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Associazione Sportiva Roma was founded in the summer of 1927 by Italo Foschi,[1] who initiated the merger of three older Italian Football Championship clubs from the city of Rome; Roman, Alba-Audace and Fortitudo.[1] The purpose of the merger was to give the Eternal City a strong club to rival that of the more dominant Northern Italian clubs of the time.[1] The only major Roman club to resist the merger was Lazio who were already a well established sporting society.[2]
The club played its earliest seasons at the Motovelodromo Appio stadium,[3] before settling in the working-class streets of Testaccio, where it built an all-wooden ground Campo Testaccio; this was opened in November 1929.[4] An early season in which Roma made a large mark was the 1930–31 championship, the club finished as runners-up behind Juventus.[5] Captain Attilio Ferraris along with Guido Masetti, Fulvio Bernardini and Rodolfo Volk were highly important players during this period.[6]
First title victory and decline
After a slump in league form and the departure of high key players, Roma eventually rebuilt their squad adding goalscorers such as the Argentine Enrique Guaita.[7] Under the management of Luigi Barbesino, the Roman club came close to their first title in 1935–36; finishing just one point behind champions Bologna.[8]
Roma returned to form after being inconsistent for much of the late 1930s; AS Roma recorded an unexpected title triumph in the 1941–42 season by winning their first ever scudetto title.[9] The eighteen goals scored by local player Amedeo Amadei were essential to the Alfréd Schaffer coached Roma side winning the title. At the time Italy was involved in World War II and Roma were playing at the Stadio del Partito Nazionale Fascista.[10]
In the years just after the war, Roma were unable to recapture their league stature from the early 1940s.[5] Roma finished in the lower half of Serie A for five seasons in a row, before eventually succumbing to their only ever relegation to Serie B at the end of the 1950–51 season;[11][5] around a decade after their championship victory. Under future national team manager Giuseppe Viani, promotion straight back up was achieved.[12]
After returning to Serie A, Roma managed to stabilise themselves as a top half club again with players such as Egisto Pandolfini, Dino Da Costa and Dane Helge Bronée.[5] Their best finish of this period was under the management of Englishman Jesse Carver, when in 1954–55 they finished as runners-up, after Udinese who originally finished second were relegated for corruption.[5]
Although Roma were unable to break into the top four during the following decade, they did achieve some measure of cup success. Their first honour outside of Italy was recorded in 1960–61 when Roma won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by beating Birmingham City 4–2 in the finals.[13] A few years later Roma won their first Coppa Italia trophy in 1963–64, by beating Torino 1–0.[14] Their second Coppa Italia trophy was won in 1968–69 when it was competed in a small league like system.[14] Giacomo Losi set a Roma appearance record during 1969 with 450 appearances in all competitions, the record he set would last for 38 years.[15]
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