Scott McTominay proved there’s plenty of life after Manchester United, after ending his first season since leaving Old Trafford with a Serie A title and the league’s MVP award.
The Scotland midfielder crowned a sensational debut season in Italy with the crucial opening goal in Napoli’s 2-0 win over Cagliari on Friday to seal the Serie A title by a single point over Inter Milan.
McTominay dropped to the pitch in tears when the match was done.
“The sacrifice of every single player in this group is just incredible. The people deserve it, as they’ve been behind us from day one. For me to come here and experience this, it’s just a dream,” McTominay told DAZN.
In Naples he now goes by the name “McFratm” among supporters, a playful fusion of his name and “Fratm,” the Neapolitan word for “my brother.”
“My Italian is OK, I can understand, but speaking it takes more confidence and it’s not easy. It is much easier to do it with people who don’t speak any English. I can feel a lot of love,” McTominay said, adding that he just had learned the words “festeggiamo, andiamo,” meaning “let’s go celebrate.”
After ending his 22-year association with Man United with a £25 million ($34 million) transfer to Napoli last summer, the 28-year-old scored 12 goals in Serie A to be honored as the league’s player of the season following the final whistle on Friday.
Speaking earlier this month, Napoli coach Antonio Conte praised McTominay’s rise to prominence, highlighting his growing maturity and influence since leaving Man United.
“He feels more complete and knowledgeable and he’s reaching a key stage in his career where he needs to decide his direction. He never had a primary role at Man United, while here we gave him one,” Conte told reporters.
“He’s worked hard and now he’s a complete player.”
Napoli’s other big summer signing Romelu Lukaku, who joined from Chelsea, scored Napoli’s second goal against Cagliari for his 14th goal of the season to go with his league-leading 10 assists.
Conte, who made signing Lukaku and McTominay his priority when he joined Napoli last summer, was named Serie A coach of the year.
The other Serie A awards went to Roma’s Mile Svilar (goalkeeper), Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni (defender), Tijjani Reijnders of AC Milan (midfielder) and Atalanta’s Mateo Retegui (striker). Como forward Nico Paz was named the best under-23 player.
Information from The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.
