The Financial Struggles of Italian Serie A: Falling Behind Premier League, German, and French Clubs

The Italian Serie A has experienced a financial collapse in recent years, as soon as clubs do not sell a player for a large sum, they cannot afford to strengthen and pay a larger sum. Financially, they are struggling compared to Premier League clubs and recently also compared to clubs from Germany and France.

The transfer window that ended a few days ago is an ideal example. No Italian club has paid more than €30 million for a player, an amount that means absolutely nothing these days. Yes, there were three Italian clubs in the semi-finals of the Champions League, but let’s be honest with ourselves, if the draw wasn’t so friendly, only Napoli could be thinking about the semi-finals.

Benjamin Pavard – Inter

The French defender, who can play on the right but also in the middle, is moving from Bayern Munich after four years. The latest news was that Pavard did not want to stay in Munich. Once the player said he wanted to leave the club, nothing seemed to be an option other than leaving, the management does not want to keep players who do not want to play for the club. Bayern collected the aforementioned 30 million euros, i.e. 5 less than they paid for the player in 2019.

Moise Kean – Juventus

The Italian striker is only 23 years old and has already gone through clubs like Juventus, PSG or Everton. He had a behavior problem in the past, which is why Juventus sold him in 2019. He was a guest at Juventus last season, he is not the first choice for Allegri, ahead of him are snipers Milik and Vlahovič. If he could start, he gets injured, bad luck. In the last season, he still scored 6 goals, and not only the fans hope that it will be a little better again.

Despite his young age and playing in other clubs, Kean has already played over 100 matches for the Torino club, namely 104 and scored 22 goals in them. The most successful engagement for him so far was in Paris Saint-Germain, where he started mainly as a substitute and scored 17 goals in 41 matches in which he started.

Manuel Locatelli – Juventus

The Italian midfielder’s two-year loan came to an end after last season, at the end of which Juventus had a mandatory purchase option for 30 million euros. He is 25 years old and respected at Juventus, if not, with all due respect to everyone else, he is their most capable defensive central midfielder. He dealt with the competition in the form of Zakaria brilliantly and the Swiss had to move.

Jesper Lindstrøm – Neapol

The Danish midfielder was a hot commodity in the summer, Frankfurt received an offer from both Napoli and Liverpool, and the Danish midfielder confirmed the interest of the Anfield club a few days ago. At the age of twenty-three, he is already the winner of the Europa League with Frankfurt, and he was certainly not just a number in the squad. He scored 9 goals and assisted 4 last season, and if he becomes even more productive at Napoli, he can expect interest from even bigger European clubs.

If we look at the recent past, the last 3 years, how many players cost more than this year’s most expensive signings? They could almost be counted on one hand. Juventus could afford Bremer for 41 million euros, Vlahovic even for 81.6 million euros and Chiesa for 42.5 million euros, who had been a guest at the club for several seasons in advance.

Napoli bought Osimhen for 75 million euros, AC Milan made a mistake with the Belgian De Ketelaeream, who they bought for 36.7 million euros, Inter reached into their pockets for 43 million and bought Hakimi, otherwise nothing. Compared to other European clubs and leagues, there is a big gap.

Source: A league