The Italian resurgence

After falling behind EPL and La Liga in the pecking order, three Serie A teams are in the finals of Europe’s three club competitions

All the talk in European club football right now is about how phenomenal Manchester City have been and their pursuit of greatness. Trailing behind surprise leaders Arsenal for the better part of the Premier League, they pressed the accelerator at the right moment in the marathon race and now stand just one win away from capturing their fifth English title in six years.

Last Wednesday, they bullied record 14-time Champions League winners Real Madrid with their robotic fast-pressing game to complete a 4-0 win on the night (5-1 on aggregate) and storm into the final of the continent’s showpiece event. With a FA Cup final against bitter rivals Manchester United scheduled on June 3, they stand on the cusp of a treble which would be the crowning moment for Pep Guardiola who has turned a club that was already at the top of the pyramid in England into an irresistible force in the continent.

Completely shadowed by City’s remarkable rise and a potential for a treble — Manchester United are the only other English side to achieve the feat in 1998-99 — is the story of the resurrection of Italian club football.

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Once a sought-after league and a dominant player in the continent, Serie A has ceded supremacy to the English Premier League and the La Liga since the start of the millennium. The Premier League, valued at approximately $18 billion, is one of the most popular and richest sporting leagues in the world along with the NBA, NFL and IPL.

La Liga, with Real Madrid and Barcelona, the two most popular teams in the world on social media, is not far behind either. Although the exits of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid and Lionel Messi from Barcelona have hit the clubs and league financially, they still are amongst the top-10 in the world. Barring Juventus, who still have a large fan following, other teams have stunningly fallen down the pecking order in Italy.

Things, however, are beginning to look brighter for the Italians with three teams involved in the finals of the three different continental championships. AS Roma will be looking to kick-start an unthinkable Italian sweep when they take on Sevilla in the Europa League final in Budapest on May 31, Fiorentina then clash with West Ham United in the Europa Conference League final in Prague on June 7 before Inter Milan battle heavy favourites Manchester City in the Champions League decider in Istanbul on June 11. The last time the Italians accomplished such a stupendous feat was in 1990 when AC Milan won the European Cup, Juventus claimed the UEFA Cup and Sampdoria clinched the now-defunct European Cup Winners' Cup.

When the season kick-started last summer, even the bravest of bookmakers wouldn’t have predicted three Italian teams would be involved in three different continental events considering the country, four-time world champions, didn’t even qualify for the last two World Cups.

It’s not just the three finalists that has ignited talks of Italian football getting a much-needed new lease of life. AC Milan, once a continental heavyweight with seven European titles (both the European Cup and the Champions League) and home to some of the most famous players, lost an all-Italian Champions League semifinal against archrivals Inter. Juventus narrowly missed out on a chance of setting up an all-Italian Europa League final against Roma after being undone by the competition’s kings Sevilla, losing 2-1 in extra time.

“We're talking about an exceptional result, having five Italian teams in European competition has never happened before,” Serie A chief executive Luigi De Siervo was quoted by AP late last month. “We're convinced that this — in the year that we're selling the TV rights — will bring our football back to the top of the world: we're coming back to show ourselves for what we are. It's been a long journey, forged over time.”

A big factor in Italian teams doing well this season is the increased competitiveness in the league over the last five years. Unlike the Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga in Germany which have been totally dominated by 2-3 teams with others battling for lesser spoils, Serie A has had four different champions over the last five years. After Inter Milan stopped Juventus’ nine-year reign at the top in 2020-21, AC Milan emerged triumphant last season before Napoli claimed the Scudetto with a mesmerising and emotional victory this season.

Although Napoli, with their brand of breathless football, have emerged as a prickly opponent for even top sides in the continent, sustaining it for nearly 10 months in a league - where defence is the king - seemed implausible. But with intense passion from the players, they kept firing like Ferrari engines week in and week out to scale the peak that had been insurmountable since the magical triumph - inspired by the late Argentine great Diego Maradona - in 1989-90.

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“Serie A is the only league in Europe where four different teams have won in the past four years: Juve, then Inter, Milan and now Napoli. That is what has led to us improving in Europe over the past four years. I hope now that it is a long-lasting result,” acknowledged De Siervo.

The Italian clubs have also been blessed with good coaches, some of who may not elicit the same adulation as Pep Guardiola or Juergen Klopp or Carlo Ancelotti but are tactically astute and know how to work within limitations — budget and talent-wise. Inter’s Simone Inzaghi and Milan’s Stefano Pioli hail from the Emilia Romagna region — the same place where the great Ancelotti, winner of four Champions League crowns as coach, is from. Both Inzaghi and Pioli understand deeply what method works for Italian clubs and have gone about resurrecting the fortunes of the fallen giants in admirable fashion.

Napoli too is being helmed by another Italian in Luciano Spalletti while Roma have heaped their faith on the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho, who now stands on the verge of landing two European titles in as many seasons for the Wolves. Fiorentina are coached by Vincenzo Italiano, who is slowly finding his feet against the big boys.

All of them don’t have massive budgets like City, Liverpool, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich with some clubs relying on ageing or fallen stars like Romelu Lukaku (Inter), Eden Dzeko (Inter), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Inter), Olivier Giroud (Milan), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan), Divock Origi (Milan), Nemanja Matic (Roma), Georginio Wijnaldum (Roma), Angel di Maria (Juventus) and Paul Pogba (Juventus) to add experience and solidity to their respective squads. Despite the limitations, all of them have found a way and what has held them in good stead is the camaraderie and ability to punch together as a team.

It's not all roses, though, as Serie A still has some serious things to fix if they want to cash in on the resurgence, considering the upcoming sale of domestic TV rights which is very vital for clubs to compete consistently with English and Spanish counterparts. Firstly, it's racism which still is very deep-rooted in the country. Players of colour are often subjected to abuse even from their own fans and authorities have done very little to curb it.

Secondly, there are the non-stop scandals. Juventus, no stranger to it, await their fate on Monday when a ruling will emerge for their alleged role in false accounting. The Bianconeri were hit with a 15-point penalty in January but the punishment was suspended last month and the case was referred back to the football federation's appeals court.

If the authorities can crack upon such practices and the clubs keep performing consistently, this won't just be a flash in the pan. It's a base that can be built upon.