Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria (1891–1927) The roots of Sampdoria are to be found in two teams born in the late 1890s:
Società Ginnastica Sampierdarenese and
Società Andrea Doria. The former was founded in 1891 and opened its football section in 1899. The latter, named after Genoese admiral
Andrea Doria, was founded in 1895. Andrea Doria did not join the
first Italian Football Championship organised by the
Italian Federation of Football (FIF) and played on 8 May 1898. Instead, they played in the football tournament organised by the Italian Federation of Ginnastica. The first ancestor of Sampdoria to play in the Italian Football Championship was Sampierdarenese, who joined the
third edition in 1900 for their only appearance before
World War One. Andrea Doria eventually joined the competition in
1902, but did not win a game until
the 1907 edition, when they beat local rivals Genoa 3–1. Wearing green and black striped shirts, La Dominante Genova lived a short life, having played just three championships, and was not particularly successful. The team was admitted to the
1927-28 Divisione Nazionale Group B, ending the season in 10th place. The next season was
the last year of Divisione Nazionale, and Dominante finished in 10th place. Finally, in 1929 Dominante competed in the
first-ever Serie B tournament where they finished third, just missing out on promotion. Dominante then absorbed the local team
Corniglianese and competed in the
1930–31 Serie B under the name of
Foot Ball Club Liguria. The team did not do well, finishing in 18th place and suffering relegation to
Prima Divisione. Both Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria reverted to their previous names in 1931 as separate clubs. In the span of just a few years Sampierdarenese then climbed up from Prima Divisione to Serie B and finally Serie A. Ending up second in the Girone D of the
1931–32 Prima Divisione, they got promoted to Serie B. After the uneventful
1932–33 Serie B season, the team proceeded to win the
1933–34 Serie B championship and were promoted into Serie A for the first time. On 15 July 1937 Sampierdarenese absorbed
Corniglianese and
Rivarolese, with the club adopting the name
Associazione Calcio Liguria. This saw them reach fifth place in Serie A in 1939. In the early 1940s, the club was relegated but bounced straight back up as Serie B champions in 1941. After
World War II, both Andrea Doria and Sampierdarenese (the name Liguria was abolished in 1945) were competing in Serie A, but in a reverse of pre-war situations, Andrea Doria were now the top club out of the two. However, on 12 August 1946, a merger occurred to create
Unione Calcio Sampdoria. The first chairman of this new club was Piero Sanguineti, but the ambitious entrepreneur Amedeo Rissotto soon replaced him, while the first team coach during this period was a man from
Florence named Giuseppe Galluzzi. To illustrate the clubs would be equally represented in the new, merged club, a new kit was designed featuring the blue shirts of Andrea Doria and the white, red and black midsection of Sampierdarenese. In the same month of the merger, the new club demanded they should share the
Stadio Luigi Ferraris ground with Genoa. An agreement was reached, and the stadium began hosting Genoa's and Sampdoria's home matches.
Early years and the achievements in the Mantovani era (1946–1993) For about thirty years the Genoese played constantly in Serie A, with mixed results, the best of which was in the 1960–1961 season, in which they obtained fourth place in the championship. In the 1965–1966 season Sampdoria finished sixteenth, relegating to Serie B for the first time in its history; however, the following year they won the second-tier championship and immediately returned to Serie A. In 1979, the club, then playing Serie B, was acquired by oil businessman Paolo Mantovani (1930–1993), who invested in the team to bring Sampdoria to the top flight. In 1982, Sampdoria made their Serie A return and won their first
Coppa Italia in
1985. In 1986, Yugoslav
Vujadin Boškov was appointed as the new head coach. The club won their second Coppa Italia in
1988, being admitted to the
1988–89 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, where they reached
the final, losing 2–0 to
Barcelona. A
second consecutive triumph in the Coppa Italia gave Sampdoria a spot in the
1989–90 Cup Winners' Cup, which they won after defeating
Anderlecht after
extra time in the final. , Sampdoria's number 9 in the golden years between late 1980s and early 1990s. This was followed
only one year later by their first and only
Scudetto, being crowned as Serie A champions with a five-point advantage over second-placed Internazionale. The winning team featured several notable players, such as
Gianluca Pagliuca,
Gianluca Vialli,
Roberto Mancini,
Toninho Cerezo,
Pietro Vierchowod and
Attilio Lombardo, with Boškov as head coach. In the following season, Sampdoria reached the
European Cup final and were defeated once again by Barcelona, at
Wembley Stadium.
Vujadin Boškov is recognised as one of Sampdoria's most successful managers winning a record amount of trophies and thus further establishing the club's reputation in Europe.
