Unione Sportiva Sassuolo Calcio, commonly referred to as Sassuolo (), is an Italian professional football club based in Sassuolo, Emilia-Romagna. Their colours are black and green, hence the nickname Neroverdi (literally "black and greens", in Italian).
Sassuolo have participated in Serie A since the 2013–14 season, joining a select group of teams to have played in Serie A without belonging to a provincial capital city: Savoia (Torre Annunziata), Empoli, Legnano, Pro Patria (Busto Arsizio), Carpi, and Casale.
History
The club was founded in 1920 and played in the Emilian amateur divisions for most of its history until its first promotion to Serie D in 1968. In this era, the club merged with other local football teams to eventually form the current US Sassuolo Calcio in 1974. In 1984, the club gained promotion to Serie C2, the lowest level of professional football in Italy. However, they were relegated in 1990 and subsequently spent most of the 1990s in Serie D. In 1998, a second-place finish ensured promotion back to Serie C2.
Serie C1
Sassuolo reached Serie C1 for the first time in 2006 after winning the Serie C2 promotion play-offs by beating Sansovino in the final. In the following years, Sassuolo proved to be a serious contender for promotion to Serie B. With Gian Marco Remondina as head coach, they barely missed it in 2007, as they lost immediate promotion to Grosseto in the final days of the season, finishing in second-place; and then were defeated by fifth-placed Monza in the play-off semi-finals. Remondina then left Sassuolo to join Serie B's Piacenza, and former Serie A player Massimiliano Allegri was then chosen as new head coach.
Under Allegri, Sassuolo quickly revived their hopes to obtain promotion to Serie B; this ultimately came on 27 April 2008, when they won the Serie C1/A title, thus ensuring a historical promotion to Serie B, the first in the club's history.
Serie B
Following Sassuolo's promotion to the Italian second tier, Allegri left Sassuolo to fill the head coaching position at Serie A team Cagliari. In July 2008, the club appointed former Atalanta and Siena boss Andrea Mandorlini for the 2008–09 season.
Sassuolo had a surprisingly good start to the 2008–09 campaign and held a promotion playoff place for a very long time. They only won two points in their last five matches to eventually finish in seventh place. Despite a successful season, Mandorlini left Sassuolo by mutual consent in June 2009, whereupon the team then appointed former Piacenza coach Stefano Pioli on 11 June 2009.
Sassuolo successively qualified to the Serie B promotion playoffs in 2009–10 by placing fourth, and 2011–12 in third, being eliminated at the semi-finals in both seasons.
In the 2012–13 season, however, under the guidance of new head coach Eusebio Di Francesco, Sassuolo played a majority of the season in first place in the table, and eventually secured direct promotion with a 1-0 victory over Livorno on 18 May 2013. At the conclusion of the season, Sassuolo had won the Serie B title and had ensured a first top-flight campaign ever for the 2013–14 season. The club had reached the highest level of the Italian football league system only seven years after playing in Serie C2. The key role that was played in this achievement by 18-year-old academy product Domenico Berardi saw the player win the league's Player of the Year award.
Serie A
During pre-season training in July 2013, Sassuolo won the TIM Trophy after beating Juventus on penalties then beating Milan 2–1, marking the first time a team other than Milan, Internazionale or Juventus have won the Cup.