Predicting The Most Important Player For Every Serie A Club In 2025/26

Serie A is back, and with it returns one of the most tactically rich, emotionally volatile, and narratively loaded leagues in world football. From Napoli’s title defense to AC Milan’s search for redemption, every club has a key player who could define their 2025/26 season.

Whether it’s rising stars, marquee signings, or seasoned leaders, these individuals will be central to their teams’ ambitions across the league and Europe.

In this breakdown, we spotlight the most important player at every Serie A club—through the lens of form, fit, tactics, and leadership—for fans, analysts, and fantasy football obsessives alike.

Lecce

Lecce survived the drop by three points last season thanks to the work of 30-year-old captain Wladimiro Falcone in goal. Falcone has been one of the best goalkeepers in Serie A since taking over the starting job for Lecce upon their return to the top flight in 2022/23, somehow allowing just around 1.20 goals per 90 minutes that season.

Although Lecce’s leaky defense has ballooned Falcone’s average above 1.50 now, he still has never dipped below a 71.7 save percentage in any single season as a Serie A player. He is one of the best in Italian football and easily the key man for Lecce in 2025/26.

Cremonese

Back in Serie A for the 2025/26 season, Cremonese are actually loaded up with recognizable Serie A veterans like Leonardo Sernicola, Emil Audero, Federico Bonazzoli, Giuseppe Pezzella, David Okereke, and Federico Baschirotto.

But the real star of the team is going to be 29-year-old Belgian midfielder Jari Vandeputte, who registered 13 assists in Serie B to lead the team in goal contributions.

Granted, his stats were from Serie B, but his underlying numbers are in the 99th percentile for expected assists, shot-creating actions, non-penalty xG, and progressive carries. He could be this season’s breakout newcomer.

Como

Como have an ambitious sporting project and have done the best to try and load up their squad with big names to attract attention and stay alive in Serie A. They did so last season by the skin of their teeth, but that had far less to do with veterans like Andrea Belotti and Raphael Varane and more to do with a singular force in the attacking midfield.

Nico Paz is someone Como are trying to keep permanently without any chance to get back to Real Madrid, and, so far, they’ve been successful in delaying the departure of one of European football’s finest playmakers. He is going to be crucial again next season and, likely, even better.

Pisa

Although the Pisa No. 11 will have to shake off some injury woes to start the season, 25-year-old Corsican attacking midfield gem Matteo Tramoni is by far the player to watch for Pisa and, like Vandeputte, one of the players Calcio fans absolutely have to keep on their radar for the 2025/26 season.

A potential breakout star in the making, Tramoni already extended his contract with Pisa through the 2029/30 season to commit to the team’s future in Serie A, and after leading the team in goal contributions in the 2024/25 Serie B season, you wouldn’t bet against him putting up double-digits in the top flight, too.

Sassuolo

Although Armand Lauriente led Sassuolo in goal contributions last season, buoyed by his 18 goals, and is still a member of the Neroverdi after a transfer to Sunderland collapsed, the 26-year-old could yet move teams with capital giants AS Roma still involved.

Plus, it would be borderline blasphemous to say that anyone is more important than Domenico Berardi. His years of experience in Serie A and the fact that he was the chief architect last season with 13 assists seal the fact that Berardi is still the top dog in Sassuolo.

Seeing him back in Serie A will be a welcome sight for even neutral fans, as the sweet left-footer is, without a doubt, one of the best wingers to have played in Italian football over the last 10 years.

Hellas Verona

Paolo Zanetti’s men finished 14th in Serie A last season, and if they can hold steady in that place next season and survive, I think the Gialloblu will be happy with that since their squad doesn’t exactly leap out with quality.

In fact, they sold their best player, center back Diego Coppola, this summer to Brighton. But they did secure another year of Fiorentina’s Nicolas Valentini on loan, and after impressing last season, the 24-year-old Argentinian defender will be the team’s new top center back next season. And by extension, the new key man.

