Lowly Sassuolo will make history this evening by participating in their first ever European campaign. Our Italian football correspondent Franco Ficetola explains the story behind their remarkable, organic rise…

I f you were watching the 2016 Coppa Italia Final on May 21st, won by Juventus, you may have noticed one player running across the field with a flag in his hands at the end of the match.

Those watching may have thought it was just another South American or African player proudly showing where he comes from, a pretty common way to celebrate victory. But that’s impossible; no such nation on earth has a black and green flag. So who was it? Juventus centre forward Simone Zaza, wielding a Sassuolo flag.

Perhaps this was a player paying homage to his hometown city, something rather ordinary. But Zaza is not from Sassuolo. He was born in a completely different part of the country, in the far South of Italy. He just played at Sassuolo for two seasons, from 2013 to 2015. So why all the love?

The fact is we’re talking of a club like no others, and here’s why.

Sassuolo: Italian football’s dream factory

Sassuolo is a town of nearly 41,000 inhabitants, located in central Italy within the Province of Modena. A nice place, where people are kind and the air is clean, but not exactly one of Italy’s most important cities.

There’s a football team, of course, but, like every other town this size, there had never previously been serious ambitions of going up to Serie A. This was until Italian businessman Giorgio Squinzi bought the club, in 2002.

For nearly 80 years, between their founding in 1920 until 1998, Sassuolo played in Serie D, Italy’s top-level non-professional championship; the only exception being six seasons in Serie C2 (the fourth division of Italian football) during the Eighties.

Then the climb began. In 1998-99 they returned to Serie C2, before promotion to Serie C1 in 2006, and up to Serie B at the end of 2007-08. Here, I Neroverdi almost gained promotion to the top flight on two occasions, twice losing in the championship playoffs. Then, finally, Sassuolo managed to reach Serie A for the first time ever in 2013.

Serie B 2012/13 was something unbelievable not only for Sassuolo fans, but also for everybody interested in football. The black-and-greens topped the table for the entire season from August to May, winning their historic promotion against Livorno, on May 18th.

On that memorable day, an almost-injured Simone Missiroli scored the winning goal in the 96th minute, turning the dreams of a whole town into reality.

A banner carrying an emotional message was raised in the stadium by fans that day, summing up what it meant to reach the top table of Italian football: “O si fa la storia o si muore”, it read – “We make history or we die.”

Fortunately for supporters, the team made history, and the players celebrated promotion running half-naked on the pitch, with their hair dyed green.

The next day, almost every inhabitant of Sassuolo was on Garibaldi Square hailing the heroes and singing “We Are the Champions”; in the meantime the mayor, up on stage, proudly declared that “Sassuolo is a Serie A city.”

The crowd felt prouder than ever.

Sasol’s steady growth

After three seasons in Italy’s top flight Sassuolo ended 2015-16 in sixth place, thus qualifying for the Europa League qualifying rounds to be played between July and August – a near impossible prospect just a few years ago.

The days when they used to lose 7-0 against Inter Milan, like in their first season in Serie A, are long gone. We are now looking at one of the most well-organised and interesting teams on the Italian football scene.

Trying to discover what are the keys to their success is intriguing. What made a lowly club go from the amateur championships to Europa League football in less than 20 years, without any investments by sheikhs or oil tycoons?

First of all, Sassuolo is backed up by clever management, made up of people like the coach Eusebio Di Francesco who never fail to discover the right players for their project.

A few examples that spring to mind are Paolo Cannavaro, a defender discharged by Napoli but reborn in Sassuolo’s rearguard, and Andrea Acerbi, fully restored after a harsh battle against cancer and transformed into one of the best centre-backs in Italy.

Made in Italy

Speaking of players, it is interesting to note that Sassuolo is the Italian club that bets biggest on Italian footballers.

One of the biggest problems of Italian football in general is that too often clubs tend to overlook local talents, going after foreigners. Well, Sassuolo are not displeased at all with this trend, because it gives them the chance to catch a lot of interesting players during transfer windows.

