10 South American players with the most Serie A goals
The Serie A is often regarded as a tough league to play in, as teams tend to play compact tactical football which doesn't augur well for creative players to flourish.
Nevertheless, South American players, often renowned for their flair, have found success in the Serie A over the years.
Ten most prolific South American goal-scorers in the Serie A
The Serie A all-time goal-scoring chart is expectedly dominated by Italian players. However, several South American players, some of them active, have scored over 100 goals in the Italian top flight.
On that note, let's have a look at the ten most prolific Serie A goal-scorers hailing from the South American continent.
#10 Antonio Angelillo (Argentina) - 98 goals
Nicknamed the 'Angel with the Dirty Face' after a training session in a muddy pitch, Antonio Agnelillo had a decade-long stint in the Serie A during the late 50s and early 60s.
The attacking midfielder played for four different Serie A clubs - Inter Milan, AS Roma, Calcio Lecco and AC Milan, winning his lone title in the competition with the Rossoneri in his final Serie A season in 1967-68.
Gianni Brera, a celebrated journalist, wrote about Agnelillo:
"He'd played in defence, in midfield and in attack. He scored goals and constructed moves. Any other phenomenon would have ended up dead at that rate."
Angelillo, unfortunately, passed away at the age of 80 in Buenos Aires in 2018.
#9 Sergio Clerici (Brazil) - 104 goals
In a storied near two-decade-long Serie A career, Sergio Clerici played for seven different clubs in the competition.
A quintessential journeyman, a term that was not popular in his playing days in the 60s and late 70s, Clerici never stayed with the same Serie A team for more than two seasons.
Nevertheless, the Brazilian centre-forward racked up a century of goals in the competition, with his most productive spell (31 goals) coming during his two-season stint at Napoli.
#8 Dino Da Costa (Brazil/Italy) - 106 goals
Dino Da Costa started his Serie A career with AS Roma, for whom he scored 70 goals in six seasons in the late 50s and early 60s. It was an impressive goal tally for the Brazilian player, who also held an Italian passport.
Da Costa later played two seasons with Atalanta, scoring 18 Serie A goals, before winding down his Italian top-flight career with a three-season stint at Juventus from 1963 to 1966.
The midfielder, who never won the Serie A title, was the top-scorer in the competition in 1956-57, scoring 22 goals.
Unfortunately, Da Costa passed away at the age of 89 in Verona last year.
#7 Edinson Cavani (Uruguay) - 112 goals
It was in the Serie A where Edinson Cavani first cut his teeth in European football.
Joining Palermo in the 2006-07 season when he was still a teenager, Cavani scored 34 Serie A goals in four seasons to catch the attention of Napoli.
He had a prosperous three-season stint at the southern club, scoring a fabulous 78 goals. Cavani scored a league-leading 29 goals in his final Serie A campaign in 2012-13, helping Napoli to second place in the league table.
Cavani left for PSG in the summer of 2013, where he scored exactly 200 goals in seven seasons to become the club's all-time top-scorer. Now at Manchester United, the 34-year-old has already scored seven times in 17 league games.