Who will win the Golden Boot in the Italian Serie A season 2024/2025?
We have already gone through the candidates for becoming the top scorers in the Spanish La Liga and the English Premier League, and today it's time to take a closer look at the Italian Serie A, which starts the 2024/2025 season tomorrow, Saturday.The Italian league, which was not too long ago the best league in the world, now feels like the weakest of the four major leagues, despite surprisingly being ranked second in UEFA's league ranking. However, teams from Serie A struggles to compete with the big clubs from other countries in Europe. For example, the last time an Italian club won the Champions League was in 2010 when Mourinho's Inter won the final against Bayern Munich.
Inter, the champions and favourites again
It is also Inter that is the dominant club in Italy today. Last season, they secured the league title early and won without any problems, ultimately finishing with a 19-point margin over second-placed Milan. The team remains intact, and they have also signed, among others, midfielder Davide Frattesi, Polish player Piotr Zielinski from Napoli, and useful but aging strikers Marko Arnautovic and Mehdi Taremi.Inter is also the big favourite this season, but they could be challenged by both Milan and Juventus if either of them manages to get everything in order. Milan was a team full of great talents and potential already last season, and they have now gained another season's worth of experience. They have also brought in Spaniard Álvaro Morata, who has plenty of Serie A experience from his years at Juventus and can therefore adapt quickly to his new team. They have also strengthened their defence with the talented Serbian Strahinja Pavlović from RB Salzburg and Tottenham's right-back Emerson Royal.
Juventus has had a few really weak seasons, even though they started last season strongly but stagnated in the second half. Now they have a new coach in former star player Thiago Motta, who worked wonders on Bologna's bench last season. They have also made a couple of really good signings in Douglas Luiz from Aston Villa and the talented midfielder Khéphren Thuram from Nice, who is the brother of Inter's Marcus Thuram and the son of former French star defender Lilian Thuram, who had many great years at Juventus in the early 2000s. Juventus has an interesting team and will be exciting to follow if Thiago Motta manages to get the team in order.
Can Conte get Napoli back on track?
Napoli is also seen by many as an outsider and possible contender, but they had a tough last season. After the successful 2022/2023 season, when they won Serie A and coach Luciano Spalletti left afterwards, the coaching situation became chaotic. Spalletti's replacement, Rudi Garcia, was fired after five months, and his successor, Walter Mazzarri, was sacked after just three months. Francesco Calzona then stepped in as interim coach for the rest of the season.For this season, they have brought in Antonio Conte, who is undeniably both an experienced and successful coach. However, it will probably not be an easy task for Conte to quickly get Napoli back on track, and we should not expect any miracles this season. The big star striker, Victor Osimhen, is also surrounded by constant transfer rumours, and if he leaves, it might be even more difficult for Napoli to challenge at the top.
We will not predict the outcome of the league but will instead next take a closer look at the players who are the hottest candidates to win the Golden Boot this coming season.
Ranking of 10 top players who can win the Golden Boot in Serie A
We start by looking at last season's top scorers, and the top scorer in 2023/2024 was Inter's Argentine Lautaro Martinez, who won by a wide margin. Martinez scored 24 league goals, which gave him an eight-goal lead over the second-place finisher, Juventus' Serbian Dusan Vlahovic. The third place was shared between veteran Olivier Giroud (who has now left Milan for MLS and Los Angeles FC) and the winner of the Golden Boot in 2022/2023, Napoli's Nigerian Victor Osimhen.Here are the ten most likely candidates to win the title of top scorer this season.