Enrico Mantovani Ownership (1993–2002) On 14 October 1993, Paolo Mantovani died suddenly and was replaced by his son Enrico. During his first season (1993–94), Sampdoria won one more Coppa Italia and placed fourth in Serie A. During the following four seasons, many players from his father's tenure left the club but many important acquisitions were made which kept Sampdoria in the top tier Serie A. This included the likes of Argentine internationals
Juan Sebastián Verón and
Ariel Ortega, and international midfielders
Clarence Seedorf and
Christian Karembeu. With the signings of forwards
Antonio Cassano from
Real Madrid, and
Giampaolo Pazzini in January 2008, Sampdoria ended the 2007–08 season in sixth position and qualified for the
2008–09 UEFA Cup. The following season, they came fourth and qualified for the
UEFA Champions League play-offs under manager
Luigi Delneri, who left for Juventus. With the departures also of CEO
Giuseppe Marotta, and both Cassano and Pazzini, and the squad being stretched by Champions League football, Sampdoria were relegated to Serie B after a 2–1 loss at home to
Palermo in May 2011. In the following season June 2012, Sampdoria won promotion back to Serie A after defeating
Varese 4–2 on aggregate in the play-off final.
Edoardo Garrone Ownership (2013–2014) In 2013, following the death of his father, Edoardo Garrone took over the presidency of Sampdoria, but his main goal was to sell it as soon as possible to free himself of the debts that the company had incurred over the previous years. The sale of Sampdoria to Massimo Ferrero was widely contested by Sampdoria fans. A sell-off, which even after years, some fans continue to reproach in 2023. In 2023, after Massimo Ferrero's arrest in 2021 and the continuous protests from the fans, he clarified that the sale was a mistake due to pressure from his family to sell Sampdoria as soon as possible. A further wrong choice defined by Garrone because it was sold to an unreliable person.
Massimo Ferrero Ownership (2014–2023) In June 2014 the club was purchased by the film producer
Massimo Ferrero. After sixth-placed rivals Genoa in the
2014–15 season failed to obtain a UEFA licence for the
2015–16 UEFA Europa League, seventh-placed Sampdoria took their spot. The club built a solid foundation in Serie A for the next seven years. Notable managerial appointments were
Marco Giampaolo and
Claudio Ranieri, as well as the steady flow of goals from talismanic striker
Fabio Quagliarella. Growing tensions however surrounded Ferrero's presidency, fuelled by his well-known and public support of
AS Roma. Several attempts were made to sell the club, including to a consortium led by club legend
Gianluca Vialli. On 6 December 2021 Massimo Ferrero was arrested by Italian police as part of ongoing investigations into corporate crimes and bankruptcy. He resigned from his position as President of Sampdoria with immediate effect, whilst a club statement assured fans that the affairs of the football club were not a part of the investigations. On 27 December, former player
Marco Lanna was appointed president. In January 2022 the club welcomed back former manager Marco Giampaolo after a disappointing start to the season under
Roberto D'Aversa. On 6 February in his first home game back in charge, Sampdoria defeated
Sassuolo 4–0. Results however began to dwindle, and after eight games and a winless start to the 2022–23 season the club parted company with Giampaolo. On 6 October former Serie A player legend
Dejan Stanković was appointed to the role with the task of steering the club clear of the relegation zone. Sampdoria were later relegated in the 2022–23 season from Serie A to Serie B.
New owners and Serie B (2023–present) In late May 2023 former
Leeds United owner
Andrea Radrizzani and the businessman Matteo Manfredi reached an agreement with previous owner Massimo Ferrero to buy Sampdoria and prevent it from
bankruptcy. On 27 June 2023, former Italy and Serie A legend
Andrea Pirlo was appointed as the manager. The change in ownership, however, has not led to an improvement of fortunes for the club, and financial hardship continued well into the
2023–24 season: although they finished their first season back in the second tier with qualification to the promotion playoffs, they were eliminated by
Palermo in the first round. The
2024–25 season was meant to feature an even stronger push for promotion with the acquisition of players like
Massimo Coda and
M'baye Niang, but the club started out with two losses and a draw on the first three games on the season. Results were never delivered despite four managerial changes, and as a result, Sampdoria placed 18th, which implied its first ever relegation to
Serie C, the third tier of Italian football. However, Brescia's four-point deduction at the end of the regular season meant that the club was thrown one final lifeline not to drop down to Serie C, as the subsequent shuffling of placements signified that they would play a relegation play-out match against
Salernitana. They went on to win the play-off 5–0, Serie B officials awarded them a 3–0 win over Salernitana in the second leg of the playoff after it was abandoned. ==Colours, badge and nicknames==