The 3 most surprising Serie A players in 2023-24

Many players exceeded expectations in the 2023-24 Serie A campaign, but Football Italia picked three who stood out from the rest.

Another exciting Serie A campaign has come to an end with Inter securing the 20th title in their history and Frosinone joining Sassuolo and Salernitana in Serie B.

Impressive results in European competitions allowed five Serie A clubs to qualify for the 2024-25 Champions League and the 5th-ranked, Bologna, did feature many surprising players this season.

1. Riccardo Calafiori (Bologna)

Sorry, Joshua Zirkzee, but we’ll pick one player from each team, and Calafiori has a slight edge over you. The Dutch forward was surely among the most impressive players of the campaign and was named best U23 by Lega Serie A. However, Calafiori was slightly more surprising than his teammate and not only for his €4m transfer fee, which Bologna paid to sign him from Basel last summer. Calafiori was meant to be battling Victor Kristiansen for a starting spot as a left-back, but he quickly evolved into a solid centre-back. The product of Roma academy was among the three players shortlisted for the Serie A defender of the season alongside Juventus‘ Gleison Bremer and Inter‘s Alessandro Bastoni, the eventual winner. Most importantly, his performances allowed him to earn a spot in Italy’s preliminary squad for Euro 2024 and coach Luciano Spalletti is ready to include him in the final 26-man team. Bologna had an incredible campaign, and honestly, each one of their players would deserve to be mentioned here.

2. Albert Gudmundsson

We know the Genoa star had contributed to their Serie A promotion last season with 11 goals in 36 Serie B games, but the 26-year-old managed even more this term with 14 goals in 35 Serie A matches. Only Lautaro Martinez, Dusan Vlahovic, Victor Osimhen and Olivier Giroud were more prolific in 2023-24. What’s even more impressive is that Gudmundsson needed only 23 shots on target this season to find the net 14 times. His outstanding debut season in Serie A helped him attract interest from some of the wealthiest and biggest clubs in Europe, but if the Iceland international dreamt of a Premier League transfer only a few years ago, now he seems more inclined to stay in Serie A and Calcio fans could not be happier, especially those of Inter, Juventus and Napoli, three clubs linked with the versatile striker this summer.

3. Charles De Ketelaere

The Belgian would not have been on this list if Paolo Maldini had been the author of this article, but here we are. The former Milan director strongly believed in CDK’s quality and acquired him at San Siro for over €35m in 2022. However, the Belgian only delivered an assist in 40 appearances with the Rossoneri last season, so he was loaned out at Atalanta and Gian Piero Gasperini did find the key to turn CDK on. It’s not only about his 10 goals and seven assists in 34 league games. De Ketelaere emerged in an Atalanta side filled with attacking talent. Gianluca Scamacca and El Bilal Touré became the most expensive signings in the club’s history last summer. Ademola Lookman had already impressed in his first season in Bergamo, and Teun Koopmeiners was used as an attacking midfielder for the majority of the campaign. There were injuries, this is true, but very few in Bergamo missed Scamacca when the Italian was forced to the sidelines with an injury at the end of 2023. CDK took his chance and contributed to Atalanta’s successes. Playing closer to the opponents’ goal has proved to be key to De Ketelaere, who will remain in Bergamo beyond the summer, completing a permanent €25m transfer, loan fee included.