Insider's Serie A Team of the Season, excluding Cristiano Ronaldo, but including two Chelsea FC rejects, and a tattooed smoker known as the 'Ninja'

Theo Hernandez.Getty/Marco Luzzani

• Over the next two weeks, Insider will be revealing its Team of the Season for each of Europe's top five soccer leagues.
• These are the English Premier League, Italy's Serie A, France's Ligue 1, Spain's La Liga, and the German Bundesliga.
• Below is our selection for Serie A, which has no place for five-time Balon d'Or winner, and Juventus and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo.
• Keep up to date with the series here.

There is still everything to play for in Italy's Serie A.

While Juventus is top of the league, it still faces a fight to win its ninth straight Scudetto, leading second placed Lazio by only a point and Inter Milan, which has a game in hand, by nine.

Atalanta and AS Roma in fourth and fifth have all but secured European football for next season, however sixth-placed Napoli and seventh-placed AC Milan could still be caught by any of Hellas Verona, Parma, and Bologna.

At the bottom of the table, Brescia and SPAL are rooted to the foot, but just seven points separate 18th and 11th, meaning any one of eighth teams could still face the drop.

The division is set to resume on June 20 after being halted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and with a dozen games left to play, there is still time for players to make or break their respective teams' seasons.

For now however, these are the 11 players who have impressed us most in Italy's top flight this term.