sport news ALVISE CAGNAZZO: Ciro Immobile is the favourite to retain his crown as top ... trends now
The battle for the Serie A title has always been contested by great centre-forwards.
From Bono Vieri to Gabriel Omar Batistuta, from Dario Hubner to David Trezeguet, Andriy Shevchenko and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Italian championship again has great No 9s that will have the task of dragging the best team in Italy to the top of the standings.
At this moment, it is 99 per cent likely that the new top scorer of the 2022/2023 season will come from the strikers of AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma, Napoli and Lazio - but there could be sensational surprises coming from players who are currently being given little thought to.
Here, Sportsmail takes a look at the runners and riders in a fascinating race for the Golden Boot.
Ciro Immobile was top-scorer in Serie 'A' last season after he scored 27 goals for Lazio
Ciro Immobile
Immobile is the player who offers the most guarantees and whom Maurizio Sarri wants to transform into Gonzalo Higuain's heir.
He has scored 182 goals in Serie A and won his fourth top scorer title last season.
In the three points era for each victory, Shevchenko scored 123 goals in the first 200 Serie A games with Milan and Trezeguet 119 with Juve.
The Lazio forward will again be the favourite to take the honour during the new campaign
Only two forwards did better than Immobile: Giuseppe Meazza with 147 goals in 200 appearances for Inter between 1929 and 1939, and Gunnar Nordahl with 166 goals after the first two hundred in the league with Milan between 1949 and 1954.
Neapolitan striker Immobile has smashed the goalscoring records of Lazio strikers, reaching a milestone achieved only by Nordahl in Serie A. Winning this special ranking for the fifth time would make him the best striker for goals scored in the history of Italian football.
Romelu Lukaku
Probably all Inter fans have a certainty: if Lukaku returns to his athletic peak and regains his ideal weight of 105kg, he will have no difficulty in becoming the King of Serie A goalscorers.
The Chelsea flop is one of the most hotly-anticipated summer signings, having returned to Italy after scoring 47 goals in 72 matches.
'Big Rom' is back in Serie A with an exceptional pedigree: among various clubs, senior national team and youth national teams, Lukaku has featured in over 650 matches, scoring 336 goals at an average of 0.51 goals per match.
Romelu Lukaku has a point to prove after returning to Italy following a dismal spell at Chelsea
According to Sky Sport Italia statistics, at 27 Lukaku had already reached 300 career goals, proving his worth as one of the best players in the world in the penalty area.
Inter have gambled on Lukaku after a disastrous season in Chelsea and after his falling out with Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.
Milan can be the right antidote for Big Rom's melancholy and Simone Inzaghi will build a disciplined and devoted team around him.
Dusan Vlahovic
Vlahovic is the man Juventus decided to buy by sacrificing Paolo Dybala and giving up on Matthijs de Ligt to make ends meet for the club.
He is one of the three best European millennials, together with Kylian Mbappe and Erling Halaand, and his physical prowess is one of the strengths of Max Allegri's team.
The Tuscan technician asked to buy Filip Kostic, Paul Pogba and Angel di Maria to create more opportunities in attack and to light the fuse for Vlahovic.
Juventus star Dusan Vlahovic is perhaps the strongest contender to Immobile's crown
Now Vlahovic has a great opportunity, perhaps the most important of his career: to prove that he is a top player by bringing the Scudetto back to Turin and to take top spot on the goalscoring charts.
If he succeeds, he will become first millennial to win the award and set a new statistical record in Italy.
Vlahovic is the
