Derby d’Italia – How Inter Milan surpassed Juventus as dominant force in Serie A

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56 titles between rivals 

©TM/IMAGO

The Derby D’Italia takes place on Sunday night in the latest installment of one of the most heated derbies in Italian football. Juventus and Inter Milan are two of the most successful clubs in Italy and it’s arguably the biggest non-inner-city rivalry in Serie A. The rivals have met 239 times in history with Juventus enjoying the superior record with 109 wins to Inter’s 70.

When it comes to Serie A titles, Juventus are comfortably the most successful club in Italy with 36 Scudettos. Inter rank second with 20 but they are the reigning champions and are well placed to defend their title this season. Despite a bright start to life under Thiago Motta, Juventus have drawn far too many games – 13 in Serie A – and are some way off the title race. The Old Lady reigned supreme for almost a decade, winning nine consecutive titles between 20212 and 2020 but Inter have emerged as the dominant force in recent years.

Unlike other top European leagues, Italian football hasn’t been dominated by one or two clubs across the last five years with four separate winners of Serie A across that time period. But after Juventus’ near decade of dominance, Inter have been consistently the best team in Italy, winning two titles, five domestic cups and reaching the Champions League final across the last five seasons.

Inter now boast the most valuable squad in Serie A at €681m – with the four most valuable players – but that’s not always been the case. As the graphic above illustrates, Juventus’ squad value was higher than Inter’s across their period of dominance but that’s reversed since 2022. Juventus’ squad’s total market value more than doubled in the four-year period from 2015 (€377.8m) to their record-high in 2019 and it was the same for Inter. Their total market value rose from €248.9m in 2015 to €567.3m in 2019, but they still trailed their rivals by €270.2m. However, the landscape has changed dramatically in recent seasons as Inter’s squad valuation has remained stable while Juventus’ has fallen dramatically.

While Inter have recruited wisely and picked up some excellent free transfers, Juventus’ haphazard spending ultimately led to their financial problems that culminated in being banned from European competition. During Massimmiliano Allegri’s first spell in Turin between 2014 and 2019, Juventus’ expenditure of €855.82m was the third-highest of any club in the world – Inter ranked 11th with €519.36m. That level of spending was reflected in the squad valuations of both squads with Juventus’ reaching a record-high of €944m, including Cristiano Ronaldo (€90m), Pablo Dybala (€85m) and Mirem Pjanic (€70m).