Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku.
De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League.
The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the past two campaigns with Manchester City, where he won six English Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2023, but he was excellent in Napoli’s recent friendly against Girona, scoring twice and setting up the other in a 3-2 win, and, with Antonio Conte staying put, southern Italy’s biggest club look a strong bet to retain the scudetto.
Photo: AP
“Competitively it’s a very nice place to be. They were champions last year, they showed that they have a lot of quality. Obviously, it’s very different to what I had in England, but that’s something that is very exciting,” De Bruyne said last month. “I feel like I have some motivation left and quality, I think I can still do something at this level... I think the main reason is that I wanted to play at the highest level.”
However, Lukaku’s thigh tear, suffered in a friendly win over Olympiakos, has thrown a spanner in the works as the bustling centerforward is set to be out for months, with some Italian media saying that he might not be back in action before next year.
Napoli are now scrambling to reinforce an attack which had already received reinforcements in the shape of towering Italy striker Lorenzo Lucca and Netherlands international Noa Lang, with Giovanni Simeone and Giacomo Raspadori’s exits further distancing the club from the historic 2022-2023 title-winning team.
Giant Serbia goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and Dutch centerhalf Sam Beukema have arrived to strengthen the defense, while a clutch of other signings are set to be completed before the end of the summer transfer window.
Serial winner Conte refusing to return to Juventus, where he won so much as a player and coach, has given Napoli the stability they lost when Luciano Spalletti departed in the aftermath of their scudetto victory two years ago.
Napoli will need it with pretenders to their throne also making moves in the transfer market.
AC Milan brought in Modric and other interesting signings such as fellow midfielders Samuele Ricci and Ardon Jashari, while recouping a significant sum from the sales of Tijjani Reijnders, Malick Thiaw and Joao Felix.
Inter, who host Torino on Monday, will try to bounce back from conceding to Napoli a scudetto considered theirs to lose and a historic hammering in last season’s Champions League final.
They have done some decent business, bringing in the likes of lively forward Ange-Yoan Bonny and Luis Enrique to lower the average age of the squad, but novice coach Cristian Chivu has a huge task to live up to the job done over the previous four seasons by Simone Inzaghi.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s AS Roma have a tricky first outing against Bologna today as the capital club try to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2018 and replace their coach’s old club Atalanta BC, who host promoted Pisa, in the top four.
Now under Ivan Juric, Atalanta have lost last season’s top scorer Mateo Retegui to Saudi Arabia and are in open conflict with Ademola Lookman, who had taken to training in Portugal in the hope of forcing through a move to Inter, which never then materialized.
Juventus, without a league title in five years, face Parma with new boy Jonathan David leading the line.
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