Mantova 1911The name of Mantova's stadium tells one of the most poignant stories in Italian football. The Stadio Danilo Martelli is named after a player who died in the 1949 Superga air disaster, which wiped out the Grande Torino side. Located close to the historic centre of the city, the ground had earlier carried other names: first it honoured Benito Mussolini, then Settimo Leoni, and later John R. Nation, an American soldier killed in fighting near Mantua during the Second World War. With that history behind it, the name Danilo Martelli feels like the one that will not change.
Mantova 1911 was founded in 1911 and for decades played at lower levels. Its real flowering came in the early 1960s. The club played seven seasons in Serie A: from 1961–62 to 1964–65, and then in 1966–67, 1967–68 and 1971–72. That first spell in the top flight is remembered as the era of Piccolo Brasile, or Little Brazil, because the team's style of play recalled Brazilian football. It was by far the best period in the club's history.
In those years Mantova had Dino Zoff in goal, later the captain of the Italy side that won the 1982 World Cup. According to available sources he played for the club from 1963 to 1967. The fact that a future great goalkeeper took his early steps in Serie A in a small city on the Mincio lakes shows what Mantova was: a club that built its standing on courage and organisation rather than famous names. The club also won the Serie B title in 1970–71, which brought a return to the top flight after years of fluctuation.
After relegation from Serie A in 1972 the club played mainly in the lower divisions. In 1994 the original club ceased to exist and its history was carried on by a series of re-founded entities. A revival came in the early 2000s, when Mantova rose from Serie C2 to Serie B in two consecutive seasons, as champions in 2003–04 and as runners-up through the play-offs in 2004–05. It spent five seasons in Serie B, from 2005–06 to 2009–10. In 2006–07 it became the first team to beat Juventus in a Serie B match.
The end of that decade was dramatic, however. After finishing bottom of Serie B, the club was declared bankrupt in 2010 and had to restart in Serie D. Further changes of structure followed in 2017, when Mantova 1911 was entered into the competition. A takeover in 2018 by Maurizio Setti, the owner of Hellas Verona, allowed the club to rebuild its standing.
The rebuilding succeeded in 2023–24, when Mantova won Group A of Serie C and returned to Serie B. In 2025–26 the club played at that level and finished ninth. The team, known as I Virgiliani (the Virgilians, after the poet Virgil, who is linked to Mantua) and as Biancorossi, is today an example of a club that remains true to its local identity despite bankruptcies. The story of Little Brazil and the memory of Danilo Martelli are the foundation of the tradition on which present-day Mantova is built.