AC Monza

AC Monza was founded in 1912 in the Lombard city of Monza and, for well over a century, remained one of Italian football's most enduring survivors of the lower divisions. Before 2022, no club in the history of Serie B had spent more seasons there without ever reaching Serie A, a total of 40, a run that included two separate bankruptcies, in 2004 and 2015, and near-misses in the promotion play-offs of the 1970s and again in 2019.

The club's fortunes changed in September 2018, when it was bought by Silvio Berlusconi through his holding company Fininvest, with Adriano Galliani joining as chief executive, reuniting the pair who had led AC Milan to 29 trophies between 1986 and 2016. After promotion from Serie C in 2020 and a play-off defeat to Cittadella in 2021, Monza finally sealed the historic breakthrough in May 2022, beating Pisa 4-3 after extra time in the second leg of the play-off final to complete a 6-4 aggregate victory and reach Serie A for the first time in the club's history.

Monza spent three seasons in the top flight, a period that also brought the death of Berlusconi in June 2023, with his brother Paolo Berlusconi taking over as club president. Relegation followed at the end of the 2024-25 season, but Monza responded immediately, finishing third in Serie B in 2025-26 and winning the promotion play-offs to return to Serie A at the first attempt.

Nicknamed i Biancorossi, Monza originally played in blue and white before switching to their now-familiar red and white in 1932. The club has played its home matches since 1988 at the Stadio Brianteo, on the edge of the city famous worldwide for its Formula 1 circuit. After a century largely spent in Italian football's shadows, Monza's rapid rise under Berlusconi and Galliani turned the club into one of the most closely followed stories in recent Italian football.