Napoli defend title as Serie A reshapes with De Bruyne and Lang

Napoli begin the 2025-26 Serie A season as defending champions, but the champions’ path will be crowded with title ambitions and a reshaped landscape across Italian football. Napoli head into the campaign with a streamlined belief in their squad’s capacity to defend the Scudetto, even as they add high-profile talent such as Kevin De Bruyne and Noa Lang while contending with the injury absence of Romelu Lukaku for an extended period. The capital will be on assembling a balanced attack and a robust midfield, a task intensified by the broader shift in European football that places renewed emphasis on depth and consistency over a single stellar run.

The season’s opening context is framed by a change in how European places are allocated. Italy earned five teams into the Champions League last season, a bonus now gone as the ranking shifted and England and Spain overtook the Italian league in the UEFA coefficients. The consequence is clear: four Italian clubs will compete in Europe’s top competition this season, elevating the stakes for domestically focused clubs and heightening the pressure on every top-half finish to deliver a return in continental play. Still, analysts project a...