AC Bellinzona

Infobox Football club
clubname = AC Bellinzona


fullname = Associazione Calcio Bellinzona
nickname = "Granata"
shortname =
founded = 1904
ground = Stadio Comunale Bellinzona, Bellinzona
capacity = 8,740
chairman = Manuele Morelli
mgrtitle = Head Coach
manager = flagicon|SUI Marco Schällibaum
league = Swiss Super League
season = 2007-08
position = Challenge League, 2nd (Promoted)
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AC Bellinzona is a Swiss football club based in Bellinzona. It was founded in 1904, and won the Swiss league in 1948.

Since Bellinzona is an Italian speaking region, many Italian Serie A clubs loan youth players to the club to get first team experience. AS Roma are a parent club to Bellinzona.

Bellinzona was promoted to the Swiss Super League after beating St. Gallen by 5-2 on aggregate in the relegation playoff following the 2007-2008 season. Bellinzona will play at the top level in 2008-2009 season for the first time since the 1989-90 season. As finalists in the Swiss Cup, the team also qualified for the 08-09 UEFA Cup where they beat Ararat Yerevan of Armenia in the 1st qualifying round.

Current squad

"As of 4 August 2008":

Out on loan

Summer 2008 transfers

In:
*Andrea Conti (from AS Roma)
*Emanuele Di Zenzo (from FC Sion)
*Shkelzen Gashi (loan from FC Zurich)
*Matteo Gritti (from FC Chiasso)
*Mauro Lustrinelli (from FC Lucerne)
*Genc Mehmeti (from FC Schaffhausen)
*Jocelyn Roux (from Stade Nyonnais)
*Gürkan Sermeter (from FC Aarau
*Henri Siqueira-Barras (from Enosis Neon Paralimni)
*Vincent Bernardet (from (FC Guegnonnais)) Out:
*Marko Andjelkovic (free transfer)
*Gabriele Bernasconi (SC Chiasso)
*Paolo Carbone (FC Como)
*Corrado Grabbi (free transfer)
*Andrea Locatelli (SC Chiasso)
*Senad Lulic (to Grasshopper)
*Ludovico Moresi (to AC Lugano)
*Gediminas Paulauskas (free transfer)
*Christian Pouga (to Sevilla)
*Ifet Taljevic (to Neuchatel Xamax)

Famous players

*flagicon|Switzerland Mauro Lustrinelli
*flagicon|Switzerland Gerardo Seoane
*flagicon|Switzerland Kubilay Türkyilmaz
*flagicon|Switzerland Igor Đurić
*flagicon|Belgium Benoît Thans
*flagicon|Brazil Amauri
*flagicon|Croatia Igor Budan
*flagicon|Ghana Mark Edusei
*flagicon|Ghana John Mensah
*flagicon|Italy Raffaele De Martino
*flagicon|Brazil Matuzalem
*flagicon|Italy Marco Murriero
*flagicon|Nigeria Saidu Adeshina
*flagicon|Romania Adrian Pit
*flagicon|Romania Cristian Ianu
*flagicon|Venezuela Paul Ramírez

Coaching staff

*Manager: flagicon|SUI Marco Schällibaum
*Goalkeeping coach: Mike Walker

External links

* [http://www.acbellinzona.ch/ Official website]