From Sapri with a False Name – A Tale of Football, Salerno, and Heritage

Salernitano

Raimundo Bisogno was born and raised in a small fishing town in the Italian province of Salerno, called Sapri. He was one of the three brothers and one sister. His family could trace its origins to the forced migration of northern Italian non-Catholic Christians during the 17th Century. Said Christians often fled to other portions of the peninsula to avoid persecution from zealous supporters of the Papacy who all too often turned to violence. Most of these people settled in Southern Italy, looking to put considerable distance between themselves and said violence. It should be noted that Italy at this time was not a single country, but rather a region split between many kingdoms, with most of southern Italy controlled by the Kingdom of Naples.

Raimundo found himself needing to escape his hometown, Sapri, as he was present at a bar where a card game had turned into a violent brawl and one person was killed. Though he was not directly involved, the police went after all those present at the bar. The Bisogno family decided it was best for him to disappear from Sapri. The police were looking for a young man by the name of Vittorio, Raimundo’s real name. It was decided that he should take his younger brother’s name instead, which was Raimundo, in order to avoid being detained by the police as he sailed Corsica. The real Raimundo’s noticeably different age and appearance would be enough to keep both brothers from any form of punishment, as the police saw it as impossible that the Vittorio they eventually questioned was not the one at the bar.

As Raimundo separated himself from Italy, calcio continued to spread across the peninsula. As the game continues southward, it passes through Salerno, both province and city, and finds a new home in the form of Unione Sportiva Salernitana. The club would, to this very day, hold a reputation for being a constant in the middle of the Italian football pyramid, spending large stints in Serie C and Serie B. The club would appear in Serie in the 1947-48 season, during which they finished 18^th and were relegated, and would not reappear in the top flight until the 1998-99 season, in which they finished 15^th and were, again, relegated.