Genoa

Despite links to clubs as big as Manchester United and Tottenham, midfielder Morten Frendrup is still manning the middle of the park for a Genoa side that is rife with underrated players – Johan Vasquez and Aaron Martin are among them. Frendrup could take another big step forward this season and finally earn his big move.

Bologna

You can make a valid argument that Santiago Castro will take another big step forward in the 2025/26 season at the age of 21 and completely erase the memory of Joshua Zirkzee in Bologna, and the Rossoblu have a few other highly valuable players like Lewis Ferguson, Jens Odgaard, and Thijs Dallinga as they continue to push for European football year after year.

But it would be, as with Sassuolo and Domenico Berardi, blasphemous to pick against Riccardo Orsolini as the star man for Bologna. Orsolini scored 15 goals last season and so often is the one to come up with the important goals. He is one of Serie A’s finest and is finally getting recognized as such.

Torino

Arguably the best signing made from a demoted club last season, Ardian Ismajli is honestly capable of starting for any team at the center back position in the Italian top flight when you break down the numbers.

He averaged 1.0 tackles, 1.9 interceptions, 8.5 clearances, and just 0.1 dribbles allowed per game last season. You can put the 28-year-old Albanian international’s numbers up with literally anyone else’s in Serie A.

Ismajli will be the next in a long line of great center backs to play for Torino that includes Armando Izzo, Wilfried Singo (a wing back for the Bulls), Alessandro Buongiorno, and Gleison Bremer. Don’t be surprised if Ismajli is as good as Bremer next season on a club with a little more of a spotlight than Empoli.

Cagliari

The Sardinians scrapped their way to 15th last season despite not having any real stars in their squad. However, if there is a trio of players to watch then it would be wide man Nadir Zortea, veteran center back Yerry Mina of Everton fame, and leading goal-scorer Roberto Piccoli.

Of that trio, Piccoli has to be the most important to Cagliari, because, well, someone has to score the goals. And 10 goals for Cagliari with the way they play is a real feat. Piccoli is always there in the box when they need him, and the 24-year-old is a good bet to continue developing as a finisher and edge out that total in 2025/26.

Atalanta

Mateo Retegui is already off to the Middle East, and the Ademola Lookman saga can only lead to one outcome for La Dea. That means the new king of the Atalanta attack is Charles De Ketelaere, and while he won’t be coached by Gian Piero Gasperini – the man who resurrected his career – you have to think that he’ll flourish under Ivan Juric as a playmaker and goal-scorer as the point man in the Atalanta attack.

Honorable mentions go to the recovering Giorgio Scalvini, who is legitimately as good of a center back as Alessandro Bastoni despite getting half the recognition. And goalkeeper Marco Carnessechi is as talented as any shot-stopper in the Italian top flight these days.

Udinese

The 2025/26 Udinese squad has very different expectations to the teams of the recent past that were headed up by Rodrigo De Paul and even Gerard Deulofeu, but even in 2025, the Friulani have a big name to rally behind in Florian Thauvin, who used a move to Italy to save a career that unexpectedly went up in flames after he was previously the face of Marseille.

Quietly, Thauvin scored eight goals last season, including some of the best of the season in Calcio, and the 32-year-old was also an effective playmaker with 1.6 dribbles completed and 1.6 key passes per game. Donning the armband, there’s a pervading sense around the club that Thauvin is the one who has to carry them.

Parma

Parma have a number of intriguing young talents in their squad, such as star striker Ange-Yoan Bonny and high-upside goalkeeping prospect Zion Suzuki. But for the right mix of current importance and future upside, Adrian Bernabe has to get the nod as the real beating heart of this Parma side.

They’ll likely be safe from relegation again because of the composure Bernabe has in the middle of the park as a passer and progressor. Last season, Bernabe was solid in defense and almost impossible to dispossess.

With other players around him, like Dennis Mann, set to take strides forward, too, Bernabe himself could be twice as good for Parma in the 2025/26 Serie A season.

AC Milan

There are two kinds of people in this world. The people who acknowledge that Rafael Leao is, by far, the most talented player on AC Milan and the people who use hot takes masquerading as analysis to obfuscate past results that are painfully obvious to see.

