Ranking the top 5 Serie A goal-scorers in the last decade
Italy's supreme league, Serie A, is widely considered to be home to high-quality defensive players and games. We can relate the same to the fact that the Italian national team and Serie A itself have yielded a bunch of the finest defenders of all time.
Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini, Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Marco Materazzi, the list just goes on. However, Serie A didn't just settle for the best of defenders. The Italian elite league came up with an answer in the form of attacking spearheads.
The beginning of this century saw Serie A produce lethal attackers. The likes of del Piero, Diego Milito, Kaka, Stephan El Shaarawy and Balotelli changed the way the world looked at Serie A. They scored goals for fun and made the games more exciting for the fans.
On the same note, let us take a look at the top 5 Serie A goal-scorers in the last decade.
#5 Paulo Dybala - 98 (Palermo/Juventus)
On number #5 we have got Argentina and Juventus' versatile forward Paulo Exequiel Dybala. Dybala has been a part of Serie A since the 2014-15 season.
However, the 23-year-old played in the top division for one season (2012-13) with Palermo prior to this one. The Sicilian outfit faced relegation the following season and earned a comeback the very next year after finishing 1st in Serie B.
Dybala played a crucial role for Palermo and earned a ticket to Turin to join league heavyweights Juventus. So far, he remains as one of the most important players at the club.
In addition to scoring goals, Paulo Dybala is the club's best link-up option alongside their biggest weapon that goes by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo.
#4 Dries Mertens - 102 (Napoli)
Another foreigner on the list is the Belgian international — Dries Mertens. The S.S.C Napoli's all-time Serie A top-scorer also happens to be their all-time top scorer across all competitions.
Dries Mertens demanded the role of centre-forward following their man Milik's ACL injury during the 2015-16 season. The Belgian adapted to the role quickly and achieved his best season with the club in subsequent years.
Mertens had the best season of his career so far in 2017, where he scored 28 league goals and helped the Gli Azzurri secure third spot in the table. The same year, the Belgian finished second behind Edin Džeko (29) in the golden boot race.