Serie A: Napoli at the Pinnacle of Italian Football… and Seek European Glory
By: AT
Image Credit: Alberto Sharif Ali Soleiman
On May 24, 2025, Serie A clubs SSC Napoli and Inter Milan — the first- and second-place clubs in the 2024-25 Serie A table after 37 matches — played their 38th and final match of the 2024-25 season, with Napoli holding a one-point lead ahead of 2023-24 Serie A winners Inter. Napoli, which were scheduled to play their final match of the season at home against Cagliari Calcio, only required a win to finish the 2024-25 season as Serie A winners. Inter, which were scheduled to play their final match away against Como 1907, needed a win and for Napoli to drop points — either via a loss or a draw — to become winners. Both Napoli and Inter were deprived of their managers, who both received red cards in their penultimate matches against Parma Calcio (0-0 draw) and SS Lazio (2-2 draw), respectively.
By the end of both matches, in Naples’s Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Napoli rose to the occasion with a decisive 2-0 victory, thanks in part to goals by former Manchester United forward Romelu Lukaku and midfielder Scott McTominay. Napoli concluded their season on a 12-match unbeaten streak, mustering seven wins and five draws.
At Como’s Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, Inter also mustered a 2-0 victory, thanks in part to goals by forward Angel Correa and defender Stefan de Vrij. However, that match was marred by the sending off of Como goalkeeper — and former Napoli goalkeeper — Pepe Reina, who was playing in his final matches of his career.
A Bounce-back Season
Following a disastrous 2023-24 season in which they were defending their 2022-23 Serie A title, Napoli struggled throughout their 38 league matches and mustered a dismal record of 13 wins, 14 draws and 11 losses. As a result, Napoli finished in 10th place with 53 points, a 37-point drop from the 2022-23 season and consequently missing out on any European football for 2024-25. In Coppa Italia, I Partenopei suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat against then-Serie A club Frosinone, dashing their hopes for silverware in a period during which the Serie A and UCL titles were virtually out of reach.
It is entirely possible, however, that Napoli managed to win the league title because of their lack of European football in 2023-24. While league runners-up Inter Milan had competed in the 2024-25 UCL and became that competition’s finalists, Napoli enjoyed a more flexible schedule and were able to use their starting lineup for most of the season without any significant squad changes needed for the sake of rest. Due to Inter’s runs to the UCL final and Coppa Italia semifinals, that club competed in 16 more matches than their southern Italian counterparts. Because of this, Napoli also had the privilege of dealing with less constraints, such as injuries and necessary time off for tired players.
Moreover, Napoli managed their squad exceptionally by rotating the lineup in defence and offence, which required re-shuffling due to injuries and transfers. In defence, centre-back Juan Jesus missed a significant number of matches, being one of very few perennial club starters to miss more than a handful of matches. As a result, Napoli at times switched their formation to three centre-backs and integrated left-back Mathías Olivera into the three-defender backline. As well, the summer 2024 additions of defenders Alessandro Buongiorno and Leonardo Spinazzola from Serie A rivals Torino FC and AS Roma provided Conte additional options. Though Buongiorno also missed a number of matches due to injury, Olivera’s integration to centre-back enabled Conte to easily slot in Spinazzola as a left-back.
In addition to injuries, Conte juggled his attacking players’ playing time to a tee. Despite the January departure of star forward Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain for €70.0 million (add-ons excluded), Conte was able to rely on forwards Giacomo Raspadori and David Neres to fill the void left by Kvaratskhelia’s mid-season departure. Both players performed to the level required, which helped fellow forwards Romelu Lukaku and Matteo Politano achieve successful seasons.
All four players — plus Kvaratskhelia — were clinical when needed. Their collective efficiency enabled attacking midfielder Scott McTominay, who arrived from Premier League club Manchester United for €35.5 million in summer 2024, to garner 18 goal contributions — 12 goals and six assists, including the match-winning goal against Cagliari — which contributed immensely to the Scottish international winning Serie A’s 2024-25 Most Valuable Player of the Season award.
To their fortunes, Napoli’s midfield of McTominay, Stanislav Lobotka, and André-Franck Zambo-Anguissa remained healthy throughout the season.
