Sunday, August 27th, 1989 – the first match day of the Serie A season which will serve as a tantalising preface to the 1990 Coppa Mondiale. Whilst stadia across the country are being renovated or, in the case of Bari and Turin, built from scratch, the action on the pitch is in no need of preparation to become world class with a particularly fine vintage of calciatore competing in the capocannoniere race.
Looking back at this season with modern eyes, it’s fascinating to consider how many of the protagonists and storylines of Italia ‘90 were foreshadowed in this Serie A goal scoring campaign. In many ways, this is not a surprise considering Italy’s wealth of talent during this period: this is a league with Diego Maradona, Marco van Basten, Roberto Baggio, Jurgen Klinsmann, Careca, Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini and Lothar Matthaus at the peak of their powers.
The first part of the 1990 capocannoniere story, however, is that of two little known bombers who plied their trade for clubs well away from the glitz of the sette sorelle. Massimo Agostini had his most trophy laden period of his career in Sanmarinese football in the early 2000’s in his early 40’s, but, in 1989, he had just returned to Cesena after a failed spell at Roma. Back in familiar surrounds, Agostini kept speed with Italy’s array of Ballon d’Or winners and got the better of Serie A’s superstar defenders eleven times, finishing ahead of Careca, Vialli and level on goals with Mancini in sixth place in the goal scoring chart. Further down the league, Cremonese were relegated this season despite the best efforts of Gustavo Dezotti who scored thirteen goals. The Argentine is not the only member of the 1990 capocannoniere chart to later lose their cool at the Coppa Mondiale, meaning he is known more for his red card in the World Cup final than he is for his hugely impressive campaign where he was the joint sixth best scorer, alongside Klinsmann.
West Germany would lift the World Cup trophy in Rome and the Serie A season leading up to this moment gave many a calcio watcher a preview of the superstars of the competition. Rudi Voller (Roma) and Inter’s trio of Matthäus, Kinsmann and Andreas Brehme accounted for 13 of Die Mannschaft’s 15 goals at Italia ‘90. Voller warmed up for the tournament in style, scoring consistently throughout the season but really hitting form with six goals in the last six games of the Serie A campaign, finishing fifth overall with fourteen goals. His finest moment coming alongside his underrated strike partner, Stefano Desideri, in a 5-2 demolition of Hellas Verona which also features Bruno Conti’s famous blast of a long range free kick for i Lupi.
Inter had won the previous league campaign in record breaking style with their legendary German spine of the team making a huge contribution. A third place finish this time around was a disappointment but new signing Klinsmann was amongst the goals, as were 1989 Scudetto legends Matthaus and Brehme. Klinsmann netted a memorable hat trick, with goals from both feet against Verona, and he eventually placed five slots below the capocannoniere with thirteen goals. Matthaus, in a more advanced role than he is often remembered, scored eleven and assisted nine in a hugely creative and impressive season.
The top scoring podium of the 1989/90 season is a trio that has never been surpassed. Van Basten, Maradona and Baggio – an attacking trident that could sit comfortably in any all time XI. This would be Roby Baggio’s final season in a Fiorentina shirt and it was his best for La Viola, finishing second in the race for top scorer with seventeen goals. This Baggio is lightning fast, direct and audacious – his face-off against Maradona in match day five being the best game of this epic Serie A season. Although he finished on the losing side, the ‘coast-to-coast’ solo goal fortified his reputation as the best young player in the world and is an interesting prelude to his fantastic goal against Czechoslovakia at the soon to begin World Cup.
Maradona started the season late owing to a combination of fitness and contractual factors. Despite this, he netted five goals from his first five starts and continued this momentum in arguably his best season for i partenopei which ended with fifteen goals and nine assists. His contributions came in huge moments in the season, in a campaign full of incredible performances his two goals in the 3-1 victory over Juventus in match day thirty stand out. In yet another pre-echo of the World Cup, El Diego carried a side built around him towards glory: in Napoli’s case, their second Scudetto. He couldn’t quite match this achievement in an Argentina shirt, falling at the last hurdle in the Rome final.
The capocannoniere crown, in an extraordinary season dominated by world class talent, was taken by Marco van Basten. It seems only right that arguably the greatest combination of attacking talent that a league has ever seen has the greatest finisher of all time atop of its goal scoring podium. There is almost a banality to van Basten’s genius this season which, like Maradona, started late. He scored first in the ninth match day of the campaign and was terrifyingly consistent for another twenty, netting mostly unspectacular goals with both feet and his head, as well as several penalties.
His first time finish against Inter in a 3-0 derby win is, perhaps, the pick of his nineteen league goals, encapsulating his fluent talents. In recent years, van Basten has displayed plenty of ennui about his first of two capocannoniere seasons, convinced that the league was against his Milan side after Napoli were awarded a 2-0 win due to crowd trouble in Bergamo. Perhaps it is more prudent to consider his form, which dropped off remarkably towards the end of the season as Napoli overtook Milan. He failed to score in the last four games (compared to Maradona’s three vital strikes in the same period) and missed a host of chances against Bologna with three games left in the season and he was sent off in the penultimate game, against Verona. This dry patch continued into the summer of 1990, where he failed to score at the World Cup and Holland underwhelmed, exiting in the Round of 16.
There’s one goal scoring story not yet told from this classic Serie A season. A Sicilian emerging from nowhere to demand the spotlight. Sound familiar? Salvatore Schillaci’s incredible rise to fame through his World Cup Golden Boot was anticipated in his 1989/90 campaign for Juventus.
He finished as fourth top scorer in the league with 15 goals for a revitalised bianconeri side who finished fourth under Dino Zoff. Schillaci’s explosive talent was on display throughout the season where he remained in the top five scorers for the entire campaign. It was enough to earn him a place on Azelgio Vincini’s bench for the national side and the rest is history. Schillaci’s overnight success, like many before him, being years in the making.
As the final match day drew the campaign to a close on Sunday, April 26th 1990, fans of football across the peninsula had no time to draw breath on this remarkable season of goal scoring. Radios began to pipe out Un’estate italiana as spring turned to a summer that anyone who witnessed it would not forget. Luckily for most, the stars of this World Cup year would continue to make notti magiche under Italian skies for years to come.