US SassuoloUS Sassuolo Calcio was formally registered with the Italian football federation on 17 July 1920, though for most of its history it remained a purely amateur club, competing against small local sides around Modena and Reggio Emilia. A turning point came in 1966, when two local clubs, Sassuolo Sportiva and Sassuolo Football Club, merged to form the team in its present shape.
The club's true transformation began only at the start of the 21st century, when ownership and main sponsorship passed to Giorgio Squinzi, the businessman behind the Mapei chemical group. Backed by his investment, the small club from a town of fewer than 40,000 people in Emilia-Romagna made a rapid climb from the lower regional leagues all the way to Serie A, reaching the top flight for the first time at the end of the 2012-13 season. Sassuolo thereby became one of the few clubs in Italian top-flight history not representing a provincial capital.
The side, then managed by coach Eusebio Di Francesco, quickly proved it could compete with Italy's traditional powers, building its approach around the development of young, largely Italian talent. Striker Domenico Berardi, the club's long-serving captain and all-time leading scorer, became the symbol of this philosophy. In the 2016-17 season, Sassuolo played in European competition for the first time, reaching the Europa League group stage. The scale of the club's youth-development work was fully revealed at Euro 2020, when three Sassuolo players featured in Italy's title-winning squad – more than any club outside Serie A's traditional big three.
The team, nicknamed Neroverdi (Black and Greens) after its kit colours, plays its home matches at the Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore in Reggio Emilia, a venue owned by the club itself, a rarity in Italian football.