The Most Successful Football Clubs In Italy

Football in Italy dates all the way back to Roman times and there is even recorded evidence of medieval popes playing a version of the sport in the Vatican.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century a more recognisable version of the game became popular, brought to the peninsula by English traders and soon enough clubs began to form. A generation later saw the emergence of Serie A.

Juventus, Genoa and Bologna were the dominant forces in those early days, the latter two deserving an honourable mention, their heritage undisputed.

Thereafter other clubs came to the fore, hoovering up silverware and accumulating huge fan-bases. As the Italian game gained a significant foothold in world football, these clubs became global giants.

Torino

Il Toro haven’t won a Scudetto since 1976 but omitting them from this list would have been a crime when we acknowledge what they once gifted the world, a magnificent and peerless collective that won five Serie A titles back-to-back in the nineteen-forties; a legendary side that perished in one tragic instant when their plane crashed into the side of the Superga mountain.

Valentino Mazzola was unquestionably the stand-out superstar, but to indicate just how special this team was we only need recognise that ten of the national side at the time was made up of ‘Grande Torino’. Subsequently, their reputation spread far and wide.

Which ultimately proved to be their undoing, as foreign clubs began requesting their presence in exhibition matches. Returning from a friendly against Benfica in 1949, their plane became shrouded in fog and a stunned nation ground to a standstill.

It is estimated that a million people in Turin took to the streets in mourning for the 31 lost souls.

Roma

Associazione Sportiva Roma may have only won three league titles across their 97 years of existence but they are, by almost every metric, the biggest club in Italy’s capital city and that obviously counts for a lot.

Impressively, Roma have been top-flight residents for all-but-one season and can proudly boast a hall of fame that is up there with the best of them.

In the Sixties they had Giacomo Losi. In the Eighties, Bruno Conti made up one third of an outstanding midfield that was also illuminated by Carlo Ancelotti and the Brazilian, Falcao. Naturally enough, that side won a Scudetto. How could it not?

In more recent times, Francesco Totti came to symbolise the club’s distinctive identity, half comprising of passion, and half guile.

In truth, I Giallorossi are in no danger of upsetting the Serie A odds anytime soon, averaging fifth place in the league over the last decade, but add their Europa Conference League success in 2022 to an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup triumph in 1961, and that puts some gloss on their continental credentials.

They also reached a European Cup final in 1984, losing to Liverpool.

Inter

There is a jump from Roma to Internazionale and now we are in the realms of the three Italian behemoths.

I Nerazzurri have always been a marquee name, winning their first domestic league trophy in 1910 and adding a 20th just last May. In the 21st century they have finished outside the top four on only five occasions, claiming seven Scudettos post the Millenium.

But if their record on home soil is consistently and traditionally formidable, what truly elevates this club is their fine continental legacy, built upon a feared outfit that conquered Europe in the mid-Sixties.

Forged by the legendary manager Helenio Herrera, who adapted catenaccio and made it forever associated with Inter, it was a side made brilliant by the magical playmaker Luis Suarez. There was also Sandro Mazzola, a sublime talent whose father Valentino died in the Turin air disaster.

More recent generations recall Inter’s stockpiling of terrific attacking fare around the turn of the century, at one point possessing the Brazilian Ronaldo, Alvaro Recoba, Christian Vieri, Hakan Sukur and Robbie Keane.

Strangely enough Keane struggled for minutes.

AC Milan

Milan have won 19 Scudettos between 1901 and 2022 but what really marks them out as footballing royalty is their European pedigree, claiming 18 continental honours, including seven European Cup/Champions League triumphs. Only Real Madrid have won more.

Perhaps this explains why I Rossoneri are the most supported Italian club beyond the peninsula though another theory goes that Milan – arguably more than any other club in the world – have historically produced an array of extraordinary and cherished football teams.

In the Fifties, their Swedish contingent of Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl, and the generational Nils Liedholm – colloquially known as Gre-No-Li – led the club to all manner of glories.

In the Eighties, an imperious collection of megastars, featuring the Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco Van Basten, and made impenetrable by Maldini, Baresi and Costacurta, smashed all before them in style.

That team – nicknamed ‘The Immortals’ – is regularly voted the greatest club side, not just in Italy, but of all time.

Even during occasional spells in the doldrums, Milan are routinely backed in the football betting, such is their stature.

Juventus

Juve have also produced some fantastical sides down the years and unquestionably several have been a joy to behold.

Their European Cup-winning side of 1985 first comes to mind, with Platini and Boniek dovetailing beautifully.

Think of the Old Lady however and it’s not style but substance that is evoked because for Juve it’s all about winning, all about domination – not just in Italy but across Europe.

Across their trophy-laden past and present, the Turin giants have won 36 Scudettos, a remarkable tally that would have been one more but for the Calciopoli Scandal in 2006.

They have also finished runner-up in Serie A on 21 occasions.

It means that a club that was initially founded by a sixth form college in Turin, have finished in the top two in the Italian top-flight in 47.8% of the seasons that have ever been competed for. Now that’s domination.