Serie A

THE BEST FORWARDS: THE GOALSCORERS IN SERIE A

Retegui and Kean, two Italians, dominated the battle for the spot as the league’s top scorer, demonstrating their goalscoring skills. Lots of different centre forward profiles have emerged this season, from young talents, all-rounders, super-subs and Italians stepping into the spotlight.

The Serie A Enilive 2024/25 season ended with a top scorer chart painted in the Italian colours, something that has not been seen for about a decade. Leading the way were two Italians: Mateo Retegui with 25 goals and Moise Kean with 19. This has not happened since the 2013/14 season, when Ciro Immobile and Luca Toni topped the charts. It’s a positive sign for the Azzurri movement, and also a reflection of a league that showcased a range of attacking profiles - from classic centre forwards to wide attackers, emerging young talents, and game changing substitutes.

Mateo Retegui ended a simply extraordinary season as the league’s top scorer ****and with the MVP prize for the Best Forward in the Serie A Enilive 2024/25 season. The Atalanta forward proved lethal in front of goal but also with his back to goal, in involving his teammates. With 25 goals, he set a new record as the highest scoring Atalanta player in a single Serie A season, surpassing Filippo Inzaghi’s record of 24 goals in the 1996/97 season. His all-round game and technique is proved by the balanced distribution of his goals: ten with his right foot, ten with his left foot and five headers. There’s nobody like him in terms of finishing efficiency, Retegui led the league in over performance relative to expected goals (xG), with a +5.8 differential. He was also key in specific moments: first scorer in seven games and directly contributing to 33 goals, including eight assists - numbers that have only been beaten by Salah and Marmoush in Europe. A clinical finisher, the striker also recorded the most multi-goal games in the league: five (three braces, one hat-trick and one four-goal game).

Just behind him is Moise Kean who experienced a breakthrough season with Fiorentina. Revitalised under Coach Palladino, he scored 19 goals and recorded three assists, totalling 22 goal contributions. This number matches his record across the previous six Serie A seasons. Consistent, aware and decisive, the most impressive statistic from this season is the impact of his goals: the former Juve man has earned 17 points for Fiorentina with his goals - a record in the league - and has also been the first scorer in seven matches, like Retegui and Orsolini. No other player has hit the target more times than Kean: with 51 shots on goal. He equalled Gilardino’s record from the 2008/09 season, the last Italian to do better than this for Fiorentina was Luca Toni, in the 2005/06 seasons (37 contributions - 31 goals and six assists). Explosive, powerful and unstoppable with the ball at his feet, Kean has found his own footballing Eden in Florence, the city which gave birth to Dante Alighieri, the poet who sang of the ascent from Inferno to Paradise.

Riccardo Orsolini is another player that has been pivotal for his side this season, becoming a symbol of an ambitious and brilliant Bologna side. A modern winger with a refined left foot, strong dribbling skills and keen attacking instincts, he set a personal Serie A record with 19 goal contributions - 15 goals and four assists, reviving the memories of Bologna fans and taking them back to the times of Marco Di Vaio. His last minute overhead-kick against Inter remains to be one of the most iconic moments of the season. Orsolini scored first on seven occasions and recorded the second-best finishing performance in the league (xG differential of +5.0), confirming his clinical nature in front of goal. The Rossoblù earned 13 points as a result of his goals, making him one of the most impactful players in the league. The adoptive son of Bologna, Orsolini has become more than a key player, he is a symbol of Bologna’s footballing identity.

Dan Ndoye ’s evolution under the management of Vincenzo Italiano has been brilliant to watch. He has become much more than a support player having scored eight goals and provided four assists, including his winning strike in the Coppa Italia Frecciarossa final. Romelu Lukaku, a central figure for Antonio Conte’s Napoli side, has been able to combine his strength and efficiency to aid the team this season. With 14 goals and ten assists, he is the only player in the Serie A to have recorded double digits in both categories. In Europe’s top five leagues, only five other players have achieved the same feat: Mohamed Salah, Bradley Barcola, Michael Olise, Florian Wirtz and Gaëtan Perrin. Alongside him, Marcus Thuram recorded the best season of his career in Europe’s top five leagues, scoring 14 goals - all from inside of the box. This is a statistic that he shares with Big Rom and one that places him into the history books as the joint second-highest scoring Frenchman for Inter in a single season, matching Youri Djorkaeﬀ.

There have been a number of standout youngsters this season. Kenan Yildiz finished the season with seven goals and four assists, making him the youngest player with at least ten goal contributions in the Serie A. ****Assane Diao’s impact has been even more impressive: eight goals in just 15 appearances for Como mean that he’s the third-youngest player to score a brace in Europe’s top five leagues, behind Lamine Yamal and George Ilenikhena. Santiago Castro equalled Roberto Mancini’s record as Bologna’s top Under 21 scorer in recent years with eight goals, while Sebastiano Esposito shone away from home: seven of his eight goals came away from home. Bonny, however, was Parma’s leader up top with six goals and four assists, totalling ten direct goal contributions.

The league season also revealed the qualities of two true super subs, strikers who have often changed the game coming off the bench. Pedro redefined the role of a perfect substitute. At 37 years of age, the Spanish forward experienced one of his most impactful seasons in Italian football, with ten goals in total, nine of which came when he appeared as a substitute. This record marked a personal best in the Serie A, making him the second-highest scorer “off the bench” in the three-points-per-win era, behind just Luis Muriel who scored eleven goals in the 2019/20 season. Right behind him was Daniel Mosquera, who scored five times as a substitute for Verona, proving to be a reliable source of late goals. Among the newcomers to the league, Artem Dovbyk impressed everyone in his first season in Italy: 12 goals for Roma, marking the best debut season from a Roma player since Tammy Abraham and Christian Manfredini. Among the rising Italian talents, Lorenzo Lucca solidified his growth with 12 goals and one assist, improving on his numbers from the previous season. By his side at Udinese was Florian Thauvin, who rediscovered his true form, scoring eight goals, his best record since the 2018/19 season. Gaetano Oristanio, known for his agility and technical skill, completed more successful dribbles than any other Italian (55 completed from 118 attempted), while Roberto Piccoli reached double digits with Cagliari, becoming the first Rossoblù player to do so since 2020. Lorenzo Colombo achieved a personal record for the season, scoring six goals. Finally, even strikers from the so-called “ smaller sides” have left their mark. Ché Adams equalled his best ever season in Europe’s top five league with nine goals, including one of the goals of the season: a brilliant 45 metre strike against Empoli. Nikola Krstović ended the campaign with 137 shots, the most in Serie A and third in the top European leagues after Mbappé and Yamal. He also had the highest individual contribution to his team’s goals in the Serie A, directly involved in eleven of Lecce’s 27 goals (41%), confirming his status as a hardworking and dangerous forward. (Foto Getty Images)