Why you should follow: Genoa

Picking an Italian team to throw your weight behind is a fluid process. You might have watched Gabriel Batistuta in purple and now you support Fiorentina. Kaka in Milan, same result. A trip to the Amalfi coast could have turned you into a Napoli fan (even if you should go local with Sorrento).

It’s also an overwhelming choice to make, provided you don’t have an Italian connection. So we’re creating a new series called: Why you should follow…[insert team]. To kick us off, Genoa!

History

Genoa CFC are Italy’s oldest football club, formed in 1893 at the British Consulate in the city of Genova. 

English sailors often docked in Genoa on their way to India via the Suez Canal and some would play football in their spare time. 

Genoa won six of the first seven championships from 1898 to 1904 and a further three by 1924. And that’s where the good times end, sort of. A solitary Coppa Italia win in 1936-37 ends the list of Genoa honours, giving their trophy cabinet a historic feel that matches its surroundings at Palazzina San Giobatta.

A grand old team

Well, they’re the oldest club in the country, so that’s good if you like tradition and yearning for the good old days of - checks notes - 1904.

They are one of Italy’s most colourful and passionate fanbases, the scenes on the Gradinata Nord, the home of the Genoa ultras, at Luigi Ferraris are often spellbinding.

Genoa also have one of the best derbies in world football, Derby della Lanterna with city rivals and stadium mates Sampdoria.

It’s a place for forwards that captivate and leave. Think Diego Milito, Mateo Retegui. If you want to support the underdog, but one with a certain gravitas about them, then Genoa are your team.

Football in a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Genova is a medieval port city where historically significant buildings meet the Italian Riviera to create a spectacular location to watch football. 

This is where they invented pesto, focaccia and, according to the locals, blue jeans. You can watch the Grifoni one day and take a short trip to the millionaire’s paradise of Portofino the next.

Take the funicular up to Righi and see the city from above. Eat yourself silly, slip down the city’s infinite side streets, do it all.

A unique stadium

And they’ve got a really cool ground, where the wall of noise from fans of the Grifoni, as they’re known, reverberates against the four walls at Marassi (or Luigi Ferraris, as it’s officially known).

It’s a delightfully urban stadium, a rare luxury in the modern game. Football is for the people here.

Take the metro to Brignole. Walk along the river Bisagno and cross the bridge - while spotting the wild boar roaming in the dried up riverbanks - and you’re faced with the sharp edges of the distinctly British looking stadium.

Few grounds capture the imagination like Marassi does as it rages against the dying of the light. Renovated for World Cup Italia ‘90, they gave it the Ibrox-esque corners and a retro, almost individualistic feel that today’s architects wouldn’t have the guts to suggest doing.

An original legend

James Richardson Spensley, an English doctor on one of the ships docked in the city’s port, became Italian football’s earliest player-manager at Genoa in the first Italian Championship, played in 1898 and organised by…Spensley himself. 

Spensley coached and played in the Genoa team that won six championships, starting as a defender but quickly shifting to goalkeeper. The original sweeper ‘keeper? Maybe. 

Spensley retired in 1906 and died nine years later during World War I, having been wounded while working as a medic and tending to an enemy soldier.

A cult hero so good they signed him twice

Diego Milito. Born too late for the heyday of Italian football in the 1990s, the Argentine striker joined Genoa in January 2004 and scored twelve times in his first twenty games.

He drove Genoa to promotion the following season with 21 goals, or so he thought. It emerged that club owner Enrico Preziosi had conspired to bribe Venezia to throw the final match of the season, caught out when a Venezia executive was pulled over with €250,000 in his car. Their promotion was obviously revoked and they were relegated Serie C.

Milito left that summer for Real Zaragoza but returned to Genoa in 2008 with the club back in Serie A.

He stayed for only a year, scoring 24 goals in 31 games, including a hat-trick as they won 3-1 in the derby against Sampdoria. He joined Inter that summer and won the Champions League as part of a treble, scoring twice in the final against Bayern Munich.

Milito scored sixty goals in two and a half seasons in Genoa, three of which have been immortalised.

What to do in Genoa?

Eat, drink and be merry. Good food is almost always bountiful in Italian cities and Genoa is no exception.

Beyond laying their claim to have invented denim, the Genovese gave the world focaccia and pesto, among other more localised delicacies such as pansotti. 

Take yourself to Il Genovese for a pesto-based evening of food, or head to Antico Forno della Casana for some of the best focaccia you’ll ever eat.

Get lost down the various vicoli, or alleyways, around the city. Most are teeming with bars and - surprise, surprise - more eateries.

The Zecca–Righi funicular is worth a few hours of your time, if not for the picturesque view from the hills of Genoa then for the experience of the old tram.

Head to the picturesque Boccadasse neighbourhood or the fancy town of Portofino. You can also just stick around town. There’s so much to see on via Garibaldi that you might not have time for much else with all the eating you’ll be doing.

What to expect following Genoa

Supporting Genoa must be like living in a grand old house. It’s beautiful, historic, but there’s always something that needs fixed. If you want passion tinged with chaos, then this lot are the team for you.