Salt, Simeone and Inzaghi – Pisa’s fall and rise

The Leaning Tower’s Leaning Tower’s tilt has changed as a result of the Italian city of Pisa’s long wait for Serie A football.

The renowned landmark is now straighter than it was thanks to restoration work that started in the early 1990s.

Additionally, there is a rise in the city’s football team.

Pisa won promotion last year under the direction of legendary former Italian international Filippo Inzaghi, putting an end to a 34-year Serie A exile.

Before his time at the helm, Inzaghi revived a team that had just finished in the bottom half of Serie B.

But they were unable to persuade him to stay. The 51-year-old left for Italy’s second division, Palermo, a division of the City Football Group, in June, to take on a new challenge.

The return to the top flight will bring back fond memories for Pisa fans who have spent the last two years of the competition.

That was in 1990, when they were promoted to the top of the Italian charts and had some notable names on their books.

Diego Simeone, the current manager of Atletico Madrid, and Jose Chamot, his fellow Argentine, would later join the Lazio, Atletico, and Milan among those who were involved.

Romeo Anconetani, the club’s illustrious and popular president at the time, helped lead the club to success.

Under his leadership, Pisa moved from Serie C to Serie A, where they defeated Napoli in the Coppa Italia semifinals in 1987.

Anconetani would perform an unusual ritual before each home game because he was also incredibly superstitious.

To ward off bad luck, Pisa-based sports journalist Andrea Martino reported to BBC Sport, “He would scatter kilos and kilos of coarse salt around the pitch.”

He frequently used his players’ fingers to cross as they went to practice their movements and gestures if they had been performed for the first time during a victory.

He may have had a sense of relief after Pisa once enjoyed a top-league position because of his superstitious actions, but a subpar run of form eventually caused relegation.

Three years later, they were back in Serie C and declared bankrupt, and the financial cost of the downturn was significant.

When the Corrado family purchased them in 2018, their fortunes truly started to change.

Before the Russian-American billionaire Knaster became the club’s majority owner in 2021, with the goal of returning to the top flight, a year later, the club was promoted back to Serie B.

Pisa fans had to wait patiently for Inzaghi’s appointment in 2024 to become a success.

Inzaghi’s management style, which was a prolific striker as a player, also resulted in goals. With 64 goals in 38 games, they were the second-highest scorers in Serie B last year.

Inzaghi has “brought a breath of fresh air” since his arrival last summer, as stated by Martino.

He succeeded in achieving his objective of restoring the fans’ support for a strong team that can give even the best-equipped foes a run for their money.

However, he made the decision to leave at the end of the season and instead accepted the challenge of defending his third Serie B title in charge of Palermo.

After spending so much time outside of the top flight, Pisa has no desire to spend any time in Serie A this time.

Juan Cuadrado, a 37-year-old former Chelsea winger and six-time Serie A champion, is one of them.

Alberto Gilardino, who led Genoa to promotion from Serie B two years ago, is now in charge of them after Inzaghi leaves in the summer.

“To stay in Serie A at all costs is,” Martino remarked.

They “have a number of players from the Serie B triumph plus some priceless, high-quality additions in mind.”

However, the effort to make sure they were well-equipped for a successful Serie A campaign had already begun many years prior to the club’s promotion, as the organization’s scouting system and infrastructure had significantly improved.

Giuseppe Corrado, president of the Pisa, told Calcio e Finanza, “We had a clear idea from our very first steps in the club.

That demonstrated that Pisa’s survival couldn’t be solely dependent on pitch performance. These could only be the direct result of the efforts made off the pitch, in fact.

On Sunday, Pisa travel to Atalanta to end their long Serie A preparations.