The club was founded in 1920 and achieved its greatest success in 1970 when it won the Italian championship.
Although Cagliari Calcio in its current form did not come into being until 1934, the official founding date is August 20, 1920. On that day, a group of students from the University of Cagliari founded the FC Cagliari, which four years later joined the US Italia club as the Club Sportivo Cagliari and was only regionally significant until its dissolution in 1934. In the same year the club was re-established as Unione Sportiva Cagliari (US Cagliari) and in the post-war years initially commuted between series B and C (2nd and 3rd league) before they achieved their sporting breakthrough in 1964 with promotion to Serie A. succeeded.
US Cagliari quickly established themselves in the top Italian division and achieved the club's greatest success to date with the Italian championship title in 1970, after they had already become runner-up the year before. The storm star Luigi "Gigi" Riva , to this day the greatest idol of the Cagliari fans and still the record scorer not only of the Sardinian club, but also of the Italian national team, played a decisive role in this . In the European Cup, however, they were unable to build on their national successes in these years. First Cagliari failed after the runner-up in the second round of the UEFA Cup at FC Carl Zeiss Jena ( GDR ) and a year later in the European Cup of Champions at the Spanish representatives Atlético Madrid . The greatest success here was reaching the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 1994, where they failed against league rivals Inter Milan (3-2, 0-3) after they had already defeated another Italian representative, Juventus Turin (1 : 0, 2: 1), surprisingly turned off.
Stadium move, return and construction of the new stadium
On May 16, 2012, the authorities declared the Stadio Sant'Elia to be a danger to the general public due to safety deficiencies. Cagliari played the last games of the 2011/12 season at the Stadio Nereo Rocco in Trieste . For the 2012/13 season , Cagliari Calcio initially moved for three years as a temporary solution to the Stadio Is Arenas in Quartu Sant'Elena , which was converted to meet the demands of Serie A. However, the move did not solve the stadium problem. From the start there were safety concerns at Stadio Is Arenas and the permit was partially denied. Before the end of the 2012/13 season, the club left the venue and once again used the Trieste Stadio Nereo Rocco for the final games. After negotiations between Cagliari Calcio and the city, it was agreed to return the club to its old venue. The first home games of the 2013/14 season had to be played in Trieste before returning to the Stadio Sant'Elia in October 2013. From the 2019/20 season, a new arena with a capacity of 25,200 spectators is to be installed on the site of the current stadium. The construction work should be completed in June 2021, the cost of which is expected to be 55 million euros. As a temporary venue was required and the home games were to continue to be played in Sardinia, a replacement stadium was built on the parking lots next to the Sant'Elia for the duration of the construction work. The main grandstand of the old Stadio Is Arenas was used for this. The temporary stadium has a capacity of 16,233 spectators and will be available from the 2017/18 season. The construction of the Sardegna Arena cost around eight million euros.
Biggest win: Varese Calcio SSD - Cagliari Calcio 1: 6 in the season 1969/70, Torino Calcio - Cagliari Calcio 0: 5 in 1992/93, Cagliari Calcio - Sampdoria Genoa 5: 0 in 1998/99, Cagliari Calcio - FC Empoli 5: 1 1998/99, Cagliari Calcio - FC Bologna 5: 1 2008/09, Cagliari Calcio - AS Roma 5: 1 2010/11
Biggest defeat: SSC Napoli - Cagliari Calcio 5: 0 1974/75, Sampdoria Genoa - Cagliari Calcio 5: 0 1994/95, US Palermo - Cagliari Calcio 5: 0 2014/15, Cagliari Calcio - SSC Napoli 0: 5 2016/17
Matches with the most goals: Cagliari Calcio - Sampdoria Genoa 5: 3 1975/76, SSC Napoli - Cagliari Calcio 6: 3 2008/09, Udinese Calcio - Cagliari Calcio 6: 2 2008/09, CFC Genoa - Cagliari Calcio 5: 3 2009/10, Cagliari Calcio - AC Firenze 3: 5 2016/17, Sassuolo Calcio - Cagliari Calcio 6: 2 2016/17