Serie A

Serie A (Italian pronunciation: [ˈsɛːrje ˈa]), also called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since the 1929–30 season. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new league, the Lega Serie A, was created for the 2010–11 season. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world and it is often depicted as the most tactical national league. Serie A is the world's second strongest national league according to IFFHS and has produced the highest number of European Cup finalists: Italian clubs have reached the final of the competition on a record twenty-six different occasions, winning the title twelve times. Serie A is ranked 4th among European leagues according to UEFA's league coefficient behind La Liga, Bundesliga and Premier League, which is based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champions League and the Europa League during the last five years. Serie A led the UEFA ranking from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1999.

Naples

Naples (/ˈneɪpəlz/; Italian: Napoli [ˈnaːpoli], Neapolitan: Napule [ˈnɑːpulə]; Latin: Neapolis; Ancient Greek: Νεάπολις, meaning "new city") is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the city's administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320. Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea.

Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC. A larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. The city was refounded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC and became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.

Schweizer SGU 1-7

The Schweizer SGU 1-7 is an American Open Class, single-seat, high-wing strut braced glider built by Schweizer Metal Aircraft Company of Elmira, New York.

The first 1-7 was built in 1937 and the second one was completed in 1939.

The 1-7 was the first Schweizer aircraft which was produced as more than a single example and it was the first aircraft that the company sold.

Design and development

Schweizer Aircraft started construction of the 1-7 prototype 1937, shortly after the SGU 1-6 came in third in the 1937 Eaton Design Contest. The intention was that the winning design would be made available as drawings and kits for amateur construction and that Bureau of Air Commerce certification would be sought.

The 1-6 had not fared well in the competition and none of the winners in the contest had proven as easy to construct as the contest organizers had hoped. As a result of the lessons learned in the Eaton contest a new clean-sheet design was started by the Schweizer brothers.

The resulting single seater-seventh design (1-7) was quite different from the 1-6. The 1-6 had been an all-metal design including aluminum-covered wings and was the first all-metal glider ever built.

Bologna

Bologna (/bəˈloʊnjə/ bə-LOHN-yə; Italian pronunciation: [boˈloɲɲa]; Emilian: Bulåggna, pronounced [buˈlʌɲːa]; Latin: Bononia) is the largest city (and the capital) of the Emilia-Romagna Region in Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy, located in the heart of a metropolitan area (officially recognized by the Italian government as a città metropolitana) of about one million.

The first settlements date back to at least 1000 BC. The city has been an urban centre, first under the Etruscans (Velzna/Felsina) and the Celts (Bona), then under the Romans (Bononia), then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality (for one century it was the fifth largest European city based on population). Home to the oldest university in the world,University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna hosts thousands of students who enrich the social and cultural life of the city. Famous for its towers and lengthy porticoes, Bologna has a well-preserved historical centre (one of the largest in Italy) thanks to a careful restoration and conservation policy which began at the end of the 1970s, on the heels of serious damage done by the urban demolition at the end of the 19th century as well as that caused by wars.

Dries Mertens

Dries Mertens (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdris ˈmɛrtə(n)s], born 6 May 1987) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Napoli and the Belgium national team.

Prior to Napoli, Mertens played for K.A.A. Gent, Eendracht Aalst, AGOVV Apeldoorn, FC Utrecht and PSV Eindhoven.

A full international since 2011, Mertens has gained over 30 caps for Belgium, and played at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

As a schoolboy Mertens was picked up by the Belgian youth academy of Anderlecht. He never reached the first team and moved to Gent. After playing in the youth department and the reserves of Gent, he was promoted to the first team. He was subsequently signed on loan with third-class Eendracht Aalst, where he was awarded the fans' "Man of the Season". He later moved across the northern border, to play for the Dutch club AGOVV Apeldoorn.

AGOVV

He became one of the most important players in the Dutch second division team and became the captain at AGOVV. After the 2008–09 season, Mertens won "De Gouden Stier", an award given to the Jupiler League's greatest talent. On 25 May 2009, he announced his leaving and soon after, he signed with FC Utrecht.