by Carlo Fonzari

Created on: August 26, 2009

The history of Italian soccer began in 1887, when a sport group named Football & Cricket Club was founded in Turin further to an idea of Edoardo Bosio, a gentleman from Turin, who learned about soccer, while in England for business.

The first official soccer tournament took place during 1898, it was played in just one single day by 4 teams:

F.C. Torinese

Internazionale Torinese
Genoa Cricket and Football Club
Societ Ginnastica Torinese

Genoa Cricket and Football Club won that tournament and 5 out of 6 of the following ones.
It was the first great Italian team of the history.

Interest about soccer began to grow and the tournament, later called Serie A , started to involve larger areas of the country.

When the first world war started, Genoa had won 7 titles followed by Pro Vercelli with 5 Ac Milan with 3, Fc Inter of Milan, Juventus and Casale with 1.

In 1910 the Italian National Team played its first match, France was the opponent, Italy won 6-2.
The legend of the "Azzurri", as the supporters used to call Italy's players, had begun.

After the war, soccer restarted in 1919, teams had increased, it was necessary to reorganize the tournaments.
Two leagues were created, one for the north the other for the south, but in 1927 it was decided to unify them in a single national league.

Professional soccer had started.

Between 1920 and1930, the title, now called Scudetto, was won by Pro Vercelli Genoa Inter and Bologna twice each, Juventus and Torino won the remaining two.
The scudetto is the little shield of cloth, reproducing the Italian flag, worn on its shirt by the team that won the championship.

Genoa and Pro Vercelli never won the scudetto again since then.

Meanwhile the national team won the bronze medal at the Olimpic games of 1928 in Amsterdam and the International Cup
in 1930.
Italy defeated Hungary 5-0 in the final match.
The International Cup was the equivalent of the European Cup played nowadays.

From 1930 -1943 Italian soccer had, in my opinion, its most amazing period.
Juventus won the national championship, now Serie A, 5 times in a row, Inter won 3 times, Bologna won 4 titles and the Mitropa cup too in 1932 and 1934, Roma won its first title and Torino won the last tournament before world war 2.

Other events, though, influenced that period:

Uruguay organized in 1930 the first World Cup of soccer, known also as the Jules Rimet Cup.

Italy did not participate.

Uruguay, who had already won the Olympic games in Amsterdam in 1928, won the first edition of the

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