Cristiano Ronaldo says Serie A ‘was dead’ when he joined Juventus in 2018, but there are at least three reasons why the former Bianconeri star is wrong.
Cristiano Ronaldo is convinced that the Saudi Pro League will soon reach the same level as many European leagues and humiliated Serie A in his latest interview with the Portuguese media on Tuesday.
Ironically, he released it after a 5-0 friendly loss to Celta Vigo which proved that the climbing of Saudi clubs to the top of world football will be tougher than Ronaldo thinks, despite the unlimited funds of their clubs.
Ronaldo is right when he says that ‘wherever Cristiano goes, he generates higher interest,’ but Serie A was not dead when he arrived, let alone declining now that he’s left.
Just look at the latest achievements of Italian clubs in Europe. We reached the Champions, Europa and Conference League Finals last season with Inter, Roma and Fiorentina. True, Serie A clubs failed to bring any trophies at home, but at least they got there and for the most part, they did it by playing entertaining brands of football.
Italy are still the defending European champions, the U20 squad reached the World Cup Final last month and the U19 has recently won the Euros beating ‘Ronaldo’s’ Portugal in the Final.
Italian football is far from being perfect, of course. The Azzurri haven’t qualified for the last two editions of the World Cup, clubs are lacking money for big signings and most stadiums are not worthy of the second-best league in the world after the Premier League. This, however, doesn’t mean Serie A is dead.
Another proof is that Premier League clubs keep knocking on Italian clubs’ doors to sign their best players. Manchester United have just purchased André Onana from Inter for €55m including add-ons and are in talks for Atalanta starlet Rasmus Hojlund.
Sandro Tonali became the most expensive Italian player ever after completing a €80m move to Newcastle last month, Tottenham have signed Guglielmo Vicario from Empoli for €20m after capturing Destiny Udogie one year earlier, leaving him on loan at Udinese for 2022-23.
How about Romelu Lukaku? His return to Chelsea didn’t work out, but the Blues made him their most expensive purchase barely two years ago, paying €115m to sign him from Inter.
Serie A is surely not the richest league in the world, but all these big-money transfers prove quality is still there. How about the competitiveness of the league, then? Following Juventus’ domination, which ended in Ronaldo’s last season at the club, Serie A saw three different clubs win the league from 2020 until 2023. Only Spain have had the same with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico winning one title each in the last three years.
During the same time, Manchester City won three domestic titles in a row, the same as Bayern Munich in Germany, while PSG won two Ligue 1 titles, leaving one to Lille in 2019.
That being said, Serie A and Italian football need to take key decisions to develop the game in the country and attract more investors willing to improve the league, on and off the pitch. It is no secret that building new stadiums is a priority for Italian clubs and that Serie A is not as wealthy as English or Saudi teams, which in some cases are intertwined, but reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated, even those coming from CR7.
Twitter: @lorebetto
Cr7 or whatever he’s called is a loser.
So bitter knowing he will spend history in the shadow of Lionel Messi…
Stop pushing stories about this Saudi league want to be on Football Italia.
Sir calm down . Ronaldo is right it was dead end of last decade and then turn of this decade it started coming back from dead. Serie towards end of this decade will be th3 best . We will improve out marketing qnf build modern stadiums
whether u like it or not , cr7 revived Serie A