Italy

Just days after it was reported that Real Madrid had lowered Cristiano Ronaldo’s buyout clause from over $1 billion to just $140 million, the latest rumors see Juventus meeting that asking price with a sensational swoop for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. 

There’s something in the water in Uruguay. There’s something about the nation of three million people, winners of the first ever World Cup, which allows them to produce some of the most magnificent bastards in the history of football.

Netherlands international Justin Kluivert has joined Champions League semifinalists Roma for a reported fee of around $24 million after a breakthrough season with Ajax. Supporters of the Amsterdam club will be livid with Kluivert after the 19-year-old spurned the advice of his father, Barcelona legend Patrick Kluivert, to join the Serie A giants.

Roberto Mancini unveiled his first squad as the new coach of the Italian national side and the biggest indication that this was a new era was the inclusion of Mario Balotelli.

While other teams are preparing for the World Cup, the inclusion of Balotelli signals a major sea change in squad selection, bringing back into the fold a gifted, oft-maligned striker.

A front line of Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembélé and Kylian Mbappé sounds terrifying. Italy just found out exactly how terrifying. The three-man attack played a key role in all three goals in a 3-1 win for France vs Italy in a pre-World Cup friendly in Nice on Friday evening. 

France manager Didier Deschamps started the fearsome forward trio against Italy’s generally well-regarded back line in Les Bleus’ penultimate warm-up match for the World Cup. 

Lazio made a silly mistake on Friday. The Serie A club asked fans to vote in a Twitter poll for who they think should be the Lazio Player of the Season. 

The choice should be pretty simple. Ciro Immobile was one of the top players in all of Europe, scoring 41 goals across all competitions and tying Mauro Icardi with 29 goals to win Serie A’s Capocannoniere as the league’s top goal scorer. 

The curtain has come down on club football for the season and the World Cup is just around the corner. But football never ends. Not really. Now, we get to start speculating about transfers.

Serie A has always attracted envious glances. Clubs in Italy have players of the highest calibre and, with certain teams not able to measure up financially to their Spanish and English counterparts, selling these assets is an essential part of balancing the books.

So which potential Serie A transfers should you be following closely this summer?

Alisson (AS Roma)

Mario Balotelli made his triumphant return to the Italian national team against Saudi Arabia on Monday and managed to score an outstanding goal early on. 

In true Balotelli form, it only took him just a measly twenty minutes to find the back of the net. They really could have done with him against Sweden.

The match was the first of former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini’s tenure as the coach of the Italian team, and the Azzurri went on to win 2-1. 

Yesterday, Italian legend Andrea Pirlo played one final match before retirement — his testimonial at the San Siro. After a career spent with Brescia, Inter, Reggina, Milan, Juventus, New York City FC and the Italian national team, a world-class selection of former teammates came together to celebrate the career of the midfield maestro.