Ahead of the start of the new Serie A season on Saturday, Ian Hawkey looks at five players to watch in the coming season.
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Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus)
The price-tag may turn out to be the least of the pressures on the Argentine striker, though the €90 million (Dh374.2m) fee for a 28-year-old still takes the breath away.
Higuain’s departure from Napoli, where he had become loved and for whom he scored 36 league goals last season, has angered the fans there intensely, and he will booed by supporters of others clubs too as a symbol of Juve’s acquisitive power.
Kevin Strootman (Roma)
The Dutchman has been plagued by injury after injury, and the fact he still a Roma player, and not at one of the wealthier clubs of England or Spain who have admired him for so long is down to doubts about his sustainable fitness. If he overcomes the muscular problems, he can become his club’s major midfield asset.
Ever Banega (Inter Milan)
The much-travelled Argentine, who has joined Inter Milan from Sevilla, might just be the man to turn the pedestrian, stolid Inter of much of last season into the more consistently creative team they need to become to challenge Juventus at the top.
Dani Alves (Juventus)
One day, Dani Alves’s energy levels will drop, but so supersonic have they appeared for most of his gloriously decorated eight years with Barcelona there is no reason to think that, at 33, he is nearing his slow-down. Juventus have him on a free transfer, and their right flank will be livelier place for the capture of the Brazilian.
Gigio Donnarumma (AC Milan)
There was not a lot of good news for AC Milan fans last season; the summer has not been so encouraging either. But they do have a young idol to admire. Goalkeeper Donnarumma’s promotion to the first team last October made history. He was 16 years old when he made his Serie A debut. Now he must deal with the tricky so-called ‘second-season syndrome’, a curse of so many prodigies.
