Genoa Cricket and Football Club, commonly referred to simply as Genoa (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒeːnoa]), is a professional Italian football club based in the city of Genoa, Liguria. Although the athletics and cricket club was founded in 1893 by Englishmen as a British sporting club abroad, whose membership was allowed to British citizens exclusively till 10 April 1897 when membership was opened to Italian Citizens ; the footballing section of the club was opened in 1897 by James Richardson Spensley making it the oldest existing club of its kind in Italy.

During their long history, Genoa have won the Serie A nine times. Genoa's first title came at the inaugural championship in 1898 and their last was in 1923–24. They also won the Coppa Italia once. Historically, Genoa is the fourth most successful Italian club in terms of championships won.

This slew of early successes may lie at the origin of the love professed for the team by the godfather of Italian sports journalists Gianni Brera (1919–1992), who, despite having been born nowhere near Genoa, always declared himself a supporter of the team. Brera went as far as creating the nickname Vecchio Balordo (Old Fool or Cranky Old One) for Genoa.

Genoa  /ˈdʒɛnoʊ.ə/ (Italian: Genova [ˈdʒɛːnova] ( listen); Genoese and Ligurian Zena [ˈzeːna]; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is the capital of Liguria and the sixth largest city in Italy, with a population of 608,676 within its administrative limits on a land area of 243.6 km² (94 sq mi). The urban zone of Genoa extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 718,896. The urban area of Genoa has a population of 800,709. In the metropolitan area live between 859,000 and 1.4 million or 1.5 million people. Genoa is one of Europe's largest cities on the Mediterranean Sea and the largest seaport in Italy.

Genoa has been nicknamed la Superba ("the Superb one") due to its glorious past and impressive landmarks. Part of the old town of Genoa was inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 (see below). The city's rich art, music, gastronomy, architecture and history, allowed it to become the 2004's European Capital of Culture. It is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.

Ciro Immobile (born 20 February 1990 in Torre Annunziata, Naples) is an Italian footballer who currently plays as a striker for Serie B club Pescara, on loan from co-owners Genoa and Juventus.

After starting with the Allievi Nazionali,^{[citation needed]} Immobile joined the Juventus F.C. Youth Sector under-20 squad where he formed a striking partnership with Ayub Daud that led the squad to win the 2009 Torneo di Viareggio, where he scored a total five goals, two of which came in the final. On 14 March 2009, Immobile made his league debut in a 4–1 home win against Bologna F.C., replacing Juventus' captain Alessandro Del Piero in the 89th minute, in a game where his youth system teammate Daud also made his Serie A debut replacing Sebastian Giovinco a minute earlier. On 25 November 2009, Immobile also made his debut in a European competition, as a second-half substitute to Alessandro Del Piero in a Champions League game against Bordeaux. In February 2010, he scored a hat-trick against Empoli in the Torneo di Viareggio final to seal the title. Following the Torneo di Viareggio 2010, Immobile was promoted from the youth team squad. On 1 July 2010, Immobile, along with teammate Luca Marrone, were sent on loan to recently relegated Serie B side A.C. Siena. In exchage for the two loans, Juventus acquired Niccolò Giannetti, Leonardo Spinazzola, and the Austrian midfielder Marcel Büchel, on loan from the Tuscan club. However, Immobile never broke into the first team, and in January 2011, he left Siena for Grosseto, another Serie B club.

Alberto Gilardino, Ufficiale OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [alˈbɛrto dʒilarˈdino]; born 5 July 1982) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Genoa and the Italian national team.

In his early career, he was compared to Filippo Inzaghi, and Christian Vieri described him as the fusion of both players. Gilardino currently holds the record for being the youngest player to have scored 100 goals in Serie A.

Gilardino started his career at Piacenza, playing his first match in Serie A in the 1999–2000 season. That first season he made 17 league appearances and scored 3 goals.

"Gila", as he is often nicknamed, was sold to Verona in 2000 in co-ownership, for 7.5 billion Italian lire. Despite his young age, he scored five goals in his two seasons at the club where he made 39 league appearances. But Gilardino was already attracted Verona to sign in full in June 2001, for another 7 billion lire. After Martin Laursen was bought back in June 2001 by Parma, Anthony Šerić was sold to Verona in a co-ownership deal, then Gilardino was also bought by Parma in a co-ownership deal during 2001–02 season and loaned back to Verona.

Diego Alberto Milito (born 12 June 1979) is an Argentine footballer who plays as a striker for Italian Serie A club Internazionale and the Argentine national team. A prolific and consistent center-forward, Milito has statistically averaged just over a goal every two appearances, over the course of his 10-year professional career. He was pivotal in Inter's 2009–10 treble-winning season and his two goals in the Champions League final confirmed his status as one of the world's most clinical finishers.

He has been nicknamed El Príncipe ("The Prince" in Spanish) because of his physical resemblance with former Uruguayan footballer Enzo Francescoli, who was nicknamed that way.

Diego Milito started playing at Argentine first division team Racing Club in 1999, where he won the 2001 Apertura tournament. During this time, his younger brother Gabriel played for Racing's main rival, Independiente, as a defender. The two clubs would contest the Avellaneda derby with the two brothers lining up against each other.