Team Overview: Bologna FC formed in 1909, and since then they have won seven Serie A titles. Their last championship came in 1964, but recent struggles had seen them relegated to Serie B. But, they made it back to the big show this season, and their fans can now be assured that they will be returning to Serie A again next year.
Top Performers: Bologna would not be returning to Serie A if not for the heroic performance of Marco Di Vaio, a 32 year old striker who many teams had given up on. His 24 goals landed him second in the entire league. Sergio Volpi also had a good year (4 goals & 4 assists), and Francesco Antonioli was decent between the posts.
Highest Highs: The story of Bologna ’09 is the story of Marco Di Vaio. His sensational season almost resulted in his winning the Golden Boot, despite his team’s lack of success. He had two hat tricks and scored in 20 different matches. The highlight of the year came at the end, when Di Vaio helped secure Bologna’s survival vs. Catania.
Lowest Lows: While Di Vaio was suddenly simply unstoppable, the rest of the Bologna team was flat out awful. He scored 24 goals – the rest of the team scored only 19. Enough said. The Rossoblu hit rock bottom early in the year too when they lost four straight matches in September after their historic upset over AC Milan.
Future Outlook: Bologna clearly needs to find another goal scorer to complement its rising star Di Vaio (who literally carried the team past the drop zone this season). Their ageless wonder will need some help though next year on the offensive attack. One thing seems clear though – Di Vaio won’t top his performance next year. How could he?
