Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia wants to take club all the way to Serie B.

The grandson of Italy’s last king is seeking to buy Savoia, an historic Italian football club near Naples that bears his family's name and royal crest.

Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, 50, presented his proposal at Torre Annunziata on Wednesday, as part of a bid by the Casa Reale consortium.

One of the oldest clubs in southern Italy, A.C. Savoia was established in 1908 and currently plays in the fifth league of Italian soccer.

Filiberto said his dream is to take Savoia "back where it deserves to be", first to the third-tier Serie C "within three or four years" before progressing upwards to Serie B.

The heir to the defunct Italian throne said he would try to give Savoia "a future of a clean sports club" away from alleged links in the past to the Camorra.

Filiberto also outlined plans to establish a youth sports academy "to keep young people away from crime" as part of a broader project focusing on society.

Who is Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy?

Born in Geneva in 1972, Emanuele Filiberto was raised in Switzerland as an exile from Italy. He is the grandson of King Umberto II who ruled for only 34 days.

Filiberto's great-grandfather, King Vittorio Emmanuele III, abdicated in favour of Umberto in May 1946 after being discredited by his support for Mussolini during world war two.

Italy's Festa della Repubblica, which takes place every 2 June, commemorates the day in 1946 when Italians voted in favour of a republic and against the monarchy.

Filiberto first set foot on Italian soil in 2002 after an amendment was made to the Italian constitution lifting the ban that had prohibited male descendants of the House of Savoy from entering Italy.

A former hedge fund manager, Filiberto has made many headlines over the years, from his street food venture in Los Angeles to his appearance on Italy's version of the TV show Strictly Come Dancing.

In 2019 he raised eyebrows in Italy with a televised address announcing the return of the royals however it turned out to be a promotional stunt for the "House of Savoy" clothing line.

A year later he announced the formation of a new political movement while in 2021 he issued an apology to Italy's Jewish community for the signing of the "shameful" 1938 racial laws by his great-grandfather.

Earlier this year Filiberto represented his ageing father and three aunts in a lawsuit against the Italian state in an attempt to reclaim the family's crown jewels which have been kept in a bank vault in Rome since 1946.

Filiberto is married to French actress Clotilde Courau, with two daughters, Vittoria and Luisa.

Photo La Stampa