Rewind back to the yester-years of the late eighties and early nineties, and Serie A stood in even bigger acclaim than the current La Liga.
Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan was deemed to be the greatest club side any football team had ever produced.
Up with the fifties and sixties Hungarian national team, where Ferenc Puskas showed what it truly meant to dominate proceedings, there have been few teams before and since that could throw a worthy stake at what it meant to be at that level.
Since 2007, two Italian teams have won the much-coveted Champions League title but the real stars in recent years have been Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Real Madrid and Barcelona have played tit-for-tat when it comes to entertainment, with the former breaking classic records and re-defining a segment of football history that has been largely untouched since the fifties.
Messi has flourished with the removal of Ronaldinho, who at his peak simply couldn’t be touched by either of the two, regardless of the fact they will go down as era-defining players.
But can a new surge in power that defined many-a-generation, that made fans around the world fall in love with the beautiful game, once again be on the rise?
Recent Champions League performances have shown that Milan, Inter, and Napoli have what it takes to once again solidify Serie A’s legendary identity.
Ironically, the days are passing where every player would jump ship for Barcelona and Real Madrid, the star of Wayne Rooney is not as bright as it once was, and the constant rejections by the 19 year old Neymar to join the two suggests that finally the bright lights of football’s Hollywood may have taken a deflection.
Last week, AC Milan lost to Barcelona 3-2 in what was an erroneous victory more than anything else. Four yellow cards in the first 40 minutes, an own goal by Van Bommel and a dubious penalty which had experts fuming as Barcelona once again came out on top – but what a brilliant game it was.
Firing all cylinders, Milan attacked and pressed constantly, Ibrahimovic put his former team to the sword with a slick shot past Valdes while Prince saw his trademark power shot bend into the back of the net. Coming off a 2-2 draw away at Camp Nou, the Rossoneri should be proud of their performance given the circumstances.
But it wasn’t just Milan who displayed character- Napoli beat Premier League leaders Manchester City through a fantastic double from Edinson Cavani- Italian fans have been talking about him for years now, but this performance truly put him on the map.
City have been trying to sign him but similar to Neymar, sometimes in football it really is about more than just money and big lights- walk through the streets of Napoli and you will see life-sized cardboard cut outs in café’s of the Uruguayan. Not since Maradona has a player shown such promise for the Partenopei.
“I am only focused on Napoli. I am always ready for a challenge and can play in a big league, but I’m very happy doing that in Naples…It doesn’t matter to me if City have increased their interest, because my only ambition is to help Napoli in the Champions League.”
With Napoli’s exclusive line-up of Cavani, Hamsik and Lavezzi, Milan’s Ibrahimovic, Prince, and Silva, and Inter’s Sneijder, Forlan and Cesar, the Champions League have an Italian artillery to contend with, and perhaps given recent performances, they may just have what it takes to take it all the way as Inter did under Mourinho in 2010.
With Carlos Tevez making a possible move to Milan, the proof is in the pudding- the gorgeous coasts of Italy are once again becoming the preferred destination for the world’s football elite.
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