fifteen years in top division. In the
2022–23 season, the club finished second in Serie B, to promote back to Serie A after one season. In the 2023–24 season, Genoa Football Club maintains its position in Serie A and is not facing relegation. The club continues to compete in Italy's top football league, demonstrating resilience and determination to stay at the highest level of Italian football. In the
2025–26 season, Genoa gets off to a poor start, leading to the dismissal of
Patrick Vieira, who had performed well the previous year. The arrival of the new coach, former world champion
Daniele De Rossi, greatly benefits the team, which regains some stability, allowing them to secure their place in Serie A with relative ease. In football terms, the
historic Genoa-Pisa rivalry is revived this year, and as tradition dictates, Genoa came out on top. In the first leg at
Marassi, the match ended in a 1-1 draw, with Colombo opening the scoring at the 15th minute and Léris equalizing for Pisa at the 38th minute. In the return match in Pisa, after Canestrelli gave Pisa an early lead at the 19th minute, Ekhator responded for Genoa at the 41st minute, and Colombo scored the winning goal at the 55th minute. The season also saw the confirmation with good performances of
Lorenzo Colombo, a young talent from the
AC Milan Youth Sector. ==Players==