Sampdoria was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s,[1] Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria.

[6] The first ancestor of Sampdoria to play in the Italian Football Championship was Sampierdarenese, who joined the third edition in 1900 for their only appearance before World War One.

[7] Andrea Doria eventually joined the competition in 1902, but did not win a game until the 1907 edition, when they beat local rivals Genoa 3–1.

[7] After the war Sampierdarenese finally began to compete in the Italian Championship replacing another club from Bolzaneto, then an independent town in the province of Genoa, called Associazione del Calcio Ligure.

[7] By season 1924–25, Sampdoria's ancestors were competing against each other in the Northern League; Andrea Doria finished one place above their rivals and won one match 2–1, while Sampierdarenese were victorious 2–0 in the other.

[8] Wearing green and black striped shirts, La Dominante Genova lived a short life, having played just three championships, and was not particularly successful.

[7] Dominante then absorbed the local team Corniglianese and competed in the 1930–31 Serie B under the name of Foot Ball Club Liguria.

The first chairman of this new club was Piero Sanguineti, but the ambitious entrepreneur Amedeo Rissotto soon replaced him, while the first team coach during this period was a man from Florence named Giuseppe Galluzzi.

For about thirty years the Genoese played constantly in Serie A, with mixed results, the best of which was in the 1960–1961 season, in which they obtained fourth place in the championship.

In 1979, the club, then playing Serie B, was acquired by oil businessman Paolo Mantovani (1930–1993), who invested in the team to bring Sampdoria to the top flight.

[16] Vujadin Boškov is recognised as one of Sampdoria's most successful managers winning a record amount of trophies and thus further establishing the club's reputation in Europe.

During the following four seasons, many players from his father's tenure left the club but many important acquisitions were made which kept Sampdoria in the top tier Serie A.

[17] With the signings of forwards Antonio Cassano from Real Madrid,[18] and Giampaolo Pazzini in January 2008, Sampdoria ended the 2007–08 season in sixth position and qualified for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup.

[19] The following season, they came fourth and qualified for the UEFA Champions League play-offs under manager Luigi Delneri, who left for Juventus.

[20] With the departures also of CEO Giuseppe Marotta, and both Cassano and Pazzini, and the squad being stretched by Champions League football, Sampdoria were relegated to Serie B after a 2–1 loss at home to Palermo in May 2011.

[21] In the following season June 2012, Sampdoria won promotion back to Serie A after defeating Varese 4–2 on aggregate in the play-off final.

Notable managerial appointments were Marco Giampaolo and Claudio Ranieri, as well as the steady flow of goals from talismanic striker Fabio Quagliarella.

On 6 December 2021 Massimo Ferrero was arrested by Italian police as part of ongoing investigations into corporate crimes and bankruptcy.

In January 2022 the club welcomed back former manager Marco Giampaolo after a disappointing start to the season under Roberto D'Aversa.

On 6 October former Serie A player legend Dejan Stanković was appointed to the role with the task of steering the club clear of the relegation zone.

The white, blue, red and black colours represent the club's origins with a merger between two teams, Sampierdarenese and Andrea Doria, who wore respectively red/black and white/blue jerseys with a shield with Saint-George cross.

[25] The club crest features a sailor in profile known by Genoese name of Baciccia, a diminutive of Ligurian Gio-Batta, Italian Giovanni Battista, i.e. John-Baptist.