Leao was the MVP of Serie A when Milan won the title in 2021/22, which is a feat that has become rare for the Rossoneri. A year later, Milan didn’t win the title, but they reached the semifinals of the Champions League in part because of Leao single-handedly carrying the team in the quarterfinals against eventual Scudetto winners Napoli.

He’s the best player on the team and the most talented player in the league, which he already showed the last time Milan even looked like a competent team. If they can get their act together-  which is a tall order under the clown show that is their current upper management – then he’ll flourish.

Roma

Roma are going to be frighteningly boom or bust next season, because we’re going to find out just how much of their fifth-placed finish was engineered by the magic of club legend Claudio Ranieri rescuing them from more incompetent Serie A management by outsiders to Italy or if the Giallorossi are actually as good of a squad as Juventus, Fiorentina, and Lazio.

Mile Svilar is almost by default their most important player, since it’s so hard to trust the outfield talents. Paulo Dybala is the best player on Roma overall, no doubt, but Svilar is someone Roma can trust to stay healthy and make decisive saves.

At this time next season, we could be talking about him as the best goalkeeper in the league, even above Juve’s Michele Di Gregorio and the legendary Yann Sommer over in Milano.

Lazio

Rivals Lazio don’t have any big names in their squad these days – Ciro Immobile returned to Serie A but joined Bologna instead – but they do have a hoard of quality footballers who will want to overachieve more than the seventh-placed finish they mustered last season.

Out of all these players, Nicolo Rovella is the one who does the most for the team and has the quality of a top Serie A player. Mattia Zaccagni and Taty Castellanos are in more highlights, but Rovella is a technically sound player who is in every scrap, defending well and keeping possession ticking for a team that needs to keep enough of the ball to succeed.

Fiorentina

Goals win you games, and while David De Gea is incredibly valuable to the Viola for all the goals he stops, having a striker like Moise Kean who can flirt with 20 goals in a Serie A season is massive.

Fiorentina have some other good footballers around him like fellow striker Albert Gudmundsson and midfielders Nicolo Fagioli and Rolando Mandragora, but without Kean holding up play up top and finishing off the chances, Fiorentina would, quite frankly, be nowhere near the top six.

Inter Milan

Inter Milan have the easiest choice for their most important player in the 2025/26 season, because he’s been the most important player on the team pretty much every season since Romelu Lukaku left in 2021 after grabbing Serie A MVP honors as his striker partner.

Now, Lautaro Martinez has another great partner in Marcus Thuram – and a couple of other talented strikers behind him – but there’s no mistaking that the 2023/24 season Ballon d’Or candidate is the face of Inter. But he’ll have to keep working on being more consistent in order for the Nerazzurri to finally defend a Scudetto.

Napoli

Napoli swooped in and won the 2024/25 Serie A title against the odds in Antonio Conte’s first season at the helm, and while it was breakout midfielder Scott McTominay who changed the narrative of his career and won the Serie A MVP officially, I’d argue that Lukaku is the most important player on the team heading into the next season.

McTominay is a great player, and Napoli found the perfect way to translate his unique physical gifts. However, Lukaku has been a star in Serie A for multiple seasons and was the most decisive player on the team, standing out as the team’s leading goal-scorer and creator with 14 goals and 10 assists.

With Belgian international Kevin De Bruyne now by his side at the club level, you wouldn’t bet against Lukaku going for 20 in the 2025/26 season as the Partenopei look to avoid another post-title letdown this time around.

Juventus

Juventus are impossible to trust, and on the strength of their play in the 2024/25 season, you have to wonder how they even cobbled together a top-four finish at all. The Bianconeri do have a new striker in town in Jonathan David, but it still feels like they haven’t upgraded the team enough.

But they have at least one player they can count on as a difference-maker – and he’s only getting better. Kenan Yildiz is the new face of Juve and their great hope, and his ability to produce goals out of nothing could be, once again, what saves the boys from Turin from further embarrassment in 2026.