It’s difficult to think of any other club in the entire world who have contributed so much to their respective league, only to disappear so completely into obscurity. Casale FBC, from Italy’s north-west was officially founded in 1909, when Raffaele Jaffe, a professor at the Leardi Technical Institute in Casale Monferrato bumped into a group of his students on one of his walks. The students told him that they were on their way to watch a football match in the nearby town of Caresana, and Jaffe decided to tag along. He was so awestruck by what he witnessed, that he decided to bring the sport to Casale as well by starting a club there.

 

Formed in one of the Institutes classrooms, they decided to wear black shirts with cords tied around each sleeve; one green and the other red. This proved to be cumbersome, so one of the clubs best players, Cavasonza, came up with the idea of scrapping them and instead using a pin to affix a star fashioned from the pages of a notebook to their jerseys. This became the clubs badge which gave birth to their nickname, Nerostellati (The Starred Blacks). Black Was chosen as their color to contrast with Pro Vercelli, then a leading power in Italian football, who Casale were determined to defeat.

 

The town of Casale was smack bang in the geographical centre of this new footballing movement in Italy, and Casale FC found themselves ranked among the likes of Genoa, Pro Vercelli, Internazionale Torino and Alessandria. They plied their trade in the regional leagues for only two years before being promoted to the top flight, and little did they know that they were about to change the Italian football landscape forever. In 1913, Casale became the first ever Italian team to defeat an English club, when they beat a visiting Reading side 2-1. This achievement is all the more special when you consider that Reading won all of their other games on this particular tour, defeating Genoa, Pro Vercelli, AC Milan and even the Italian national team. The following season was Casales first in the top division, which back then was totally unrecognizable to the Serie A as we know it today. In order to win the league, Casale first had to qualify from the Liguria/Piedmont division to earn a spot in the Northern group, which they then had to top in order to enter a two-legged play-off against the champions of the Southern/Central group. On paper, this is is a tough task. In reality, it was even worse because the teams in the Liguria/Peidmont division included powerhouses Genoa and Casale’s bitter rivals, Pro Vercelli, who were favorites to claim their fourth straight Scudetto.

 

The Casale/Vercelli rivalry goes back to antiquity – to the year 1215, in fact. Casale Monferrato was the capital of a tiny independent state called Marquisate del Monferrato on the outer edge of what is now Italy. In 1196, the city rebelled and formed the municipality, which led to Monferatto being invaded and totally destroyed by the combined forces of Vercelli, Alessandria and Tomasso of Savoy. 800 years later, this event was never forgotten and the rivalry still burns.

 

Lead by team captain Luigi Barbesino, Casale romped to the top of the group and stayed there for the entire season. As if winning the division wasn’t enough, they were wrapped to see Pro Vercelli fail to qualify when they finished third behind Genoa. A draw and a defeat to Casale were major contributors to Vercellis failure. Casale were now one of six teams in the Northern group, with the others being A-list Italian football royalty Juventus, Inter, Hellas, Vicenza and Genoa. Casale were fearless, winning 8 of their 10 matches in the group to earn a shot at the highest prize in Italian football, facing Lazio in the play-off. Their opponents were inconsequential however, because the gap in quality between the Northern and Southern clubs meant that the hard part was actually negotiating the treacherous Northern play-off process. Having done this, Casale were all but guaranteed glory.

 

The first leg took place in Casale on July 4th, 1914. As predicted, the Nerostellati destroyed their opponents 7-1, meaning that the second leg was nothing more than a formality. Casale respected their opposition however, and came out with a more modest 2-0 win. With that, they won their first and only Italian championship. In over 100 years, the club never came close to replicating this achievement, and their fortunes have spiraled downwards ever since. Things eventually got so bad that in 2013, the clubs finances were so poor that they were expelled from the league. They were, however, soon resurrected and can currently be found playing in Italy’s fifth tier. 

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The town of Casale remains the smallest town in Italy to be the home of a Scudetto winner. 

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Acheivements: 
Serie A – Champions x1

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Star Player: Luigi Barbesino, dob 1 May 1894, pob Casale Monferrato, Italy

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Barbesino played only for Casale CBF, lacing up for the team between 1912 and 1920. He helped them to their only Italian title and he represented Italy at the 1912 Olympic Games under Vittorio Pozzo. He made his debut for the Azzurri at the age of 18 years and 2 months which makes him the youngest ever senior Italy team player apart from Renzo di Vecchi.  He eventually became the manager of AS Roma, but Barbesino abandoned football at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Italian Air Force and served as an observer flying Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 trimotor aeroplanes. He participated in reconnaissance missions to Tunisia and Malta, bombing actions in the Mediterreanean and escort runs for Italian navy ships. In April 1941, he was performing his role on an aircraft when his wingman turned back an hour after take-off due to bad weather. The aircraft disappeared and was never heard from again. To this day, Barbesino and his crew are still listed as missing.