Once-bankrupt Parma seals back-to-back promotions to reach Serie B

Declared bankrupt just two years ago and demoted to the semi-pro fourth division as punishment, Parma has slowly and steadily climbed the football ladder, inching ever closer to a spectacular return to Serie A.

The former UEFA Cup winner celebrated a 2-0 win Saturday over Alessandria in the Lega Pro promotion play-off final to advance to the Italian second tier, where it will fight next season for the right to once again play top-flight football.

It marked back-to-back promotions from Serie D, where its story had to restart.

Both goals were scrappy, opportunistic takes, but then again, to achieve such a feat required patience and concentration. Parma, the second-placed finisher in one of the three regional groups in Lega Pro, had to play 45 matches to realise this dream. Sixteen play-off teams fought for the last promotion spot, but Parma emerged on top, winning the final on a scorching day in Florence.

"After a year of sacrifices, winning in the playoffs is even more beautiful and difficult," Emanuele Calaio, a former Serie A striker who set up the first goal with a neat backheel, told Gianluca Di Marzio's website. "Even if I played in Serie A or B, winning a championship is especially exceptional in a place like Parma."

Six thousand supporters made the trip to Fiorentina's Stadio Artemio Franchi to witness the latest chapter in the club's rebirth.

(Photo courtesy: Gazzetta di Parma)

Once saddled with an estimated €100 million in debt, Parma's players faced a harsh reality toward the end of the 2014-15 Serie A season. Chairman Giampietro Manenti was arrested in a money-laundering scandal, electricity to the stadium was cut off, and there wasn't enough money to hire stewards or bus drivers. Parma delayed paying staff for months.

"Chiusi per furto," read one sign on the stadium's gate. Closed because of robbery.

Captain Alessandro Lucarelli opted to go down with I Crociati, sacrificing a long-standing top-flight career to be part of this revival. Thirty-seven years old at the time, he still had a lot to give.

Refounded and refinanced in July 2015 with the help of local investors, Parma continued to draw massive crowds in Serie D, averaging more than 10,000 spectators at the Tardini, and sold minority shares to those who wanted to help out. It was an opening toward fan ownership that wasn't popular in Italian football.

A swift season in the fourth division ended in success, but the third-tier Lega Pro posed bigger challenges. Parma finished 10 points behind Venezia, another burgeoning club under the ownership of brash U.S. investor Joe Tacopina, in Girone B, forcing it to take the longer route to Serie B.

Defeating Piacenza and Lucchese in two-legged playoffs before dispatching Pordenone in a one-off semi-final and Alessandria in Saturday's showpiece, Parma just kept moving forward.