LUPO E BISONTE
Piacenza Calcio 1919

Jim G FM
Jim G FM
Sep 6, 2018 · 8 min read

An FM19 save introduction.

FM19 is around the corner and everyone is having a shit-fit about who to manage.

Luckily, it seems the stars have aligned and given me the perfect story for my save. Here I’ll explain my team choice whilst also outlining what I’d like to achieve during the save.

First and foremost, it’s worth remembering why I do this. FM for me has always been about 1) the fun of actually playing the game and 2) using my imagination to immerse myself in a fictional football world.

And that’s really it. It’s no more or less complicated than that—and that’s what I try to communicate with my YouTube channel. Werder Bremen over the course of FM18 was my first stab at finding a formula that works creating YT FM content. I think that some people enjoyed it—hopefully, anyway—so I’m hoping this new FM19 save will expand on the process’ and lessons learned from the Bremen save and be even better (IMPOSSIBLE! I hear you cry).

Having said that, I wanted to set myself some more fundamental long-term goals with the save. Goals which are about more than just winning trophies — although obviously, that’s still important. There are 3 main things I want to achieve and they’re all based on the history of the club. By researching the club I’ve pinpointed areas where they’ve previously excelled or failed and the aim is to try to recreate past glory’s and avoid past failures.

Piacenza Calcio 1919

On November 15th, 1994, Stoke City played Piacenza at the Victoria Ground, Stoke-on-Trent, in the group stages of the Anglo-Italian cup (RIP). It was my first ever Stoke game and it ended 4–0 to us. I did some research online and apparently, Piacenza had Massimo Taibi on the bench and Filippo Inzaghi didn’t even make the squad (there was interest from AC Milan)! Stoke also beat a Cesena side which featured future Serie A top scorer Dario Hübner (more on him later) and Massimo Ambrosini, who joined AC Milan a year later and ended up with 35 caps for Italy and won two Champions League trophies!

(Also, in the same competition in ‘93 Stoke came up against Gabriel Batistuta and Stefan Effenberg when they played Fiorentina. What a competition the Anglo Italian Cup was… but I digress).

I’ve had a soft spot for Italian football—like any football fan growing up in the 90’s, Football Italia? Golazzo, anybody?—and romantic perceptions of Piacenza Calcio ever since.

The game against Stoke happened the season after Piacenza had broken into Serie A for the first time in their history. Unfortunately, a poor campaign meant that they were immediately relegated back to Serie B (which is where they were when they played Stoke in ‘94). In the 94/95 season, Piacenza responded to the disappointment of relegation by winning Serie B and bullying their way back into the top flight, only to meet the exact same fate a second time. However, the following season, Piacenza bounced back and this time, after securing their 3rd ever promotion to Serie A, the club would spend 9 of the next 10 years in the top flight of Italian football.

Admittedly, during this spell their league finishes were unconvincing, to say the least. Their highest ever finish was 12th in 01/02. Not particularly impressive, especially when you consider that although 12th seems a fairly safe position, in this season it was only 3 points off relegation. However, despite the poor 01/02 league position, Piacenza did boast the league’s joint top scorer—More on that later.

Today, Piacenza languish in Serie C, a division from which it has been notoriously difficult to gain promotion — at least in previous iterations of FM.

GOAL 1: Lead Piacenza back to Serie A

1919—2019

In 2019, Piacenza will be 100 years old, although technically, you might say that the current iteration of Piacenza is not exactly the same club that was formed back in 1919.

On 22 March 2012, Piacenza Calcio, in strong financial difficulty, was declared bankrupt by the court of Piacenza. They finished 15th and were relegated from Lega Pro Prima Divisione to Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.

On the 19th June 2012, the club was finally, officially declared bankrupt and the team was disbanded.

What follows is quite extraordinary. During the bankruptcy, a regional amateur club Libertaspes obtained the Piacenza brand and was renamed, Lupa Piacenza and then, in the summer of 2013, the club was renamed Piacenza Calcio 1919—as they are known as today. Whether this is still ‘the same’ Piacenza is up for debate, purists may say no, but the intention was clear: To revive a historic club and enable Piacenza to continue its football history.

GOAL 2: Learn from past mistakes and ensure a financially sound football club.

‘Il Bisonte’

Dario Hübner is a Piacenza legend and one of the most genuinely fascinating footballers in world football history, let alone recent Italian football history.

