The Argentine Paulo Dybala was the name of the summer due to his signing for Roma of the Portuguese José Mourinho, in a very busy Italian summer transfer market marked, in addition, by the return of the Frenchman Paul Pogba to Juventus and by that of the Belgian Romelu Lukaku to Inter.
Dybala began his new sporting life in Rome last July. After a forced departure from ‘Juve’, where he had been playing for seven years, and after endless rumors that placed the ‘Joya’ at Inter, Atlético de Madrid or Real Madrid, the ‘Loba’ came across to convince to the Argentine international in a movement in which Mourinho was capital to convince the player.
And it is that the coach from Setubal made Dybala feel loved and a fundamental piece of the new Rome that he was building. A Roma that has been one of the teams that has moved the best in the transfer market and that has closed the incorporations of the Serbian Nemanja Matic from Manchester United, the Dutch Giorginio Wijnaldum -low after an injury during a training- from the PSG, and Italian Andrea Belotti, from Torino, among other players.
Another group that has incorporated several pieces is the ‘Juve’ of the Italian Massimiliano Allegri, who asked his board of directors for concrete reinforcements from the beginning of the market to be able to compete for Champions League places.
The most notorious was that of the Frenchman Paul Pogba. The ‘Octopus’ returned this July as a free agent after six seasons at Manchester United to the place that saw him grow as a footballer and rise as one of the dominators of midfield worldwide.
A midfield that he will share with the Argentine Leandro Paredes, who arrived in Turin on the penultimate market day from PSG, from where his compatriot Ángel Di María also arrived to reinforce the black and white attack, which was also joined by the Serbian Filip Kostic from Eintrach Frankfurt, after a brilliant season with the Europa League champion, to accompany Serbian Dusan Vlahovic in attack.
In defence, the Juventinos managed to snatch Inter with a lightning operation on Brazilian Gleison Bremer, who is already leading Juventus’ defense due to the injury of Italian Leonardo Bonucci.
The Inter market has also brought many new features, but the return of Romelu Lukaku stands out above all else, just one season after leaving for Chelsea for more than 110 million euros. ‘Big Rom’, yes, arrives on loan to the ‘Nerazzurri’ team, which was also joined by the Armenian Henrik Mhkitaryan from Roma, the Cameroonian goalkeeper André Onana from Ajax, and the Italian Raoul Bellanova from Cagliari.
As for departures, the main and most notorious were those of the Chileans Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sánchez, who did not enter into the plans of the board or those of the Italian coach Simone Inzaghi.
For Milan it has been a somewhat calmer market. The champions of the ‘Scudetto’ have only had, in fact, three great additions. The most important has been that of the Belgian Charles De Ketelaere, who after months of negotiations between the ‘rossonero’ club and Bruges finally ended up under the orders of the Italian Stefano Pioli.
A signing that, due to its effort, has generated a lot of enthusiasm in the Milan fans, which also celebrated the renewal of the Italians Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara at the head of the sports management as one more signing, something that at times was in the air after the purchase of the Italian club by the Italian fund RedBird Capital.
The remaining names correspond to fellow Belgian Divock Origi, who joined Milan as a free agent from Liverpool, and American Sergiño Dest, who at the last moment of the market packed his bags from Barcelona.
Frenchman Samuel Umtiti also arrived at Lecce from Barcelona on loan, in an attempt by Barcelona and the player himself to recover Umtiti from injuries.
In Naples there has been no respite throughout the market. The soap opera of the Spanish Fabián Ruiz and the Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly took over much of the summer and ended with the departure of the midfielder to PSG and the defender to Chelsea, but the Partenopeos have known how to strengthen themselves.
For the attack, Italian Luciano Spalletti’s men now have Argentinian Giovanni ‘El Cholito’ Simeone, whose objective since the end of last season with Hellas Verona was always to wear the ‘azzurri’ shirt.
The Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the French Tanguy Ndombele, the Italian Giacomo Raspadori, the South Korean Kim Min-Jae and the Uruguayan Mathías Oliveira have completed the squad of a team that aims to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League and finish the campaign between the top four.
For its part, Lazio have incorporated the Spaniard Mario Gila from Real Madrid, the goalkeeper Luis Maximiano from Granada, the Argentine Matías Vecino from Inter, the Italian Alessio Romagnoli from Milan and the Brazilian Marcos Antonio from Shaktar Donetsk as main reinforcements.
The Serbian Luka Jovic has been the main reinforcement of Fiorentina, in an agreement at zero cost but of which Real Madrid keeps 50% of a possible future sale.
In addition, the Argentine Gonzalo Escalante and the Mexican Johan Vásquez arrived on loan to Cremonese; while the Spaniards Pablo Marí and Gonzalo Villar reinforce Monza – a team led by Italian Silvio Berlusconi – and Sampdoria, from Arsenal and Roma, respectively.
