Ronaldo front and centre of new Serie A arrivals to watch ahead of 2018/19 season

The 2018/19 Serie A season kicks off on Saturday when champions Juventus take on Chievo. Here, we run through five new summer arrivals that are worth keeping an eye on between now and May… 

Alban Lafont - Fiorentina 

The tragic bridge collapse in Genoa this week means both Sampdoria and Genoa games have been rightly postponed until a later date as the city goes through a period of mourning. Fiorentina were due to face the former at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, a game that would have marked Alban Lafont’s debut for the Viola. The highly-rated shotstopper, who has previously been linked with a Premier League switch, will succeed Marco Sportiello between the sticks in Florence and Fiorentina have themselves a top-quality shotstopper who, at 19, will only improve. 

Of course, given his age and inexperience, Lafont’s game requires sufficient developing, but having plied his trade for a Toulouse outfit that was routinely fighting at the wrong end of the table, he’ll hope to grow as a goalkeeper in a Fiorentina side that should rightly be targeting European football. With the Fiorentina squad’s average age a spritely 24.1, they’ll be one of the more exciting sides in Serie A to watch this season with Lafont well worth monitoring to assess whether he’s on the right path to global stardom.  

Cristiano Ronaldo - Juventus 

Serie A’s biggest import this millennium, Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus caught many off guard, but has already proven to be a huge success from a marketing perspective. With the return of Leonardo Bonucci and arrivals of Emre Can and Joao Cancelo, the Old Lady means business and the arrival of Ronaldo is a huge statement of intent for the Serie A champions. Domestic success won’t just cut it for Juventus this season, with the club outlying their intentions to go all the way in Europe, too. 

The departure of Gonzalo Higuain, who has swapped Turin for Milan, means Ronaldo should spearhead the Juventus offensive this season and his winning mentality is no doubt a boost for Max Allegri’s side. He scored more goals (15) than any other player in the Champions League last season and rattled in 26 goals in La Liga too to make both competitions’ teams of the season with respective WhoScored.com ratings of 8.12 and 7.94. There is immense pressure on the 33-year-old to make an immediate impact in Serie A, starting with the visit to Chievo on Saturday, but if any player can shoulder the burden, it’s Ronaldo. 

Lautaro Martinez - Inter 

Gonzalo Higuain wasn’t the only Argentine striker to rock up in Milan this summer, with promising forward Lautaro Martinez swapping Racing Club for Inter Milan. The 20-year-old missed out on a place in Jorge Sampaoli’s World Cup squad, but after a summer free of competitive action, supporters will be confident of witnessing the best the young striker has to offer at San Siro. 

Indeed, Martinez scored 13 and registered four assists in the Argentine Superliga last season as Racing Club ended the season in 7th. Fans have already caught a glimpse of what is to come as Martinez scored a sensational scissor kick in Inter’s pre-season meeting with Atletico Madrid. He’s one of the hottest striking prospects to come out of Argentina in recent years and he now has the chance to link up with compatriot Mauro Icardi in a new look Inter side that, on paper, has the means to challenge for the Scudetto. Martinez has an air of confidence about him that should go down well with the Inter faithful and a killer instinct that means he’ll be feared by opponents across Italy and beyond this coming campaign. 

Steven N’Zonzi - Roma 

“I didn’t say we’d sign a footballer who plays in the same position as Malcom, I said we’d sign sign a better player. For me, Steven is a better player than Malcom,” Roma’s director of football Monchi said in the wake of Steven N’Zonzi’s move to Italy. Roma were on the cusp of confirming the arrival of Malcom from Bordeaux, only for Barcelona to steal the Brazilian from under their nose at the 11th hour. While it left Roma without a winger they’d pursed for some time, the arrival on N’Zonzi boosts Eusebio Di Francesco’s midfield options. 

During his time with Sevilla, the Frenchman established himself as one of the finest ball winning, ball playing midfielders on the continent, with Arsenal previously courting the World Cup winner. In a new look midfield consisting of N’Zonzi, Javier Pastore and Bryan Cristante, the former will operate as the midfield anchor to win the ball and recycle possession effectively. He returned a 88% pass success rate from 75.2 passes per 90 in Spain’s top tier last term, with only Asier Illarramendi (4178) making more accurate passes than the 29-year-old (4141) since the start of the 2016/17 La Liga season. What’s more, an aerial success rate of 81.1%, that better than any other player in La Liga last term, reinforces a statistically calculated WhoScored.com strength of ‘aerial duels’ and means that, with both the ball on the ground or in the air, the Roma defence will be rarely challenged with N’Zonzi at the heart of the midfield. 

Kevin Malcuit - Napoli 

Elseid Hysaj may have established himself as first choice right-back with Napoli, but the arrival of Kevin Malcuit provides the Albanian with stiff competition for a starting spot. The 27-year-old was linked with a move to West Ham earlier in the summer, but Napoli won the race to sign the Frenchman and he could prove a snip at a rumoured €11m. 

Lille were reluctant to cash in on Malcuit a year into his five-year deal, yet his fine campaign coupled with Les Dogues’ relegation-threatened season meant it was only a matter of time before teams across the continent sought to land the highly-rated full-back. Only Djibril Sidibe and Dani Alves (both 7) registered more assists than Malcuit of defenders in Ligue 1 last season, while a return of 57 successful dribbles was second only to Kenny Lala (62) of defenders to reinforce a statistically calculated WhoScored.com strength of ‘dribbling’. Both returns all the more impressive when taking into account that Malcuit featured in just 23 of 38 league matches last term. Hysaj will be aware that any dip in form could see him lose his spot to the attack-minded defender and if the summer arrival’s Ligue 1 performances are anything to go by, then Napoli fans will be excited to see what he can bring to the table in Carlo Ancelotti’s favoured 4-3-3 formation.