Parma was born with Verdi's music in the background. In the summer of 1913, the year the city celebrated a hundred years since the great composer's birth, a group of young men set up Verdi Foot Ball Club. On 16 December 1913 that team became Parma Foot Ball Club, and this is the date the club regards as its starting point. This year the "Crociati" turn 113, and their shirt is one of the most distinctive in Italy.

A club for Verdi's centenary

Verdi FBC lasted only three months, from July to September 1913. That was enough, though, to bring together eleven young men who wanted to play football regularly. In December the same players formed Parma FBC, and since 1923 the team has called the Stadio Ennio Tardini home. A century on, for the club's 100th birthday in 2013, the city celebrated for three days, and babies born on 16 December were given tiny shirts with the cross.

A black cross on a white field

Verdi's first kits were yellow and blue, the city's old colours. Parma FBC, however, became known for something more unique: a white shirt with a large black cross on the chest, recalling the cross on the city's coat of arms. That is where the nickname Crociati, the "crusaders", comes from, while the old colours gave the second name, Gialloblù. In the Italian press you will also find the club called Ducali.

The Parmalat era

On 27 May 1990, with Nevio Scala as coach, Parma beat Reggiana and won promotion to Serie A for the first time. Behind the club stood the Tanzi family's Parmalat, shirt sponsor from 1987 to 1995. The most glittering decade in the club's history followed: three Coppa Italia wins (1992, 1999, 2002), the Cup Winners' Cup in 1993 with a 3-1 win over Antwerp at Wembley, the European Super Cup and two UEFA Cups, in 1995 against Juventus and in 1999 with a 3-0 win over Marseille in Moscow.

Zola, Buffon and the stars of the Tardini

In those years the Tardini filled with stars. Colombian striker Faustino Asprilla arrived in 1992, while Gianfranco Zola wore the shirt from 1993 to 1996, scoring 64 goals in 149 matches. Zola has his own souvenir in our shop, the blue Zola retro t-shirt. The same team featured the then young Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram, who all went on to win the World Cup, and Hernán Crespo, sold to Lazio in 2000 for a world record fee.

Yellow and blue hoops

At the end of the 1990s Parma made a bold choice: from 1998 to 2004 the home shirt became yellow with blue horizontal hoops, a return to the city's colours. Puma, Lotto and Champion all made the shirt in that period. In 2004, however, after the collapse of Parmalat, the club went into administration and the white shirt with the cross returned.

From Serie D back to the top

The worst came in March 2015, when the company was declared bankrupt. The club was refounded as Parma Calcio 1913 and started again in Serie D. With three consecutive promotions, in 2016, 2017 and 2018, it was back in Serie A, and after another drop it returned there again in 2024.

Happy birthday, Parma. From a musical tribute to Verdi to those European nights, the cross on your chest has always stayed the same.

See Parma shirts and merchandise at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Stadio Ennio Tardini – Verdi85, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.