Could there be a new winner in Serie A this season?
Atalanta finish 2024 on top in Italy after a remarkable run in recent weeks
How many Serie A winners can you think of? Researching a possible piece for FourFourTwo recently, I wondered how many there had been. There’s Juventus, obviously. Inter and AC Milan. Napoli have won a few, including the 2022-23 title. Roma, Lazio. The Grande Torino of the 1940s. Bologna even earlier than that. Fiorentina in the 1950s. Calgliari with the great Gigi Riva in 1969-70. Hellas Verona in the miracolo season of 1984-85. Sampdoria in 1990-91.
Going back further to earlier iterations of the Italian top flight, there’s a few more: Genoa nine times between 1898 and 1924; Pro Vercelli on seven occasions from 1908 to 1922; Casale in 1913-14; and Novese in the 1921-22 Prima Categoria (albeit with most of the top teams playing in the newly formed Prima Divisione).
I must confess that I had not thought of all those teams, although I did know most of them. And when I couldn’t remember any more, I opened up the latest Serie A standings to see if there were any I had missed. And there, ahead of some of Italy’s grandest clubs, stood an outlier: Atalanta.
After a slow start to the 2024-25 season which included three defeats and only two wins in their opening six games, Atalanta went on a remarkable run of 11 straight victories in Serie A and finish the year in top spot after salvaging a point with an 88th-minute equaliser to secure a 1-1 draw away to Lazio on Saturday night.
Atalanta have never won Serie A, but the Bergamo-based club are currently enjoying the greatest era in their history under Gian Piero Gasperini. The 66-year-old has been in charge since 2016 and led La Dea to three third-placed finishes in a row between 2019 and 2021. In 2023-24, Atalanta came in fourth and also won the Europa League, defeating Bayer Leverkusen, previously unbeaten all season at home and in Europe, 3-0 in the final to win a first major trophy since the Coppa Italia in 1963.
Saturday night’s draw at Lazio leaves Atalanta a point clear of Inter at the top of the table, albeit having played one more match than the defending champions. But with three different winners in the last three seasons, Serie A looks wide open again. So could this be Atalanta’s year?
Gasperini’s side face Inter next in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-finals in Saudi Arabia on January 2nd, with the winners to meet either AC Milan or Juventus in the final four days later. For Atalanta, it is a first-ever appearance in the tournament, and could be an indication of the team’s title credentials. A new Serie A winner in 2025? It would mark another wonderful chapter in what is already such a special story for the Bergamo club and their fans.
Gasperini is incredible, and after that surprising Europa League campaign defeating massive teams, they deserve a title.
Gasperini is good manager and LOOKMAN has been on fire so they got good chance to win it this season but also Napoli with LUKAKU and no european football and Inter with MARTINEZ AND THURAM could win it as well so it could be a great title race for first time in a long time for SERIE A