An Italian striker, with a German name and a Native American nickname, ‘Tatanka’ (Bison in the Lakota language). Hübner acquired his nickname, later adapted to the Italian ‘Il Bistonte’ for his large build and direct style of play.

At the age of 22, Hübner quit his job working in an aluminium factory to play with Pergocrema in Italy’s fourth tier. Hübner wasn’t a footballers footballer. By that I mean he was essentially just a normal working class guy. He was no athlete. He had been perfectly content working in the aluminium factory and had accepted that as his future. He expected to have to work hard to earn a living and that outside of work he should be free to enjoy playing football, smoking and drinking with friends. That same work/life balance carried over into his professional football career and was responsible for his success’, his quirks and his controversy.

Hübner was an enigma. He was not the model athlete and was far from the archetypal professional footballer. It should never have been possible for Hübner to make it. As a player, he had little finesse or skill, a hulking brute of a centre-forward who never really had much faith in his talents. And yet he scored goals and over the next 10 years that followed his signing for Pergocrema he would work his way up through the leagues.

The real intrigue surrounding Hübner is two-fold. Firstly, his success came late. It wasn’t until his 30’s that he became a household name. A Jamie Vardy or Ian Wright type late bloomer. And secondly, he did it all whilst persisting with the same lifestyle he had enjoyed as a factory worker—drinking Grappa care-free and smoking like a chimney—not typically a recipe for success in Serie A, one of the most competitive leagues in Europe at the time. In fact, Hübner was famously spotted smoking on the bench for Brescia. So, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Hübner would fail, but you’d also be incorrect. After a Serie A season playing alongside one Roberto Baggio at Brescia, he joined newly promoted Piacenza in a move which raised few eyebrows. Hübner was now 35 after all. A 35-year-old, grappa drinking smoker. But Hübner defied the odds again. In the 2001–02 Serie A season the Capocannonieri (Serie A top-scorer award) was shared by David Trezeguet and, you guessed it, Dario Hübner both with 24 goals. This award, at the time, earned Hübner the bonus accolade of being the oldest player to have won the Capocannonieri.

Think Jon Parkin, but good and on steroids. Il Bisonte was the original ‘beast’. He scored over 300 goals throughout his career. OK, maybe Jon Parkin is a stretch…

If you’d like to know more about Dario Hübner I can highly recommend both this article by Nemanja Grbić on These Football Times and also listen to the excellent Golazzo episode on Hübner here.

GOAL 3: Give Piacenza a new Bison. Either brought through youth and nurtured or bought with little fanfare, create a Serie A top scorer.

Piacenza Calcio 18/19 Season Kits

The kits, created for the save by Keysie Rensie are designed with a nod to some of the Piacenza shirts that Hübner wore. Using the same paired down, simple approach as the 02/03 season shirt, the 18/19 design is a one colour round neck shirt featuring the same kit manufacturer (LOTTO) and sponsor (LPR brakes) as the classic.

3rd Kit

‘Lupo e Bisonte’

So there you have it. The three main goals, in summary:

—1. Lead Piacenza back to Serie A.
—2. Learn from past mistakes and ensure a financially sound football club.
—3. Give Piacenza a new Bison. Create a Serie A top scorer.

Oh, by the way: ‘Lupo e Bisonte’ is the name of the save and translates to ‘Wolf and Bison’. The Wolf after the wolf on the Piacenza crest which is inspired by the she-wolf on the Piacenza coat of arms (pictured here).

The Bison, obviously being Dario Hübner.

Lupo e Bisonte

Where? When? How?

The save will be on my YouTube channel (Link here) so subscribe to that for updates. I will begin with FM19 proper—not the BETA. I’ll be using the BETA off camera to learn and explore any new features etc.

I’ll also be continuing the Stadium Visits series, in which we scope out Away day opposition by visiting their stadium, city/town and wandering the streets looking for sources of intrigue and ridicule.

You can also follow me on Twitter @JimG_FM where I’ll be revealing bits and bobs and posting the videos once they’re up… as well as talking nonsense and ranting about mostly football related things.

Look forward to getting started! Hope you’ll follow along and get involved.

There are worse places to work…
Jim G FM

Written by

Jim G FM

Young (not IRL) Ex-Pro (not IRL) Tracksuit Football Manager (not IRL). Graphic Designer (IRL).

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