Napoli are the 2024/25 Serie A champions following their win over Cagliari in Friday’s title battle finale. Antonio Conte’s men made sure to resist the threat posed by Inter Milan to claim their second Scudetto in three years.
Napoli are the 2024/25 Serie A champions for a fourth time in their history. The title battle in Italy’s top tier draws to a conclusion with the Partenopei holding off Inter Milan’s threat in Friday’s dramatic decider against Cagliari to win the Scudetto.
Napoli conclude the campaign with 24 wins, 10 draws and only four defeats from 38 matches in total, returning to the summit of Italian football for the second time in the past three years. This means that half of their title have come this decade.
After winning in 1986/87 and 1989/90, the southern Italy side had to wait 33 years before tasting Serie A glory once again. With Luciano Spalletti at the helm, they rocked the 2024/25 campaign to leave closest challengers Lazio 16 points behind on the table.
But the following season was a complete disaster. Spalletti jumped off what turned out to be a sinking ship, leaving the club in June 2023 before Rudi Garcia took over. The Frenchman was dismissed just four months later, and his successor, Walter Mazzarri, even less than that.
Francesco Calzona oversaw Napoli on an interim basis, seeing out the 2023/24 campaign to a 10th-place finish, which became the second-worst title defence in Serie A since AC Milan in 1996/97. But the way up from rock bottom is only up.
Napoli’s first move to turn their fortunes around was to bring in serial winner Antonio Conte. Investments were also made to bring in Premier League duo Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku – the latter to replace Victor Osimhen after he was frozen out of the squad.
The pair turned out to be crucial in Napoli’s return to glory. The former English midfielder, discarded after failing to leave his mark at Manchester United, has 11 goals and 4 assists in the top-flight this term, while Lukaku has racked up 13 goals and 11 assists.
After a dismal year-and-a-half spell at Tottenham, Conte landed in Naples on June 5 2023, after promising that he would “do everything I can for the growth of the team and the club”. And the former Chelsea manager made sure to stick to his words.
With no European matches taking up his schedule, he was able to put his sole focus on the league, while rivals Inter also had Champions League action to deal with. The Azzurri signed off the 2024 at the top of the standings, three points above Simone Inzaghi’s side.
After Osimhen, who is currently on loan at Galatasaray, Napoli were also dealt with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s loss. Ligue 1 champions PSG splashed out €70m to snatch him in the January transfer window, leaving the Partenopei without the two talismans of the 2023 Serie A triumph.
They had managed to maintain their rhythm until a late slip-up against Genoa on matchday 36, which brought Inter Milan back in the fight with two games remaining. On the penultimate matchday, all eyes were on Inter’s home match against Lazio and Napoli’s visit to Parma.
Both sides drew, but it was Conte’s men who benefited from it, as they stayed one point ahead. Napoli crushed any chances of Inter defending their title or a possible Scudetto play-off, by seeing out Cagliari on Friday to spark jubilation at the Diego Armando Maradona.
