It’s official: Napoli are champions of Italy, winning the 2022/23 Serie A title. It had been apparent for a long time that Luciano Spalletti and his Partenopei would be impossible to catch at the top of the table, but their 1-1 draw at Udinese on Matchday 33 finally got them over the line.
Napoli could have won the title on Matchday 32 against Salernitana but let a lead slip to draw, when they needed to win to wrap things up. That would have seen them crowned as Italy’s earliest-ever champions, with six sets of fixtures to play, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, they share the honour of having sealed it with five remaining fixtures with a number of teams, including Juventus 2018/19, Inter 2006/07, Fiorentina 1955/56 and Torino 1947/48.
Napoli scudetto statistics
So, let’s take a look at some of the more interesting statistics behind Napoli’s historic scudetto.
- The 2022/23 Serie A title is just the third in Napoli’s history.
- This Serie A title is Napoli’s first without Diego Maradona in their squad.
- Only AS Roma had been made to wait longer than Napoli’s 33 years between scudetti, enduring a 41-year wait between 1942 and 1983. Torino waited 27 years between 1949 and 1976, and Lazio waited 26 years between 1974 and 2000.
- This is Luciano Spalletti’s first scudetto. In the era of three points for a win, no title-winning coach has done so for the first time after so many games (554) in Serie A. Sven-Goran Eriksson did so after 424, and Stefano Pioli after 417.
- Luciano Spalletti is the oldest coach to win the Serie A title at 64.
- Napoli have scored a higher proportion of their goals from inside the box than anybody in Europe’s top-five leagues (66 from 67).
- Napoli have scored the most goals from set pieces (22) this season and conceded the fewest (three). Their 15 goals from corners is also a record this season in Europe’s top-five leagues.
- Victor Osimhen’s 22 goals have him as the frontrunner to win the capocannoniere. Only three times this century has the capocannoniere won the title – David Trezeguet with Juventus in 2002, Andriy Shevchenko of AC Milan in 2004, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Inter in 2009.
- Victor Osimhen is the highest-scoring Nigerian in Serie A with 46 goals. Only George Weah (also 46) has as many of all Africans to have played in Italy’s top flight.
- Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen have scored 34 goals between them this season. Only Kylian Mbappe–Lionel Messi (37) and Erling Haaland–Phil Foden (42) boast more as duos in Europe’s big-five leagues.
- Giovanni Di Lorenzo is just the second player to captain Napoli to a scudetto, after Diego Maradona. Since his debut in with Empoli 2018/19, nobody has started more than his 170 Serie A matches (along with Sassuolo goalkeeper Andrea Consigli).