1. Lautaro Martinez, Inter
As almost always, last year's winner is ranked highest, and this is no exception here. Lautaro Martinez has long been a player who has improved every year but hasn't quite taken that final step to become a world-class striker, but last season he really did. First, he won the Serie A Golden Boot convincingly, and then he followed that up by winning the Golden Boot in the Copa América this summer when Argentina won their second consecutive title. He now feels established as one of the best goal-scorers in the world at the moment. On top of that, Inter is clearly the best team in the league, and Martinez is not just the favourite but the big favourite to take a second consecutive title.2. Artem Dovbyk, Roma
It's a bit of a gamble to place Artem Dovbyk this high on the list, but we justify it by saying that he seems to have an ability to adapt quickly to new clubs. Dovbyk won the Golden Boot in the Ukraine league in 2022/2023 and moved to La Liga club Girona before last season. There he had a sensational success to the point that he won La Liga's Golden Boot with 24 goals. Can he repeat such a quick success at yet another new club and league? We don't think it's impossible since Roma is an offensively strong team that scores many goals. Roma has a new coach in the former club legend Daniele De Rossi, and there are naturally question marks about how the team will perform, but if they could score many goals under Mourinho, they will likely be able to do so with De Rossi on the bench as well.3. Victor Osimhen (or Romelu Lukaku), Napoli
As of this writing, Victor Osimhen is still a Napoli player, but there are quite strong rumours that he will soon be a Chelsea player, where Romelu Lukaku would likely be part of a swap deal. It is therefore difficult to predict Osimhen's chances of winning the Golden Boot this coming season, but we reason that if he chooses to stay, we must assume he is still motivated to deliver for Napoli, and he is a class striker. If the deal with Chelsea goes through, including the swap with Romelu Lukaku, then Lukaku will take over his third place on this list as he usually delivers wherever he plays, as long as it's not for Chelsea.
4. Dusan Vlahovic, Juventus
Dusan Vlahovic emerged as one of the hottest young strikers in the world at Fiorentina, but at Juventus, he has found it more challenging to live up to expectations. He scored 16 goals last season, which was enough for second place in the scoring charts, and that's certainly not a bad result, but everyone is still waiting for him to rediscover the form he had at Fiorentina. At times, he showed what he is capable of, including scoring ten goals in nine matches mid-season, but he struggled to deliver during the latter part of the league. However, if Juventus gets a boost under their new coach Motta, and Vlahovic with it, he could very well win the Golden Boot this season.5. Marcus Thuram, Inter
Last season, Marcus Thuram scored 13 goals for Inter, but also had 13 assists, proving how important he was for the team's offense. It's also worth noting that this was his first season with Inter, and he certainly has the potential to improve even further. Had he played for another team, he might not have been a candidate for the Golden Boot, but since he plays for the best team in the league, he is definitely in the race as he is a player with the right development curve.6. Álvaro Morata, Milan
Álvaro Morata had one of his better seasons in La Liga last year when he scored 15 goals for Atlético Madrid. He then won the European Championship with Spain this summer and was one of the key players in the team, even though he only scored one goal. Morata has never won a Golden Boot in his career, so can he do it for Milan? Not impossible. Morata is a striker whose biggest strength is his positioning, and if he can just get his efficiency in order (which has been his major problem throughout his career) in the young and dynamic Milan side, he could finish high up in the scoring charts.
7. Paulo Dybala, Roma
It feels like Paulo Dybala is the eternal talent that everyone is still waiting for to have his big breakthrough. He has now turned 30, so it's fair to say that time is running out for that, but it's not entirely over yet. He scored 13 goals last year, and with a new coach and a new striking partner in Artem Dovbyk, this season could very well be a success for both Roma and Dybala.8. Gianluca Scamacca, Atalanta
There aren't many top-class Italian strikers today, and it might be an exaggeration to say that Gianluca Scamacca is a top-class striker, but it still feels right somehow to include an Italian on the list. He did score 12 goals in his debut season for Atalanta after his rather unsuccessful stint at West Ham, and it's clear that he prefers Serie A to the Premier League. Atalanta also has an interesting team that finished fourth in the league last season and also won the UEFA Europa League (where Scamacca scored six goals), and if Atalanta has another good season, he could score many goals.
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