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Italian football's top-flight football competition, the Serie A, had its inaugural edition in 1891. Played in its present-day (single round) format since 1929, Serie A has been a 20-team league since the 2004 season. UEFA's league coefficient for the Serie A, based on the performance of Italian clubs in European competitions (Champions League and Europa League) in the past five seasons, ranks the league third in Europe.
Serie A is ranked behind Spain's Primera Liga and England's Premier League but ahead of Germany's Bundesliga and France's Ligue 1.
Serie A is the only top-5 European football league to employ a true round-robin system - where teams play each other exactly once during the first half of the season called 'andata' and in the same order, but with home and away teams reversed, during the second half of the season called 'ritorno'.
League Records:
A total of 66 different clubs have played the Serie-A in its present format (since 1929). Among 12 clubs to have won Serie A, Juventus are the record winners of the competition with 35 titles (33 in the present format) and have won the last eight titles (a record for most consecutive league titles).
Internazionale (often called "Inter") is the only club to have played in all 88 seasons of Serie A in its present format.
Juventus have the records for most wins in a season (33), most home wins in a season (19), most consecutive wins (17), most matches won overall (1555) and most goals scored overall (5000).
Juventus' legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has won the most titles as a player (9) while Paolo Maldini of AC Milan has the most Serie A appearances (647). Buffon also has the most Serie A clean sheets (292) and most clean sheets in a season (21).
Maldini (AC Milan) and Francesco Totti (AS Roma) share the record for playing in most consecutive Serie A seasons, with 25 apiece. The duo also shares the record for most Serie A seasons for a single club.
Gonzalo Higuain has scored the most goals in a Serie A season, finding the back of the net 36 times for Napoli in 2015-16. Gunnar Nordahl and Giuseppe Meazza share the record for most Serie A hat-tricks (17 apiece).
As the 89th edition of the Serie A gets underway this weekend, let us have a look at the all-time top five goal scorers in the history of the league.
# 5: Antonio Di Natale (209 goals)
Antonio Di Natale scored 18 goals for Empoli (2002 - 2004) and 191 goals for Udinese (2004 - 2016) for a total of 209 Serie A goals - a tally which places him in fifth spot in the list of all-time Serie A goal scorers.
The diminutive Italian twice won the Capocannonieri, awarded for most goals in a Serie A season, in successive seasons for Udinese (2009-10 and 2010-11).
Naturally right-footed, Di Natale was adept at scoring off either foot and played either as a lone striker, wide on the left flank as part of an attacking trident, or in a deeper role due to his ability to score goals as well as create scoring opportunities for team-mates.
Di Natale was a regular penalty taker for Udinese, scoring 33 Serie A goals from the penalty spot for the club from Udine.
#T4 Giuseppe Meazza (216 goals)
Widely regarded as one of the best Italian players of his time and Italy's greatest ever, Giuseppe Meazza scored 216 Serie A goals for AC Milan, Internazionale, and Juventus across 14 seasons in the thirties and forties.
Once rejected by Milan due to his small physique, Meazza scored the bulk of his Serie A goals (198) for Internazionale.
He won three Serie A titles, including the inaugural season in 1929-30, for Inter and won the Capocannonieri (for most Serie A goals in a season) on three occasions (all for Inter).
Initially playing as a fullback in his youth, Meazza started his professional career as a centre-forward and went on to demonstrate his versatility by playing effectively on the left flank as well in central and attacking midfield roles. The diminutive Meazza (5' 6") would bamboozle defenders and goalkeepers with his trickery and wizardry in an era when two-footed tackles did not attract a straight red card.
Meazza was the youngest player (23 years) to score 100 Serie A goals, beating his teammate Silvio Piola to the mark by 36 days. Meazza's 17 Serie A hat-tricks is a league record shared only by Gunnar Nordahl.