A Contrast to Previous Winners
In 2022-23, Napoli relied on their attacking flair, with such star forwards as Kvaratskhelia and Nigerian international Victor Osimhen — who is currently on loan at Turkish Süper Lig club Galatasaray until the end of June 2025 — and attacking midfielder Piotr Zieliński, who ironically signed with Inter Milan on a free transfer in summer 2024. This attacking-based system, crafted by then-Napoli manager and current Italian senior men’s national team head coach Luciano Spaletti, sparked a flashy and entertaining brand of football, leading to such results as a 5-1 home victory against league giants Juventus FC in November 2022. Throughout that season, Napoli scored 77 league goals and conceded 28 (+49 goal differential), boasting per-match averages of 2.03 goals scored and 0.74 goals conceded. Napoli’s goals-scored and goals-against statistics both ranked first among the 20 Serie A clubs from that season.
This season, however, Napoli played a typical Conte-style of football: ultra-defensive and relying on counterattacks to score no more than a couple of goals per match. Although they conceded only one league goal less than in 2022-23 — averaging 0.71 goals conceded per match — Napoli scored 59 goals (+32 goal differential), which culminates in a goals-per-match average of 1.55, a near-25% decline by that metric. Although Napoli had the best defence by far — Juventus ranked second in goals conceded in 2024-25 with 33 — four clubs scored more goals than Napoli. These four clubs are: Inter (79), Atalanta BC (76), Lazio (61) and AC Milan (61).
Next Moves and European Prospects
With another league title and a return to the UEFA Champions League in 2025-26, Napoli will seek greater glory on the continental stage. In their 98-year history, I Partenopei have won one European title, the 1988-89 UEFA Cup (now UEFA Europa League).
To compete at a higher level next season Conte made significant demands to Napoli’s front office and ownership — run by Aurelio De Laurentiis and his family — in order to stay at the club for the next season. These demands include:
signing a high-calibre player in every position/area of the field (goalkeeping, defence, midfield and attack), totalling up to nine new players;
spending over €200.0 million in transfer fees on those players; and
increasing the club’s wage bill from €80.0 million to approximately €110.0 million.
Is it clear that Conte not only wants to repeat as Serie A winners: the Italian wants to enhance this squad to the next level and transform the club through the squad’s overall calibre. He hopes that this transformation will materialize in Napoli becoming a perennial title contender and a potential contender for European glory, especially the UCL. Should De Laurentiis not meet these demands, Conte might opt out of his contract via the termination clause embedded in his three-year contract, enabling him to leave the club this summer.
So far, De Laurentiis reportedly is holding himself back from adhering to these demands, instead focusing on the club’s long-standing structural issues, particularly strengthening an underdeveloped academy and improving the club’s training centres and stadium.
However, should the club’s front office and ownership meet Conte’s demands, Napoli would have greater capacity to compete consistently against the greatest clubs of Europe. In 2022-23, the season in which Napoli won their third Scudetto, Napoli reached the UCL quarterfinals before suffering elimination against Serie A rivals AC Milan (2-1 on aggregate). With Italian football on the rise in UEFA competitions — Inter Milan’s two UCL finals appearances in three years and ACF Fiorentina’s consecutive UECL finals appearances in 2022-23 and 2023-24 constituting such proof — Napoli may become appropriate ambassadors of quality Italian football in the world’s most prestigious club competition.
For the Culture
Napoli’s title win sparked jubilation across Naples and the wider region of Campania, the region in which Naples is the largest city. Supporters throughout the city either walked chanting a number of traditional club chants and the title-winning chant “Siamo noi, i campioni dell’Italia siamo noi” (we are, we are champions of Italy) or drove street-by-street honking and displaying Napoli flags — all of whom wore Napoli jerseys, of course.
After seeing massive parades throughout Europe — from celebrating Newcastle United’s and Crystal Palace’s respective EFL and FA Cup wins to Barcelona’s LaLiga and Copa del Rey triumphs — Napoli supporters brought the celebrations to a whole other level, with fireworks and flares lit across the city and smoke throughout the stadiums to the point where viewers could no longer see the players for a few minutes.
The city of Naples lives and breathes football, very similar to how South Americans view the sport as a religion. After all, the club became famous thanks to arguably one of the best South American football legends, the same legend that influenced the people of Naples to create a world-renowned shrine (see image) and whose death prompted Naples’s municipal government to rename Napoli’s home ground in his honour. Maradona must undoubtedly be looking down from the skies and smiling in a sky-blue jersey.
Comment below whether Napoli will repeat as Serie A winners in 2025-26, or if it will be another club. If so, which club?
