Unione Sportiva Sassuolo Calcio, commonly referred to as Sassuolo ([sasˈswɔːlo]), is an Italian football club based in Sassuolo, Emilia-Romagna. Their colours are black and green, hence the nickname Neroverdi (literally "black and green", in Italian).
Sassuolo have played in Serie A since the 2013–14 season, joining a select group of teams playing in the Serie A but not belonging to a provincial capital city: U.S. Savoia 1908 (Torre Annunziata), Empoli, Legnano, Pro Patria (Busto Arsizio), Carpi and Casale.
The club was founded in 1920 and played in the Emilian amateur divisions for most of its history until its first promotion to Serie D in 1968. In this era, the club merged with other local football teams to eventually form the current US Sassuolo Calcio in 1974. In 1984, the club gained promotion to Serie C2, the lowest level of professional football in Italy. However, they were relegated in 1990 and subsequently spent most of the 1990s in Serie D. In 1998, a second-place finish ensured promotion back to Serie C2.
Sassuolo reached Serie C1 for the first time in 2006 after winning the Serie C2 promotion play-offs by beating Sansovino in the final. In the following years, Sassuolo proved to be a serious contender for promotion to Serie B. With Gian Marco Remondina as head coach, they barely missed it in 2007, as they lost immediate promotion to Grosseto in the final days of the season, finishing in second-place; and then were defeated by fifth-placed Monza in the play-off semi-finals. Remondina then left Sassuolo to join Serie B's Piacenza, and former Serie A player Massimiliano Allegri was then chosen as new head coach.