The San Siro stadium, shared by AC Milan and Internationale, is named in his honour as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
#T4: José Altafini (216 goals)
José Altafini's 216 goals in 17 seasons for Milan, Napoli and Juventus from the late fifties to the early seventies, places the Brazilian-born player tied fourth with Giuseppe Meazza for most goals in the Serie A.
He is the fifth youngest player to score 100 goals in the Italian top flight and played for Brazil at the 1958 World Cup and for Italy at the 1962 World Cup.
Altafini won two Serie A titles for Milan and was the Serie A top scorer for Milan in the 1961-62 season.
Starting out as an attacking midfielder, Altafini made a seamless transition to a centre-forward due to his ability on the ball and the creativity to lookout for teammates in better positions.
After Javier Zanetti, Altafini has the most Serie A appearances (459) for a non-Italian born player.
# 3: Gunnar Nordahl (250 goals)
Gunnar Nordahl scored 225 Serie A goals for Milan and Napoli between 1948-49 to 1958-59, with the bulk of his goals (210) coming for Milan.
Widely regarded as one of the best Swedish players and one of the best strikers in the world, Nordahl's 225 goals came in just 291 Serie A appearances, giving him the best 'goals per game' ratio of 0.77 among the top ten Serie A goal scorers.
Nicknamed 'il pompiere' (the fireman) because of his former job while in Sweden, Nordahl is the highest scoring foreign player in the history of Serie A. Along with Giuseppe Meazza, Nordahl's 17 Serie A hattricks is the most by any player in the competition.
Nordahl's 35 goals during the 1949-50 season was the most prolific season goal tally by a player till Gonzalo Higuain lowered the mark in 2015-16 by scoring 36 goals for Napoli.
Twice a Serie A winner for Milan, Nordahl has the record for most Capocannonieri (5), finishing as the top scorer in Serie A in five of six seasons between 1949-50 and 1954-55.
# 2: Francesco Totti (250 goals)
A one-club man throughout his career, since his debut for AS Roma in 1992-93, Francesco Totti's 250 goals from 619 appearances in 25 seasons for the Italian capital club places him in second place in the list of Serie A's all time top scorers.
Totti played the bulk of his career as an offensive midfielder or as a second forward behind the main striker before transitioning to a lone striker role in his later years, winning his lone Serie A title in 2000-01.
Totti's 71 goals from the penalty spot is a Serie A record and his 21 direct free-kick goals is only behind Alessandro Del Piero, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Andrea Pirlo in the history of the league.
Along with Alberto Gilardino and Roberto Baggio, Totti has the record for scoring against most number of goals for different Serie-A clubs (38).
Totti is one of only 4 players to make 600 or more Serie A appearances and shares the Serie A record for most seasons in the top flight (25) with Paolo Maldini of AC Milan while standing alone for most consecutive Serie A seasons scoring a goal (23).
# 1: Silvio Piola (274 goals)
With 274 goals from 537 appearances for Pro Vercelli, Lazio, Juventus and Novara during a prolific career spanning 25 years from the late twenties to the early fifties, Silvio Piola holds the record of most goals in the history of Serie A.
Piola was thrice a Serie A runner-up (once with Lazio and twice with Juventus) and was the top Serie A scorer in two seasons (1936-37 and 1942-43 for Lazio).
He is the second youngest player (23 years) to score 100 Serie A goals, taking 36 days longer than his teammate Giuseppe Meazza to reach the landmark.
Along with Omar Sivori, Piola is the only player to score six goals in a Serie A game. Piola's 10 hat-tricks is third best in the history of the league. Piola is both the youngest (18 years) and oldest (37 years) to score Serie A hat-tricks.
Regarded as one of the best strikers of all time, Piola's versatility allowed him to be deployed on the wings, as a central midfielder or second striker but excelled most as a centre forward.
The only player to be the Serie A top scorer for three different clubs (Pro Vercelli, Lazio and Novara), stadiums at two of his former clubs (Novara and Vercelli) were named after him following his death in 1996.
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