Scott McTominay’s whirlwind first season with Napoli has been a great story to emerge from the 2024/25 season. Considered surplus to requirements at Manchester United, an organisation more likable to a scene from Inferno than a football club, the Scot has captured not only the Scudetto, but also the Serie A player of the season crown. Scotland’s Serie A exports have been especially successful in recent years, with Ferguson winning the Coppa Italia as Bologna captain, and Gilmour starring alongside McTominay with Napoli. However, they are far from the only ones from the British Isles to become a hit in the most storied league in the world.
Not every British or Irish adventure in Italy has been a success. Des Walker made a fool of himself at Sampdoria in the mid-90s, failing to cope with the higher quality Italian game, and the most notable moment of Ian Rush’s disastrous spell at Juventus was his shock at how many people in Turin spoke Italian not English. Until the last 20 years, Serie A had always been one of, if not the best league in the world, and the step-up was not always easy. Nevertheless, several stars from these shores have made a positive impact in Italian football.
Luther Blissett, Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley
I will deal with these three as a trio, since they represented the same club, Milan, in roughly the same era. Blissett was the first to arrive at San Siro, having joined from Graham Taylor’s Watford in the summer of 1983. Blissett’s fortunes were mixed in Milan, and he spent only a year there, but his story is an important one; he was a pioneer as part of the first real generation of outstanding black English players, and a trailblazer in being part of this generation and moving abroad, like Laurie Cunningham a few years earlier. As Blissett departed in 1984, Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley arrived, and the pair spent three successful seasons in Milan. This was not quite the Milan we all know now, and these seasons in the mid-80s laid the groundwork for the Three Dutchmen to inspire the club to new heights at the end of the decade. Butch Wilkins’ impact can be seen in the gushing tributes paid to him by the club after he passed away.
Paul Gascoigne
This list would not be complete without Gascoigne. While his on-pitch success with Lazio was fairly modest, despite a handful of virtuosic moments, it is the way in which he inspired the modern British obsession with Italian football which is most interesting. Channel 4 were convinced to invest in Serie A by Gascoigne’s transfer, and introduced Britain to the best league in the world on terrestrial television to huge success.
Graeme Souness and Trevor Francis
After a period of huge success with Liverpool, Souness spent two years with upstarts Sampdoria, as they embarked on their own golden age. Another European Cup winner, this time with Forest, Trevor Francis also represented the Blucerchiati in this era, and is also extremely fondly remembered in Genoa. They acted as mentor figures for Vialli, Mancini et al, shaping the side which would eventually win the Scudetto in 1991, and winning a Coppa Italia in the process.
Liam Brady
Brady was also with Sampdoria in this period, but it is for Juventus where he left the most significant mark. His legacy with Sampdoria is fantastic, but for the Old Lady he was a vital part of one of the greatest sides ever under Giovanni Trapattoni. Brady won the Scudetto in both of his years with Juve between 1980 and 1982, playing alongside the likes of Scirea, Gentile, Tardelli, Cabrini, Rossi, and Zoff among others. He can feel harshly treated when Juventus moved on from him in 1982, but when you consider his replacement was Michel Platini, it is perhaps more understandable.
John Charles
John Charles was an extraordinary footballer. A phenom at both centre forward and centre back, he played for Juventus between 1957 and 1962. The Welshman was part of an outstanding side too, forming a “Holy Trident” with Omar Sivori and Giampiero Boniperti. In his very first season Charles was Capocannoniere (top scorer), as well as League Champion, and the man known as Il Buon Gigante is fondly and rightly remembered as a bona fide Juventus great to this day.
“John Charles, Wales versus Scotland, Ninian Park, 1954” by Geoff Charles is licensed under CC BY 2.0.