Conte working miracles
©TM/IMAGO
Two years ago we witnessed one of the biggest footballing parties in modern history. Naples, a southern Italian city bursting with hugely passionate football fans, had something special to celebrate – Napoli had won their first Scudetto in 33 years. Luciano Spalletti led his team to Serie A glory, as Napoli amassed 90 points to send the city into footballing delirium. It was their first title since the iconic Diego Armando Maradona captained them to glory in 1990. New superstars had emerged in the likes of Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Idolised by an entire metropolis.
Two years on, and it looks as though the wait for Napoli fans might not be so long this time around. Gone are the aforementioned superstars – Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia – in their place stand Antonio Conte’s titans. The former Chelsea and Inter Milan boss has extracted ever last drop out of an ageing Napoli team, and, with just one game to go, the Serie A title is within their grasp. They are a point ahead of holders Inter, and face Cagliari at home in their final game of the season this Friday. So how do the two teams compare? Surprisingly, despite it being less than two years ago, six of Napoli’s most used starting XI in Serie A have actually changed between the 2022/23 season and this term, and Conte’s current side come up far less valuable.
How do the 22/23 Napoli team and Antonio Conte’s Napoli compare
To comprise the two XIs, we have based them on the players with the most minutes per position in Serie A from the respective campaigns. Let’s start with Spalletti’s title winners. Five of that side remain prominent this season for Napoli, but each of those players has seen their market value drop since the title-winning campaign. Goalkeeper Alex Meret has dropped from €18 million to €12m, right-back and captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo has fallen from €25m to €15m, centre-half Amir Rrahmani has essentially halved from €25m to €12m, midfield hub Stanislav Lobotka has dropped from €40m to €25m, and fellow midfielder Frank Anguissa from €40m to €27m. Each of those players are now aged 28 or over.
The other six players in the line-up that season have all now departed the club. Kvaratskhelia left for PSG in a €70m deal in January, whilst Osimhen is on loan with Galatasaray and is expected to seal a permanent move away this summer. Defender Min-jae Kim is now at Bayern Munich, Piotr Zielenski is at title rivals Inter Milan, Hirving Lozano is over in the MLS with San Diego FC, whilst defender Mario Rui is currently a free agent. Back then, Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia boasted a combined market value of €205m. The entire XI that season was worth €481m.
Two years later, and as already touched upon, Conte has five of the previous league winners in his most used XI this term. There are two changes to the back five, with talented centre-half Alessandro Buongiorno (€45m) and Uruguayan left back Mathías Olivera (€18m) replacing Kim and Rui respectively. Midfielder Scott McTominay (€40m) was signed from Manchester United last summer, and has been somewhat of a revelation in Serie A, scoring 11 goals form midfield – he comes in for Zieliński. David Neres (€30m), who has had his own injury problems to content with this season, replaces Kvaratskhelia on the left-wing, whilst Matteo Politano (€10m) comes in for Lozano on the right.
Player Comparison
€70.00m
Market Value
€22.00m
Centre-Forward
Position
Centre-Forward
Jun 30, 2025
Contract until
Jun 30, 2027
Full Player Comparison
Through the middle, the prolific Osimhen is now replaced by the experienced Romelu Lukaku (€22m). In total this season’s most used XI has a market value of just €256m – that’s not far short of being half the worth of the Scudetto winning XI two years ago. This goes to prove what a fantastic job Conte is doing, getting the best out of this group of players. If they were to go on to win the league this term, the Italian would become the first ever manager to win Serie A with three different teams (also with Juventus in 11/12, 12/13 and 13/14, and Inter Milan in 20/21). In fact, he would be the first boss to achieve that feat in any of the top-five leagues. Gone are many of the superstars that etched their names in Naples folklores 24 months ago. Conte’s army stands in their place, and they are putting up some fight.
