Illicit Activities, Champagne Football, and a Three-Way Title Race – let us convince you that Serie A is the place to be, especially this season.
To attempt to quantify what makes a league more exciting, captivating, or somehow superior to other leagues is a pointless endeavor. While stylistic differences, age-old rivalries, and the general traditional assumptions guide our perception of Europe’s top leagues – the reality is much more complex. Within each season, each table, and each statistical comparison, there is a story yearning to be told of the history which has led to the very moment analysed. The nuanced cocktail of bitter rivalry, financial discrepancy, and internal turmoil makes it hard to define the alluring nature of every league.
With that in mind, it is still hard to ignore the proverbial elephant in the room. While the title of “Most Competitive League” should be delegated by far more informed minds, it doesn’t take a football scholar to recognize that Serie A is a notable contender. To avoid this realization would mean complete abstinence from European competition. Just last year, Atalanta’s impressive run in the Champions League stunned and delighted fans and neutrals alike. Despite their best efforts, they were shut out in the end by Paris Saint-Germain, a team with roughly 4 times their budget, but the Cinderella-run was admittedly captivating, and further shed light on Serie A’s dynamism.
Having placed in the Top 4 only three times since their most recent rise to Serie A after a 2010/11 Serie B victory, the team wowed spectators with a magnetic style of play. Led by captain Papu Gomez and manager Gian Piero Gasperini, the side played a captivating, free scoring brand of football not typically associated with Calcio. In this David and Goliath story, Atalanta were seemingly through to the finals, losing out only in the dying throes of the game. The end of their run came as somewhat of a disappointment to neutral parties, for they seemed to defy all odds in even making it to the semifinals. One can’t help but imagine how things would have shaken out had Atalanta come face to face with Bayern Munich.