Former Premier League players like Lukaku now shine in Serie A

A host of former Premier League stars, who were sold off to Serie A teams this past summer, are making a big impact for their new clubs in Italy.

Serie A features a host of new and exciting players. Many of those new signings, it turns out, were once superstars in another, more popular league.

Indeed, a good number of Premier League castoffs are now calling Italy home and they have spent the past few weeks proving that their best years aren’t necessarily behind them. Of the 79 new foreign players to sign with Italian clubs ahead of the start of this season, 10 of them hail from English teams. That’s more than any other domestic league.

The ones that have shined the brightest so far (Romelu Lukaku of Inter Milan and Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Roma) are threatening Juventus’ ability to once again win the league title. That’s a good thing for a league that has seen renewed interest in recent years and after Juve won the title a record eight straight years.

England-based players signing with teams in Italy isn’t anything new. Nonetheless, the trend in recent years has been for Italian managers, for example, to sign with money-rich Premier League teams. Maurizio Sarri (who is at Juventus this season) and Antonio Conte (at Inter Milan) both returned to Serie A this season after coaching stints at Chelsea. Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti, another ex-Chelsea coach, is in his second season back in Italy.

Lukaku, who was signed as a replacement for the disgraced Mauro Icardi, has made headlines this seasons for both good and bad reasons. He’s already scored several keys goals this season and that’s been good for Conte’s team. On the other hand, a dressing room spat with teammate Marcelo Brozovic following last week’s 1-1 draw at home against Slavia Praha in their Champions League opener.

The dressing room discord did nothing to stop first-place Inter Milan for remaining undefeated after posting a 2-0 victory at the San Siro in the Milan derby against city rivals AC Milan. The scorers? Brozovic and Lukaku both tallying in the second half to snatch the win. It was Lukaku’s goal that sealed the victory and led to a bench-clearing celebration.

Despite scoring three goals in his first five matches across all competitions, the 26-year-old former Manchester United striker has endured a tough start in Italy. Earlier this month, Lukaku was showered with monkey noises by Cagliari fans while he stepped up to take a penalty kick. More racial abuse was aimed at Lukaku just last weekend after a TV pundit said the only way to stop the burly Belgium international was to give him “10 bananas to eat.”

Despite these off-the-field tensions, Lukaku and other ex-Premier League stars have proven so far this season that they can still make a difference and that their best years are still ahead of them.