The SSC Naples gets some air at the top of the Italian series A and dreams of renewed title. One of the absolute guarantees of success is one that only a few had on the screen as a difference before the season.
At SSC Naples you dream big again. And rightly so. Three victories in the last three games, since eight games without defeat and three points lead in the table. With four outstanding encounters, the next championship title is within reach after 2023. Especially after last weekend.
Then Inter Milan, the defending champion and current second in the table, lost 0-1 against AS Rome, Napoli followed a 2-0 against FC Turin on Sunday evening – a preliminary win.
“The Champions League is now a arithmetic fact, and when you consider where we started, definitely something nice. The Scudetto would be a miracle,” said coach Antonio Conte at Sky Italia . A little miracle is also what one of his protégés currently delivers.
Scott McTominay moved to Naples in the summer of 2024
Mctominay is the gamucheranger in Naples
Finally, from the perspective of the “Gli Azzurri”, the question of the match winner did not arise again: it could only be Scott Mctominay. The Scotsman scored both goals and is now at a total of eleven goals in Series A – mind you as a central midfielder.
The fans have long since loved the man who came from Manchester United for a transfer of 30 million euros before this season and regularly puts the domestic Stadio Diego Armando Maradona into ecstasy.
McTominay undoubtedly fits perfectly with the rather rustic style of play from Conte. He is not a ball artist, not a noble technician, but a player who comes through the factors of physique and will.
In midfield, the 28-year-old can be used variably and can help both offensive and defensive. His height of 1.91 meters brings him crucial advantages in a duel, his position game in attack is no less important.
Imposing: he shot five of his eleven goals in the season in the past three games alone. In the final phase of the season, when it comes to the hot weeks, McTominay seems to be relating. And that’s more than remarkable.
Because the high -flyer, which very few had than one on the slip before the season, has the previous season and the disappointing place forgot – and almost earlier stars.
The “new leader of Napoli”
Top goalkeeper Victor Osimhen left the club in the summer on loan towards Galatasaray, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia then moved to Paris Saint-Germain for 70 million euros in January. At the latest after this sale, the dream of the title at the foot of the Vesuvian seemed for another year. But also or precisely because of Mctominay, the team recovered so much.
The Italian press already called the midfielder “the new leader of Napoli” and “the next Maradona” because he did so much with his new employer – and the fans became no less creative.
A few weeks ago, they dedicated a banner to their new darling. It said: “Napoli. Mctominay. Pizza. In this order.” There was also a Scottish flag with the Napoli coat of arms.
Spectacular finale with Mctominay?
The flag, which Gareth Bales is a famous banner “Wales, Golf, Madrid”, hangs in a pizzeria in Naples and shows the importance of Mctominay with perhaps new Italian champion. However, the crowning glory is certainly not yet – because the regulations provide for a very special final in the title fight in one case.
Should Inter still catch up with the three-point deficit on Napoli in the remaining four games, Mctominay could be a spectacular finale at the end of an outstanding debut season.