The 2024/25 Serie A season produced the tightest title race in Italian football in years. Napoli finished champions with 82 points. Inter Milan finished runners-up with 81. One point separated them across 38 matches. Antonio Conte arrived at Napoli in the summer of 2024 after a single post-season recovery year, tasked with rebuilding a club that had finished tenth in 2023/24 under Francesco Calzona. What followed was one of the most complete single-season turnarounds in Serie A history: Napoli conceded only 27 goals all season and climbed from mid-table to champions in twelve months. This is the full review of a campaign that also produced Mateo Retegui's breakout as the best striker in Italy, Atalanta's relentless excellence under Gasperini, and Inter's frustrating near-miss despite accumulating 81 points.
Last season: Inter's dominant Scudetto
The 2023/24 Serie A season belonged to Inter Milan, who secured the title with five games to spare after a 2-1 win over AC Milan on 22 April 2024, the Derby della Madonnina. Lautaro Martinez finished as capocannoniere with 24 goals, winning the MVP award and becoming the first Inter player in decades to combine a league title with the Golden Boot. Napoli's 2023/24 campaign, in contrast, was a disaster: finishing tenth after their 2022/23 title showed how quickly things can unravel without the right manager. The appointment of Conte in the summer of 2024 was a signal of intent.
Antonio Conte and the Napoli rebuild
Conte arrived in Naples with one non-negotiable condition: control. He wanted to shape the squad his way and he got it. His Napoli played a 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2 depending on the game, with the entire system built on defensive compactness first and quick transitions second. Napoli conceded only 27 goals in 38 games. By comparison, Inter conceded 43. Romelu Lukaku, signed specifically for Conte's system, scored 14 league goals and was the target man the whole structure was built around. Conte's obsessive preparation, his Tuesday film sessions, his refusal to let standards drop in training, all became talking points in Italian football throughout the season. When Napoli clinched the Scudetto with a 2-0 win over Cagliari on 23 May 2025 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, it was the fourth league title in the club's history and only the second for the Maradona Stadium to witness.
Inter Milan: 81 points and no trophy
Finishing a season with 81 points and nothing to show for it is a genuine shock, but that is what happened to Simone Inzaghi's Inter. They matched Napoli for quality in almost every metric except the one that matters: points. Twenty-four wins, nine draws, five losses. Marcus Thuram scored 14 league goals and continued to be one of the most complete centre-forwards in Europe. Lautaro Martinez, the reigning MVP from 2023/24, had a slightly quieter season in terms of goals but remained the heartbeat of Inter's attack. The 4-4 draw with Juventus in October 2024 at the San Siro was a moment that stuck: Inter led twice and could not hold on, and those two dropped points looked decisive in hindsight. Had Inzaghi's side turned two of their draws into wins, they would have won the title by a point. That is the fine margin Serie A operated on in 2024/25.
Mateo Retegui and the Atalanta factor
Mateo Retegui won the capocannoniere award with 25 goals in 36 appearances for Atalanta. The Argentine-Italian striker, who had moved from Genoa to Atalanta in 2024, was a revelation under Gian Piero Gasperini's system. His four-goal game against Hellas Verona was the individual highlight of the entire Italian season. Retegui is physically imposing, technically sharp and has the intelligence to find space in Gasperini's chaotic high-press structure. Atalanta as a whole were extraordinary: third in the table with 74 points, Champions League qualifiers again, with Ademola Lookman adding 15 goals to give the side two attackers who could have led any other squad in the division. If Gasperini stays and Retegui stays, Atalanta will challenge for the title in 2025/26.
Moise Kean and Fiorentina's offensive season
Moise Kean's move from Juventus to Fiorentina in 2024 was greeted with scepticism given his career history, but the striker produced the best season of his professional life. Nineteen league goals, sixth in the all-time single-season scoring list for the club, and a consistent physical presence that dragged Fiorentina to fifth place and into European football. Riccardo Orsolini of Bologna scored 15 and showed that Serie A's goalscoring talent extends well beyond the traditional big clubs. Artem Dovbyk also scored 12 for Roma in his first Italian season, suggesting he was a solid signing despite Roma's inconsistency at the back.
Juventus, Roma and the European positions
Juventus finished fourth with 70 points, reaching the Champions League through consistency rather than brilliance. Sixteen draws in 38 games tells you everything about their style: hard to beat but equally hard to get excited about. Roma qualified for the Europa League despite constant managerial uncertainty, finishing fifth on 69 points. Fiorentina qualified for the Conference League in sixth. The relegation zone caught Empoli, Venezia and Monza, all three of whom struggled with survival all season.
Serie A 2024/25 trivia
- Napoli became only the fourth Italian club to win two Serie A titles within three seasons of each other, joining Juventus, Inter and AC Milan.
- Inter's 81-point tally in a losing season is the highest by any runner-up in Serie A in the modern era.
- Mateo Retegui, born in Argentina, is eligible for Italy through his Italian grandfather, making him the first naturalised Italian to win the capocannoniere since the 1980s.
- The October 2024 Inter-Juventus 4-4 draw at San Siro was the first time those two clubs had shared eight goals in a single match since 1961.
- Atalanta qualified for the Champions League for the fourth time in six seasons under Gasperini.
- Napoli conceded 27 goals across 38 matches, the lowest total of any title winner in Serie A in the last decade.
What actually happened in 2025/26
Inter Milan won their 21st Scudetto with three matches to spare on 3 May 2026, finishing 11 points clear of Napoli. Lautaro Martinez claimed a second consecutive capocannoniere with 17 goals, the lowest total to win the award since the modern 20-team era began in 2004. Como finished fourth and qualified for the Champions League for the first time in the club's history. See the full story in the 2025/26 Serie A Season Review.
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