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U.S. Lecce

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Unione Sportiva Lecce is a football club based in Lecce, Apulia.

The club was formed in 1908 and currently plays in the Italian Serie A, having spent a large part of recent years bouncing between Italy's top division and Serie B. The team's colors are red and yellow. The club plays its home games in the 40,800-seater Stadio Via del Mare.

Contents

History

Lecce made sporadic appearances in Serie B in the 1930s and 1940s but would not return to that level until the 1970s. Under the management of Eugenio Fascetti, Lecce would achieve promotion to Serie A for the first time in 1985. They finished bottom and were relegated after only one season, but defeated Roma 3-2 away in the penultimate game to deal a fatal blow to Roma's title hopes. Losing a promotion play-off the following season, they would return to Serie A in 1988.

Under Carlo Mazzone, Lecce finished a respectable 9th place in 1989. Stars of the side included striker Pedro Pasculli and midfielders Antonio Conte and Paolo Benedetti. They lasted three seasons before relegation, and returned two years later. Season 1993-94 saw Lecce finish last with a pitiful 11 points, the lowest ever of any Serie A team, and a second relegation came the following year.

Giampiero Ventura saw Lecce achieve successive promotions before leaving for Cagliari. Once more, it proved a struggle in Serie A despite the best efforts of striker Francesco Palmieri and a famous away win against AC Milan in 1997. Nonetheless the team were good enough to return to Serie A in 1999 and begin another three-year stint in the top-flight, with yet another return to Serie A in 2003. In 2004, under Delio Rossi, who had been managing the club since 2002, Lecce achieved an impressive result, reaching the 9th final classification after an awful first round of the tournament. Famous performances include two sensactional victories in a row, against Italian giants Juventus in Turin (4-3) and Internazionale FC in Lecce (2-1), which made Lecce avoid relegation. In 2004/05 Zdenek Zeman oversaw a highly attack-minded team which scored plenty of goals as well as leaked them (10th position).

The 2005/2006 has been a continual struggle for Lecce. The club has changed its manager two times (Silvio Baldini for Angelo Adamo Gregucci, and then to youth team coach Roberto Rizzo supported by goalkeeper coach Franco Paleari). The numerous managerial moves could not turn Lecce's fortune as they were relegated in 19th place. In June Giovanni Semeraro returned at the helm of the club after 9 months. The club appointed Zdenek Zeman as manager, just one year after. Lecce avoided relegation from Serie A despite finishing 19th as a result of the Serie A match-fixing scandal.

2005/06 squad

As of February 16, 2006 | width="1%" | |bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top" width="48%"| |}

Squad change during 05/06 season

Out 
(resigned)

Squad change during 06/07 season

In 
(return from loan)
(return from loan)
(return from loan)
(on loan)

Out

Notable current players

Notable former players

External links


Serie A
Ascoli | Atalanta | Cagliari | Catania | Chievo | Empoli | Inter | Lecce | Livorno | Messina
Milan | Palermo | Parma | Reggina | Roma | Sampdoria | Siena | Torino | Treviso | Udinese

2006-07 Serie B relegations: Fiorentina | Juventus | Lazio
Serie A seasons
1991-92 | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-99
1999-00 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07

 

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