Milan, Napoli and Atalanta all have new head coaches as Italian football hopes to return to the spotlight
And so, calcio’s “third apocalypse” has passed. A lot of Italians enjoyed it more than they expected to. Without a team to cheer for, again, in the men’s World Cup, a nation turned its attention to different sports. And found its athletes dominating them.
On the day that Spain defeated Argentina in New Jersey, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the first Italian driver to win a Formula One race in 20 years, extended his lead in the season’s standings by triumphing again at the Belgian Grand Prix. A week before that, Jannik Sinner defended his men’s singles title at Wimbledon. Since then, Italy has finished top of the medal table at the European Athletics Championships, and second in the European Aquatics Championships. Manila Esposito also took floor exercise gold at the European Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships. Glancing over the front pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport this last week, you could almost miss that a new Serie A season is upon us. The transfer gossip that typically gets top billing at this time of year has faded into the background of a medal parade.
