One of the professional football clubs playing in Serie A is Unione Sportiva Lecce, commonly referred to as Lecce. The club which was founded in 1908 is based in Lecce, Apulia.
Lecce has spent a large part of its recent history moving from Serie A and Serie B. The club debuted in the top-flight in the 1985–86 season and obtained Its best Serie A finish in the ninth place in the 1988–89 season.
The club is 27th in the Serie A all-time table and is the second club from Apulia as regards appearances in the first two tiers of Italian football, with 15 Serie A seasons and 25 Serie B seasons. Lecce won a Coppa Ali della Vittoria as Serie B winner in 2010, a Coppa Italia Serie C in 1975 and an Anglo-Italian Cup Semiprofessionals in 1976.
Lecce plays its home games at Stadio Via del Mare which has a capacity of 31,533 spectators. Lecce’s current coach is Fabio Liverani who joined in September 2017 leading the giallorossi to a double promotion from Serie C to Serie B first and Serie A TIM after.
US Lecce play in yellow and red stripped shirt, purple shorts, and red socks. The club stadium is the 31,533 seat Stadio Via del Mare. Lecce players and fans are referred to as salentini or giallorossi. The symbol of Lecce is a female wolf under a holm oak, three which is typical to Apulia and is also the symbol of the city of Lecce
From 1959 to 1975, Lecce played 17 seasons in Serie C. They came extremely close to promotion several times during that period, finishing in second place three seasons in a row before gaining promotion in the 1975–76 season.
The same year as their promotion, Lecce tasted cup success, winning the Coppa Italia Serie C. In 1976, Lecce took part in the Anglo-Italian Cup, notching up a 4–0 victory against Scarborough.
In 1980, a scandal occurred which rocked Italian football, including Lecce under president Franco Jurlano. However, Jurlano was able to demonstrate his innocence and the scandal only lead to the disqualification of player Claudius Merlo.
Later, the club was struck by a tragedy in 1983: players Michele Lo Russo and Ciro Pezzella died in an automotive accident. To this day, Lo Russo remains the club record holder for the most number of appearances, with 415
On 10 August 2012, Lecce was provisionally relegated by the Disciplinary Commission set up for the Scommessopoli scandal investigations 2012–13 Lega Pro Prima Divisione because of their involvement.
Furthermore, the former president of Lecce, Semeraro, was suspended from all football activities for five years. On 22 August 2012, Lecce’s relegation was confirmed by the Federal Court of Justice.
In the first season back into the third tier, Lecce ended in second place behind outsiders Trapani and was surprisingly defeated in the promotion playoffs finals by another outsider club, Carpi.
The following season ended in a similar fashion, with Lecce failing to win the league once again and then losing the playoffs finals, this time to Frosinone, despite a number of high-level signings such as former Palermo star, and well-known Lecce supporter, Fabrizio Miccoli.
In 2014–15 Lecce ended the season in sixth place and did not enter the playoffs. The club ended the 2015–16 season in third place, two points behind the second-placed team, and qualified for the playoffs round. After defeating Bassano 3–0 at home, in the semi-finals Lecce lost to Foggia in both the home and the away match.
In the following season, Lecce finished in second place. The elimination came in the playoff quarterfinals against Alessandria on penalties after two draws in two matches.
Lecce finally saw the light in 2017–18, when the giallorossi achieved promotion to Serie B securing a top-two finish with a 1–0 victory against Paganese with one game to go. The following season saw Lecce clinch the second consecutive promotion, gaining a spot in Serie A after seven years, thanks to a second-place finish in Serie B.
The highest-paid player at US Lecce is Khouma Babacar with €35,500 per week, followed by Filippo Falco, who earns €28,500 per week.
US Lecce Players Salaries 2019/20 and contracts 2019/20
| Player Name | Age | Weekly Salary | Contract Until |
| Khouma Babacar | 26 | €35,500 | 2020 |
| Filippo Falco | 27 | €28,500 | 2022 |
| Luca Rossettini | 34 | €28,500 | 2021 |
| Gianluca Lapadula | 29 | €27,000 | 2020 |
| Andrea La Mantia | 28 | €25,000 | 2022 |
| Andrea Rispoli | 30 | €25,000 | 2021 |
| Diego Farias | 29 | €25,000 | 2021 |
| Fabio Lucioni | 31 | €25,000 | 2021 |
| Gabriel | 26 | €25,000 | 2021 |
| Gianelli Imbula | 26 | €24,500 | 2020 |
| Romatio Benzar | 27 | €24,500 | 2022 |
| Cristian Dell’Orco | 25 | €21,000 | 2020 |
| Panagiotis Tachtsidis | 28 | €20,000 | 2022 |
| Yevhen Shakhov | 28 | €20,000 | 2021 |
| Andrea Tabanelli | 29 | €18,000 | 2020 |
| Biagio Meccariello | 28 | €18,000 | 2021 |
| Jacopo Petriccione | 24 | €18,000 | 2022 |
| Marco Mancosu | 31 | €18,000 | 2021 |
| Mauro Vigorito | 29 | €18,000 | 2021 |
| Brayan Vera | 20 | €17,000 | 2022 |
| Zan Majer | 27 | €17,000 | 2022 |
| Riccardo Fiamozzi | 26 | €14,250 | 2021 |
| Favide Riccardi | 23 | €11,000 | 2022 |
| Radoslav Tsonev | 24 | €11,000 | 2021 |
| Antonio Gallo | 19 | €7,000 | 2022 |
| Edgaras Dubickas | 21 | €7,000 | 2021 |
| Marco Calderoni | 30 | €6,500 | 2020 |
| Luka Dumancic | 20 | €1,000 | 2020 |
| Gianmarco Chironi | 22 | €700,00 | 2020 |
