It’s not just Ronaldinho in Serie C: here are Alcione and Ostiamare

Major cities, provincial fairy tales, the Under-23 teams of Serie A clubs. In Serie C there is room for everyone, from Bari to Catania, from Ronaldinho’s Ravenna to Pianese from Piancastagnaio, a town in the Siena area with fewer than 4,000 inhabitants. A new element is emerging within this fascinating geographical and social melting pot: the small metropolitan club. In the 2026/2027 season, both Rome and Milan have three clubs in the professional leagues. Joining the usual suspects are Ostiamare and Alcione, two clubs founded in the post-war period that are currently experiencing a period of great ambition.

The team will compete in Group B as a newly promoted side. It was only in 2025 that Daniele De Rossi, a native of Ostia who came through the ranks at Ostiamare, bought the club. It was not a whim prompted by his abrupt departure from Roma. After just one year, the club has already made the leap, although the owner had to step aside to continue his career on the touchline. The distance does not diminish the resources, vision and organisation. Not least because there are trusted individuals in leadership roles.

On 6 August, his father Alberto was appointed chairman; he has spent his entire career in the Giallorossi’s youth system, winning numerous trophies and nurturing many young talents through to the Primavera team. He will be responsible for managing the technical side of operations across the first team and the youth teams.

Giulio Gallazzi, on the other hand, was not a footballer, but he was certainly a successful sportsman. The president of Alcione won the European American Football Championship in 1987. He then embarked on a career in financial consultancy, becoming CEO of the SRI Group. Since joining Alcione in 2021, he has given a major boost to a club that has always been well known in Milan for its youth development programme. Giuseppe Dossena, Alessandro Pistone, Andrea Caracciolo and Nicolò Rovella all took their first steps on the pitch wearing the orange-and-blue shirt. To this day, the youth sector remains the breeding ground for a first team that is set to play its third consecutive season in Group A. Having comfortably avoided relegation in 2025 and lost in the first round of the play-offs in 2026, the chairman was clear when presenting the season at the press conference on 14 July: “Raising the bar” – easy to say, and perhaps even to do for those who started out in the Eccellenza.

Is it possible to thrive in two cities that are so large, yet so saturated in terms of football support? Rome and Milan have never been like London – which has six teams in the Premier League this year – nor like Madrid, where Rayo Vallecano has now firmly established itself alongside Real and Atlético (not to mention Getafe in the wider metropolitan area). There has never been room for a third team, apart from Rome’s Lodigiani in Serie C1 and C2 between 1983 and 2005. It already seemed like a miracle – and perhaps it was. Ostiamare has the advantage of representing a vast area. Rome’s 10th Municipality, where Ostia is situated, has a population of around 200,000 residents – a huge catchment area to draw from. The launch of the new white-and-purple kit is based precisely on the concept of ‘roots and wings’: a sense of belonging and the ability to take flight. Just as De Rossi did.

Milan is much smaller than Rome, and Alcione cannot count on the support of such a densely populated neighbourhood. However, the club refuses to bow to the duopoly of Inter and Milan and emphasises its ties to the city: following its promotion in 2024, it attempted to make the ‘Gianni Brera’ Civic Arena its home ground. This year’s away shirt features a beautiful design inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, but Alcione will be playing their away fixtures at the Ferruccio Stadium in Seregno, where they have entered into a partnership agreement with the local team: they will supply young players from their academy for the Eccellenza league. In short, a reserve team, alongside a women’s section launched this year, ranging from the Pulcine (under-10s) to the first team in Serie C. Meanwhile, discussions are continuing regarding the new stadium in the suburbs, in Settimo Milanese.

Infrastructure acts as a barrier to the expansion of other organisations. Whilst even Serie A clubs are struggling to manage their administrative workloads, smaller clubs are forced to resort to temporary solutions and race against the clock. Ostiamare, whilst renovation work continues on the historic ‘Anco Marzio’ ground, only received confirmation on 9 July that it would be able to play at the nearby ‘Stella Polare’ stadium, home to the Nea Ostia rugby team. Three small pitches – one grass, one sand and one concrete – have been added to the sports centre to improve the young players’ technical and motor skills. “Becoming Rome’s third football hub? Ambitious but not impossible,” said De Rossi when he was introduced. Both in the capital and in Milan, there are projects and ideas aimed at moving away from the usual derbies.