To be finished after 31st October match
One of the great Italian movies from the post-war era was Ladri di Biciclette, The Bicycle Thieves. Reminiscing about a 1948 black and white film might seem a curious way to start a Football Weekends tale about modern-day Italy, but if the director Vittorio De Sica were still alive, and nearly 80 years on, looking to do a follow up, Cerignola might just be his location of choice. Move over the bicycle, The Car Thieves would be the title.
Unbelievably, Cerignola, a mid-sized town (population 56,711) located southwest of Foggia in Northern Puglia, has a ferocious reputation, not just locally, but throughout Italy, for car theft. It isn’t just a point of humour or heresy, either, with insurance premiums higher for residents here than anywhere else in Italy.
Amongst from wonderful throng of chums from around Italy, upon learning I was Cerignola bound, the reaction would either illicit a chuckle, a sharp in-take of breath, all with cautionary words to take care. It couldn’t really be that bad, could it?
Well, before I could experience the ‘delights’ of Cerignola, a five kilometre passage from the well out of town railway station and the town needed to be negotiated. The stop isn’t called Cerignola Campagna (countryside) for nothing! Still, what’s 5km compared to the astonishing 20km my partner and I experience at Buxoro in Uzbekistan the month previous. Indeed, Fasano and Ugento have both been visited too, but neither station was more than 3km from town.
With the weatherman predicting rain, I endeavoured to contact the local taxi company days in advance to reserve myself a luxury whisk into ‘dodge’. Sadly, unlike in Buxoro, where cab drivers were falling over themselves to help, five days prior to arrival, my enquiry in Cerignola was quashed with a “no availability” message. Surely taxis are being nabbed off the streets, too?!
Bus No4 apparently runs once an hour from town to the station and back, but the online timetable is so sketchy, with the station obviously written in local code with a different name, it was reassuringly unreliable as I have come to believe of any bus in Italy.
Plan C, last resort was to walk. The terrain was flattish, so I google mapped the straight line route, and should no bus pitch up, I had resolved I could easily go on foot, just as long as any rain wasn’t of the torrential variety. I booked a train from Bari (70 minutes away) to arrive 3 hours before kick off to allow for all eventualities and hopefully a perusal of the centre of Cerignola.
I had seen distant glimpses of Cerignola many times passing through the countryside stop. One very large church, which turns out to be a cathedral, dominates the skyline.
Entering the outskirts of any town or city is never headline grabbing. The fringes are at best tatty, but closer to the centre, with all streets full of cars incidentally, it was ticking boxes of almost any old town in Italy.
Sadly, while Cerignola was once known as Furfane, a watering hole on the Traiana road from Roma to the coast, a devastating earthquake in 1731 pretty much flattened the place. Prior to that, it has jostled between private fiefdom ownership and twice being part of the Kingdom of Napoli, where the second occasion saw the Spanish, rulers of Napoli at the time fight the Battle of Cerignola to win it back.
Today, it is a provincial agricultural centre, as well as home to a very consistent and well run football club, who are since Covid, living the dream.
Audace Cerignola, as they are known, started out in 1912. Audace means bold and spirited, two very apt words around here, as if you are going to ‘spirit’ a car away, you most certainly have to be ‘bold’.
The club dotted around the Puglian non-league set-up for decades before popping its head above the local precipice in the pyramid, reaching Serie D in 1966/67. That was still only the fiftg tier back then, whereas it is now the fourth.
Crippling back luck would befall the club in 1975, when bankruptcy came a calling like the grim reaper, sending them down another two levels. Six years later, it would happen again, but given that was 1981, it is highly commendable that it was the last such issue in Cerignola.
They literally have built their modern-day story from the very bottom, starting out in Terza Categoria (tier 9), the lowest league in the regional structure.
Little by little, they have inched their way up the leagues. In 2018/19, the club finished second in Serie D and subsequently won the mini playoffs, allowing an application for ‘repechage’ (literally means fished out), but their application was rejected as the Monterisi stadium was at the required standards.
A lesson learned and subsequent improvements to the ground would see them post Covid hit the ground running. One advantage they had during that gruelling enforced shutdown was the retention of the core of the squad. It proved pivotal, as once things were fully operational again, Audace were ready to pounce and take Serie D by storm.
In April 2022, in front of 7,000 expectant fans, the ‘giallablu’ (yellow and blues, the club colours) watched them beat Bitonto 1-0 and celebrate Audace’s first ever foray into the professional ranks on Serie C.
The club are now in their fifth season at this level, and they have aquitted themselves brilliantly at this level. In 2024/25, having led the table for a long time, they finished second to Avellino. The reward was a last eight slot in the 30 team promotion playoffs. Atalanta’s kids were narrowly beaten, but eventual winners Pescara proved too strong in the semi-final.
Such a lofty finish did, however, see Audace involved in the Coppa Italia for the very first time the following season. Revenge was taken on Avellino in the first round, where they advanced to the round of 32, a first ever competitive game with a club from Serie A in the shape of Hellas Verona. The Monterisi was full to bulging, and Audace didn’t let them down, forcing penalty kicks with an injury time equaliser. Alas Hellas would win the shoot out, but it had been a wonderful close encounter with a bigger club and added to the notion Audace can progress yet higher.
This term has been shaping up nicely, too, with recent results seeing Cerignola back in the top six and looking up, not down the table. Girone C, the south Serie C grouping, is a tough league this term. Giants Bari, Salernitana, and Catania are all trying to chase down Potenza and minnows Sorrento already. and anything but a championship win for these big clubs will be deemed failure.
The visitors for my game were one of the big trio, but delightful coincidence, with Catania over the water from Sicily. A club whose colourscheme always delights the eyes of an ICT fan. Unfortunately, yet again, the local powers that be, had taken the easy option in their decision-making process and banned the away fans, thus depriving the day of a truly memorable edgy experience, as Catania fans travel in good numbers. Given that they won 6-0 in the last match, thrashing another ‘dodgy’ place in C, Giugliano near Napoli, Cerignola are missing out on a significant away fan payday.
One sign that things are blossoming for Audace came just days earlier, when, for the first time in the clubs history, they have inaugurated a club shop right in the centre of town. I decided to pay it a visit ahead of kick off, but of course, it was closed.
The very bright yellow and blue colours of Cerignola, complete with a stork on the badge, have gone all very Bristol Rovers (or Rimini) on themselves this season, with the four box facade. It’s quite an eye-catching kit, and one that would have stood out in my burgeoning calcio maglia (shirt) collection, but alas.
The Domenico Monerisi stadium has been buffed up since that Serie C rejection in 2019, with the previous 3,000 capacity now 7,500. That number is more than enough for Serie B, let alone C. The ground is within easy 10/15 minute walking distance of the centre of town, but add an hour minimally if legging it from the railway station.
Tbc after the match.
