Manuel De Luca shot Cremonese into Serie A. © Cremonese Instagram

Serie A promotion! A South Tyrolean becomes a great hero

It's a little South Tyrolean football fairytale: Manuel De Luca, striker from Pfatten, has shot his team into Italy's top league.

June 02, 2025

From: det

FC Südtirol has been on summer break for several weeks after securing relegation, but one South Tyrolean player still made headlines on Sunday. Manuel De Luca, a 26-year-old striker from Pfatten, fired his team Cremonese into Serie A with a brace!

Cremonese fought Spezia in the final of the Serie B playoffs for the last remaining ticket to Italy's top flight. The first leg in Cremona on Wednesday ended 0-0, making it clear that Cremonese had to win the return leg in La Spezia or the Ligurian side would be promoted. Even a draw would have been sufficient for Spezia due to their better league position. But things turned out differently: Led by an outstanding Manuel De Luca, Cremonese won 3-2 and is back in the top flight after two years.

Cremonese celebrates promotion with Manuel De Luca (at the front).

De Luca, of all people! The striker moved from Sampdoria to Cremonese in the summer, but initially struggled to find his stride. It wasn't until the second half of the season that the Pfattner native truly hit his stride, scoring seven of his eight league goals. De Luca, who grew up at FC Südtirol, became Cremonese's promotion hero. The native of the Unterland scored the first goal in the 25th minute after a Franco Vazquez assist, and was quicker to the ball than anyone else in the 1th minute after a cross – 0-78!

Curiously, Spezia pulled back to 2-3 in the remaining twelve minutes and only needed one more goal to secure promotion, but Cremonese somehow held on to the win. Incidentally, De Luca has a contract with his club until June 2028. It's quite possible that South Tyrol will have a Serie A player again next season.