As Serie A 2015/16 begins even the Pope’s mind is on football

The other day, Pope Francis greeted a young Brazilian girl at a public audience in the Vatican by asking her who was the better player, “Pele or Maradona?” When the girl replied, “Pele, obviously”, the Argentine Pope could only laugh and give the girl a big hug.

As the curtain is set to rise this weekend on Italy’s Serie A championship, that little quip from Rome’s most famous inhabitant serves to remind us that football, despite everything, remains a universal language. So it is that, despite falling attendances, recurring incidents of violence and racism as well as seemingly endemic match fixing scandals, fans all over Italy are ready and waiting.

The fact that champions Juventus ended the season with an honourable defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League final last May was a welcome tonic for an Italian football movement which has visibly lost prestige and punch over the last decade.

Yet, just two days after that final, Juventus president Andrea Agnelli made a telling observation when he told the media that good “European” showings by Juventus, as well as by Fiorentina and Napoli (both Europa League semi-finallists), owed nothing to the “sistema Italia” but rather were thanks only to the good work of the three clubs involved.

If Italian football were to reclaim a leading role at international level, then it would require a 5-10 year plan, he added. Probably there is no such plan around at the moment but all the signs indicate that, whatever about a future renaissance, this new Italian season may well be much more competitive than last year when, essentially, Juventus scored a “walk over”, coming home in a canter, 17 points clear of second placed AS Roma.

The big questions about this new season are obvious enough. Will Juve still have that fire in the belly for a fifth consecutive title? Can they maintain their level of play, notwithstanding the departures of such as Argentine striker Carlos Tevez, midfield maestro Andrea Pirlo and the oustanding Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal?

Mind you, judged on the basis of their 2-0 Supercoppa win over Lazio in Shanghai two weeks ago, in a game in which both goals were scored by “new boys”, Croat Mario Mandzukic and Argentine Paulo Dybala, Juventus clearly deserve to start the season as the hot favourites.

There are many who would argue that Juve’s biggest problems this season will come from their two oldest and most historic rivals, namely the Milanese pair, Inter Milan and AC Milan. Last season they finished 10th and 8th respectively, results that were too bad to be repeated this year.

Media tycoon and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, owner of AC Milan, has made his intentions loud and clear not only by spending €83 million on new players (Brazilian Luiz Adriano, Colombian Carlo Bacca and others) this summer and appointing a new coach in Serb Sinisa Mihajlovic, but also by selling a 48% holding in his club to the Thai businessman, Bee Taechaubol.

Across town at Inter Milan, Indonesian magnate Erick Thohir looks to ex-Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini to refind the sort of winning ways which saw him collect four consecutive league titles with Inter between 2005 and 2008. The purchases of players such as Frenchman Geoffrey Kondogbia, Montenegrin Stevan “Jo-Jo” Jovetic and Brazilian defender Miranda should more than compensate for the sale this week of Croat Mateo Kovacic to Real Madrid, still leaving Mancini with some real firepower.

Firepower, too, would appear to be what AS Roma, runners-up to Juventus for the last two seasons, will offer. With an attacking trio that reads Bosnian Edin Dzeko, Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Spaniard Iago Falque, Champions League qualified Roma may finally lay the ghost of that humiliating 7-1 home drubbing by Bayern Munich last autumn.

For Napoli and Lazio, the best news is that both clubs have opted to hold onto to key players. Gonzalo Higuain at Napoli and Brazilian Felipe Anderson at Lazio are the pair. Final thought goes to the Paulo Sousa-coached Fiorentina which has set fans dreaming by beating both Barcelona and Chelsea in recent friendlies. Those dreams face an immediate reality check when Fiorentina are away to AC Milan in the only true “big name” clash of the opening weekend. Until then, dream on…