With the new season in Italy starting tomorrow morning, I thought it would only be necessary to do a brief opening article on the biggest soccer competition in Italy including notable Serie A transfers.
A brief history:
Up until 1922, professional soccer in Italy was divided by regional groups. After a few years of back and forth, it settled in the 1929-1930 season as we know it today. Italians refer to the championship title as the Scudetto which means “small shield” because their tradition is that the winning team wears the Italian tricolor logo on their kit the following season. Juventus is the league’s most successful team with 33 Scudetto wins, 7 of which have been consecutive since the 2011-2012 season. Next with 18 each are AC Milan and their rival Inter Milan. Serie A is a popular stop for star players during their careers. FourFourTwo magazine did a Top 100 greatest footballers of all-time list and of the 100 players on that list, 42 of them have played in Italy. Cristiano Ronaldo would be the most recent example of a star player transferring to Italy.
We saw players on the move all around the world, and there was no lack of movement in Italy. Ronaldo’s relocation to Serie A was the biggest transfer involving the Italian league this summer, by far. Easily the biggest deal of the transfer season in general. The move made the Italian giant Juventus even better than they already were. Although they dumped a goal scoring threat in Gonzalo Higuain in the off season, we can expect Ronaldo to pick up that weight and go above and beyond. One can only predict that they will be celebrating as Italian champions once again, for the 8th time in a row. Also headed to Turin (again) is Leonardo Bonucci, a solid defender who played with Juventus from 2010-2017 before transferring to AC Milan for the 2017-2018 season. This strengthens the defending champions defense even more as Bonucci rejoins his old teammate Giorgio Chiellini in the back. They will be focused on a Champions League win, something that hasn’t happened for the club since 1996.
As noted above, AC Milan acquired the Argentine Gonzalo Higuain who will look to be the head of the attack for them as they attempt to break the streak of Scudetto wins that Juve currently holds. With the same goal in mind of dethroning Juventus, Inter Milan made some changes that should help in this quest. The signings of two solid defenders, Sime Vrsaljko and Stefan De Vrij will do wonders in the back for a team who looks to make it back into the top 3 for the first time since the 2010-2011 season. Vrsaljko, who played magnificently in the World Cup for the runner up Croatia is coming from a top 3 team in Spain who has had plenty of experience playing against the likes Ronaldo and other superstars in both La Liga and Champions League. Another promising signing for Inter is Radja Nainggolan, the Belgian midfielder from Roma is a solid signing who is an aggressive engine in the mid who should do wonders for the squads improvement goals.
The last three seasons have finished with Roma and Napoli swapping back and forth between the second and third place positions in the standings behind the reigning squad from Turin. Although their rosters are deep with talent, it is difficult to expect it to finish with those three again as the additions to both teams in Milan have boosted expectations. We can assume there will be a tight race in the top part of the league. One would be practically insane to bet against Juventus winning it all again this year, but plenty of teams will be competing for one of those top 3 spots in order to spark a birth in the Champions League. It should be a fun and entertaining season nonetheless.
A few other notable Serie A transfers:
- Keita Balde on loan to Inter
- Bakayoko on loan to AC Milan
- Steven N’Zonzi signs a four-year deal with Roma
- Kwadwo Asamoah leaves Juve for Inter
- Kevin-Prince Boateng to Sassuolo
- Emre Can leaves the EPL for Juventus
- Ospina on season-long loan to Napoli
- Gervinho returns to Italy, signing with Parma