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Juventus dominate
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While the English Premier League is unquestionably the biggest league in the world, Serie A held that title during the 1990s. Even through the mid-1980s when Diego Maradona was mesmerising at Napoli and AC Milan were the dominant force in European football, Italy was the dream destination for all top footballers. Serie A was extremely competitive with the ‘Seven Sisters’ - Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Roma, Fiorentina, Parma - all capable of beating each other in thrilling encounters.
Serie A clubs were also the biggest spenders in Europe and some of the most iconic footballers of their generation strutted their stuff in Italy - Zinédine Zidane, Marco van Basten, Ruud Guilt, Francesco Totti and Paolo Maldini to name just a few. This century, Serie A clubs’ financial struggles have coincided with the rise of the Premier League and some of its prestige has evaporated. Serie A, however, remains one of the best leagues in Europe and with the transfer window now open, we’ve analysed the record signings by Italian clubs. You can view the full top 100 list of most expensive signings in the link below - which will update throughout the summer - and we’ve closer analysed the top 20.
The top 20 record Serie A signings
The top 20 list is accurate as of June 25th but it’s unlikely to change significantly across the summer due to financial constraints facing the majority of leading Italian clubs. Cristiano Ronaldo’s €117 million move to Juventus from Real Madrid in 2018 is the most expensive signing by a Serie A club in history and the only deal in excess of €100m. The legendary Portuguese attacker scored 101 goals in 134 games but was unable to help the Old Lady achieve their ultimate ambition of winning the Champions League. As the graphic below illustrates, all top five signings were made by Juventus with Gonzalo Higuaín’s €90m move from Napoli ranking second.
The most expensive Serie A signing outside of Juventus was Victor Osimhen’s €78.9m move from Lille to Napoli with the Nigerian firing them to the Scudetto in 2023. Only five Italian clubs feature in the top 20 with Inter’s record signing Romelu Lukaku (€74m), Lazio’s Hernán Crespo (€56.8m) and AC Milan’s Rafael Leão (€49.5m). Some iconic names from the early 2000s
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