This was the case for Matteo Politano and Luca Antei, for example. Both grew up in Roma’s youth squad without any chances to show their value in the Giallorossi first team, but became high-profile players at Sassuolo.

The only foreign player in Sassuolo’s regular starting line-up last season was the right-back Šime Vrsaljko, whose transfer to Atlético Madrid is already official. After 2015-16 season we can definitely say that this idea of counting on local players can bear fruit to the clubs brave enough to follow it.

Berardi: the jewel in the crown

In this sense, Sassuolo’s most successful bet is certainly Domenico Berardi. Developed in the club’s youth squad, this striker is the emblem of the ‘Sassuolo Way’: he’s Italian, young, and has aroused the interest of some of Europe’s top clubs, including Juventus and Barcelona.

In one of Italy’s bigger clubs Berardi probably would never had the chance to become the player he is now, but in Sassuolo he has made 134 appearances and scored 49 goals, becoming the top scorer in the history of this club at the tender age of 21.

SEE ALSO: #JF60 Hall of Famer Domenico Berardi and the top 10 young players in Serie A in 2015 // Domenico Berardi and Just Football’s best XI at the 2015 UEFA Under-21 European Championships

Last but not least, coach Eusebio Di Francesco deserves a big part of the credit for bringing Sassuolo where they are.

Di Francesco is the latest product of the Italian school: his fresh ideas and great attention to detail gave the club a European dimension that is rarely seen in an environment like that of Sassuolo.

He succeeded in turning a team which started the season with the aim of avoiding relegation into one capable of expressing themselves and playing to a high-level, with very fast and sometimes even spectacular football.

Having a very talented group of forwards (Berardi, Defrel, Sansone, Politano etc.), his team play attacking football, but never fail to find a balance that has proved instrumental in reaching the fully-deserved sixth place.

What stands Di Francesco out from most of his peers even further is his style in approaching the media and press conferences. The 46-year-old is not a media figure like the ones we’re familiar with, but instead a calm person and a real professional, who always lets facts speak for themselves.

SEE ALSO: An Underdog’s Tale: FC Crotone FC and the story of Italy’s north-south divide

The Italian Leicester?

It’s hard to predict how far Sassuolo will fare in the Europa League because big clubs are tempting some of their talents during this transfer window.

Athough I Neroverdi have already lost Vrsaljko, there’s the other side of the coin: most of the players feel big pride in having reached this historical goal. They want to enjoy the moment until the end, playing in the competition they earned with great effort and against all predictions, and could thus be more reluctant than normal to transfer offers.

Starting tonight with their European debut against FC Luzern, Di Francesco’s boys are ready to show Europe what they’re made of.

S assuolo are proof that hard work and a winning attitude can get a club very far. They are a precious little jewel in a world guided by the trend of ‘Brazilian players at any cost’.

They are showing not only how to play football in the right way, but also how to invest money correctly. The hope for them is to preserve this delicate ‘ecosystem’ from the corruptive tendencies of modern football.

Whatever the future holds, it is certain that a forward-looking club like Sassuolo won’t be unprepared for the upcoming challenges.

If Leicester’s participation in Champions League is a historic event that will interest every football enthusiast, Sassuolo’s first ever attempt on the continental stage is also something worth following.

Indeed, Claudio Ranieri himself has drawn comparisons between his title winners and Sassuolo:

“The team that fascinates me the most is Sassuolo,” Ranieri told La Gazzetta della Sport. “I hope they can make it past the preliminaries of the Europa League.” “Sassuolo could turn into the Italian Leicester. “They remind me of Udinese a few years ago, with the fundamental difference in their approach: the Zebrette developed foreign youngsters, the Neroverdi go for the Italian youngsters, and this could jolt the entire national movement.”

If you’re still not persuaded, just take a look at some of the matches they played during last season, like the victory over Juventus or the ones against Inter Milan. And if you feel the need to shout ‘Forza Sasol!’ while watching their first ever Europa League game, don’t worry – Simone Zaza can relate.

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(image credit: Jacqueline Poggi via Flickr.)