First Serie A relegation confirmed: Nesta's Monza must go down

Relegated from the Italian top flight with Monza: Dany Mota. IMAGO/NurPhoto

If the club's top scorer has scored five goals in this long Serie A season (Dany Mota), then the situation is already clear: AC Monza has not been able to keep up with the competition in the Italian top flight this season.

And so, three matchdays before the official end of the 2024/25 season, the storied club, founded in 1912, is the first team to be relegated – with only two (!) wins this season and 63 goals conceded. By far the weakest record in Serie A, which Monza has now been part of for three years since being promoted to Serie B in 2021/22.

Previously, the small Lombard club, in the shadow of the big city of Milan, just 30 minutes away and home to the big names Milan and Inter, had never been in Serie A at all.

Meanwhile, the management left no stone unturned. The club only brought Alessandro Nesta back into the coaching position in mid-February. The former world-class central defender and 2006 Italian World Cup winner had managed Monza between July and Christmas 2024, succeeding Raffaele Palladino (who moved to Fiorentina in 2024). Only to be brought back seven weeks after his dismissal to replace the hapless Salvatore Bocchetti – albeit with limited success.

In eleven matches since then, AC Milan, which has been owned by the Berlusconi family since being rescued from bankruptcy , has managed just two draws and nine defeats – and scored a meager four goals. One of those, of course, was scored by Dany Mota.

How things will unfold after the final three matches in Udine, against Empoli, and at Milan, and whether Nesta will be given the confidence to pursue his planned direct return to Serie A, remains to be seen. For now, however, there is still one goal: to avoid the weakest Serie A season ever. That inglorious title still belongs to Venezia FC from 1949/50 , when the club finished the season with 16 points. Monza currently stands at 15 .