Sampdoria

Two Genoese clubs went into the merger of 12 August 1946. Sampierdarenese, whose football section opened in 1899, gave the first half; Andrea Doria, named after the admiral, gave the second. What came out was Sampdoria, a word that had not existed before that summer, and a shirt that split the difference between both wardrobes — blue, with a band of white, red and black across the chest. The nickname followed from the shirt rather than the other way round: blucerchiati, the ringed ones.

The badge kept the harbour in the picture. It carries a sailor in profile with a pipe, known by the old Genoese name Baciccia.

The club spent its first two decades without silverware of any weight, and the first line on the honours board was a Serie B title in 1967 — promotion, not a prize. Everything that made the name known came in a nine-year run from the mid-1980s. Four Coppa Italia wins arrived between 1985 and 1994. In between came the Cup Winners' Cup in 1990, then the scudetto in 1991, the only one Sampdoria has won, and the Supercoppa Italiana that came with it the same year.

Nothing since has matched that stretch. The 1994 Coppa Italia closed it, and the trophy cabinet has not moved on.

Home is the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in the Marassi district, which is what most people in the city call it. The ground holds 33,205, and Sampdoria do not have it to themselves — the stadium is shared, which means the derby is played twice a season at the same address, with only the dressing room changing hands. It sits inside the street grid rather than beside a car park, hemmed in on all four sides by the buildings that were there first.