Football: Italian Serie A to start on Saturday

By Baris Seckin

ROME (AA) - Italia’s top-tier football league Serie A will start the 2019/20 season on Saturday. The opening match will see the rivalry between Juventus and Parma.

The eight-time reigning champions Juventus will seek to win their ninth consecutive Serie A title this season. Their struggle for championship will start at the weekend in an away match at the Ennio Tardini stadium.

Maurizio Sarri will lead the team after the departure of Massimiliano Allegri.

Last season's runners-up Napoli will try to end their title quench this season as they will face Fiorentina in an away game at the Artemio Franchi Stadium on Saturday.

On Sunday, Roma will take on Genoa at Stadio Olimpico, while Milan will face Udinese in an away game at the Friuli Stadium.

Inter will play their first official game after the club appointed Antonio Conte as the new manager.

The club will host Lecce in their first game of the season at the San Siro stadium on Monday.

- Number of Turkish or Turkish-origin players set record

A total of eight Turkish or Turkish-origin players will make appearance in the Serie A this season, which marks the highest number in the history of the league.

In addition to Turkish international players Cengiz Under from Roma and Milan's Hakan Calhanoglu, the Italian league followers will see more Turkish players on the pitch this season after new transfers.

Center-back player Turkish international Merih Demiral joined Juventus from Sassuolo in the summer transfer window.

Sassuolo replaced Demiral with other Turkish defender Mert Muldur from Austria's Rapid Wien.

Roma strengthened their defense position with Mert Cetin from the Turkish Super Lig club Genclerbirligi for €3 million ($3.33 million).

Turkish-born German defender Koray Gunter will stay in the Serie A this season while playing for Hellas Verona.

Sinan Gumus joined Genoa from the Turkish club Galatasaray in the summer transfer window.

Turkish-born German player Emre Can, who was transferred from Liverpool in 2018, will spend his second season in the Serie A with Juventus.

- De Ligt is most expensive transfer of season so far

Matthijs de Ligt became the most expensive signing this summer as Juventus paid €85.5 million (some $94 million) to Ajax for the 20-year-old Dutch defender. He stood out as the most expensive transfer of this season.

Juventus also signed French Adrien Rabiot and British-Welsh Aaron Ramsey on free transfers.

Inter paid some €75 million ($83 million) for the Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United. He became one of the most expensive transfers in the club's history.

French veteran star Frank Ribery joined Fiorentina who is shown one of the most prominent free transfers in Italy this summer.

Eljif Elmas moved to Napoli from Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce for €16 million ($17.9 million).

Separately, Milan paid €25 million ($27,6 million) for Portuguese forward Rafael Leao to the French club Lille.

Italy Serie A is the third most valuable league in the Europe with a total of €5.16 ($5,71 billion) market value of the players following the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga.

A total of 16 different teams won the Serie A title since the 1897-1898 season.

Juventus are still the all-time winners of the Serie A with the 35 titles, besting Milan’s and Inter’s 18.

*Writing by Muhammed Enes Calli