Rari Nantes Savona is an aquatic sports club based in Savona, Italy, mainly known for its professional men's water polo team, which competes uninterruptedly in the Serie A1, the top division of Italian championship, since 1982; the team has been national champion for three times.
History The club was founded in 1948 by Mario Caviglione with a group of other water polo enthusiasts. After several years in the amateur leagues, in 1975 the club reached Serie B (back then the second tier of Italian championship) and achieved the promotion in Serie A six years later, in the 1981 season. The first game of Savona in the Top division was a 12−9 home victory against 1980 champions Canottieri Napoli, on 27 February 1982.
At the time, the club used to play its home games in the near Albissola Marina and at the Genoa's Crocera swimming pool. The city of Savona built an Olympic-sized pool in 1985, the Piscina Olimpica Comunale, renamed Piscina Carlo Zanelli in 2010 in honour of the recently deceased former mayor of the town. The pool has been the home field of the club ever since, except for a 5 years of absence from 2006 to 2010 due to restructuring works. During the break, the team used to play at the Piscina di Luceto in Albisola Superiore.
RN Savona emerged as a top team in the early 1990s. The first trophy of the Ligurian team's history is the 1989−90 Coppa Italia; in the following season, after two second places reached in 1983 and 1990, the club won its first Italian Championship and a second consecutive domestic Cup. Savona won its second Italian title in 1992 and the third in the 2004−05 season; since then the club managed to reach two back-to-back second places in 2009−10 and 2010−11 seasons, losing on both occasions the play-offs final to Pro Recco; the third Coppa Italia dates back to the 1992−93 season. The club made its international debut in the 1983 LEN Cup Winners' Cup. In 2012 the team, defeating in the final game Spain's CN Sabadell, won the first edition of the newly renamed LEN Euro Cup, a competition that the club already won twice in 2005 and 2011 when it was still called LEN Trophy; on all three occasions Savona earned the right to contest the LEN Super Cup, but never managed to achieve the trophy, being defeated twice by Italy's fellow sides CN Posillipo and Pro Recco and once by Serbia's VK Partizan. The best performance in the major European cup came in the 1991–92 season, when Savona reached the Final but lost to Croatia's Jadran Split.
Honours Domestic competitions Serie A1 Winners: 3 (1990−91, 1991−92, 2004−05) Runners-up: 5 (1983, 1989−90, 1992−93, 2009−10, 2010−11) Coppa Italia Winners: 3 (1989−90, 1990−91, 1992−93) Runners-up: 7 (1986−87, 2004−05, 2005−06, 2007−08, 2008−09, 2009−10, 2012−13)
European competitions LEN Euro Cup Winners: 3 (2004−05, 2010−11, 2011−12) Runners-up: 1 (2009−10) LEN Champions League Runners-up: 1 (1991−92)
Recent seasons Season League Coppa Italia International Division Rank Post season Stage Rank Cup Stage 2010–11 Serie A1 2nd PO: Final QR2 — LEN Euroleague QR2 LEN Trophy Winner 2011–12 Serie A1 4th PO: Semifinals QR2 — LEN Champions League QR2 LEN Euro Cup Winner 2012–13 Serie A1 6th PO: Quarterfinals F4: Final 2nd LEN Euro Cup Semifinals 2013–14 Serie A1 4th PO: Semifinals QR2 — — 2014–15 Serie A1 8th PO: Quarterfinals QR2 — LEN Euro Cup Quarterfinals 2015–16 Serie A1 6th F6: Quarterfinals Not qualified — 2016–17 Serie A1 6th F6: Quarterfinals F4: Semifinals 3rd — 2017–18 Serie A1 5th F6: Quarterfinals QR2 — — 2018–19 Serie A1 9th — QR — LEN Euro Cup QR1 2019–20 Serie A1 Cancelled — 2020–21 Serie A13rd PO: Semifinals QR2 — LEN Euro Cup QR 2021–22 Serie A13rd PO: Semifinals F4: Semifinals 3rd LEN Champions League QR3 LEN Euro Cup Quarterfinals 2022–23 Serie A1 6th F6: Quarterfinals F4: Semifinals 4th LEN Champions League QR2 LEN Euro CupFinals 2023–24 Serie A1 2nd PO: Final F4: Semifinals 3rd LEN Euro Cup Quarterfinals 2024–25 Serie A1 3rd PO: Semifinals F4: Final 2nd European Aquatics Champions League QFR
Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Current roster 2019−20 season
PlayerBirth DatePos. Jacopo Missiroli GK Nicolò Da Rold GK Stefano Morretti GK Andrea Grossi DF Federico Piombo DF Lorenzo Bianco DF Pietro Ricci DF Alessio Caldieri FP Andrea Patchaliev FP
PlayerBirth DatePos. Eduardo Campopiano FP Filippo Taramasco FP Giorgio Boggiano FP Guillermo Molina CB Nebojša Vuškovič D Valerio Rizzo CF Ettore Novara CB Simone Bertino CB
Head coach: Alberto Angelini
Notable former players
Matteo Aicardi Alberto Angelini Gianni Averaimo Alessandro Bovo Arnaldo Deserti Manuel Estiarte Maurizio Felugo Massimiliano Ferretti Marco Gerini Massimo Giacoppo Alex Giorgetti Alexandros Gounas Mlađan Janović Viktor Jelenić Predrag Jokić Tamás Kásás Tamás Märcz Felipe Perrone Bogdan Rath Aleksandar Šapić Dubravko Šimenc Slobodan Soro István Udvardi Peter Varellas Zsolt Varga Mirko Vičević Goran Volarević
Synchronised swimming In addition to the water polo team, Rari Nantes Savona also has a successful synchronised swimming section that was created in 1986 and has become a national top club since 1991 (when it reached the second place at the Italian championship). The team raised several international athletes like Giulia Lapi, multiple European medalist and part of the Italian Olympic team in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The club won 15 synchronised swimming national overall championships. Honours: Italian championships: 15 (1994, 1995, 1996, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
References
External links Official website