Explaining the Decline of the Azzurri
The question to ask after the recent disappointments of the Italian national team is how it is possible that one of the most important national teams in the world, with four World Cups (second only to Brazil) and two European Championships, is at real risk of missing the 2026 World Cup for the third consecutive time.
To fully understand the various reasons leading Italy to decline, we must go back to the last World Cup won by the Azzurri, in 2006, beating France on penalties. That team, though full of absolute champions, was a team with a very advanced average age, and after the feat in Berlin, some of them never wore the Azzurri jersey again, so much so that in South Africa in 2010, only seven of them, not all of them starters, were called up by coach Marcello Lippi.
The national team’s real decline began in 2010, when they exited in the group stage as defending champions.
What connects an event that occurred 15 years ago to the present? The answer lies in the FIGC (Italian Football Federation), which, after several warning signs, has fallen light years behind its competitors like Spain, France, and Germany, even being overtaken by Norway, as happened a few days ago.
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From the sports centers where children train to the stadiums of the biggest Serie A clubs, Italian football needs major and serious reforms as soon as possible. Stadiums, and therefore infrastructure, must be the starting point, considering that Italian clubs like AC Milan, Inter Milan, Roma, and Fiorentina (currently renovating the Artemio Franchi stadium) have been trying to build their own stadiums for years, only to be thwarted by an Italian bureaucracy that creates disruption in every area.
What does the national team mean to Italian children today?
In Italy, as in other parts of the world, club teams are always protected and appreciated by fans more than the national team. However, if we take countries like Argentina and Brazil as examples, we realize how much the national team is loved, out of a sense of belonging, patriotism, and because it unites an entire people under one flag. Recently, both due to recent disappointments and a change in generations, the national team is no longer seen as it once was in Italy.
Indeed, the September, October, and November international breaks are viewed with distaste because they interrupt the championship. We need to start from here too, ensuring that children love the blue jersey again and that the national team represents a fundamental point of arrival for those who are just starting out.
Why do other national teams have more quality than us? In Italy, there’s a heated debate between two factions: those who say youth academies should focus exclusively on individual technique and tactics, like AC Milan’s new coach Massimiliano Allegri, and those like Roberto De Zerbi who say building from the bottom and working from the back improves the player’s technical and character skills, because it leads to greater courage.
In youth academies, the player is often overlooked because the coach focuses exclusively on results, hoping for a career leap. This is due to financial reasons, as youth and amateur coaches don’t earn enough, and to personal ego, which often leads them to adopt counterproductive measures. The debate should also address another issue: why do youth academies work in other countries, particularly at clubs, and not in Italy?
It would be too easy to point out how many players from La Masia make it to the senior Spanish national team, but youth academies around Europe, such as those of Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, and Sporting Lisbon, also produce countless talented players for their national teams. In Italy, however, we’re light years behind in this respect. A young player like Lamine Yamal, Rico Lewis, or McAtee would struggle to play in Italy due to the fear of coaches under enormous pressure from their clubs.
In Italy, a cycle like Arteta’s at Arsenal and Klopp’s at Liverpool—two coaches who started slowly and then achieved sensational results with their respective clubs—could never have happened (only Atalanta managed it in Gasperini’s nine years). So, coaches prefer to focus on ready-made players because they often don’t have the time to work comfortably with young players. Consequently, the senior national team, as well as the U21s and all the national teams below them, suffer.
How much blame can be placed on Italy’s recent coaches?
In Italy, unlike what’s currently happening with players, one thing that will never be lacking is coaches, and Italy has had some good coaches in the recent past. Just think of 2016 with Antonio Conte, Ventura’s spell with the dramatic night at San Siro against Sweden that prevented us from reaching the World Cup, all the way up to two great coaches like Roberto Mancini, who won the 2021 European Championship as well as numerous club titles with Inter and Manchester City, and Luciano Spalletti, who brought a Scudetto to Naples, a title not seen since the days of Diego Armando Maradona in 1989-1990.
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The latter two are coaches who need time to impose their ideas, therefore more club-team coaches, and they have certainly made mistakes, but when a national team’s technical level is so low, you can’t expect miracles from men who have demonstrated that when the squad is top-notch, they almost always do an exceptional job.
What future awaits the Azzurri?
After Luciano Spalletti’s dismissal, which was poorly delivered at a press conference with no one to share responsibility, FIGC president Gravina, elected with 98.7% of the vote in the last election, decided to contact Claudio Ranieri. Ranieri, who since taking over from Ivan Juric at Roma in the season just ended, was writing one of the finest chapters of his career after Leicester, leading Roma from the relegation battle to the Champions League, a feat that ultimately fell through on the final day.
Claudio Ranieri, a serious man, had already given his word to the Friedkins to take on the role of consultant to the ownership, and was instrumental in the negotiations that brought Gian Piero Gasperini to the Giallorossi bench as a guarantee of a serious and long-term project, thus rejecting the offer to become coach of the national team, which found itself in serious difficulty.
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From what has emerged after Ranieri’s refusal, the choice would have fallen on a former AC Milan icon, Gennaro Gattuso, who coached Pisa, Milan, and Napoli in Italy and left the post at Hajduk Split after just one season. Betting on Gattuso, given his results as a coach, would be a gamble the Italian national team cannot afford at this time, especially if, like his predecessors, he lacks managerial support from those above him.
But if there’s one thing Gattuso has taught us in his career, both as a player and as a coach, it’s that he has always relished difficult challenges. If the choice falls on him, he will certainly have a very difficult task, since Italy cannot afford to miss the World Cup for the third consecutive time. All the institutions would suffer, as would the younger players who no longer remember a World Cup played by Italy, and the entire Italian football movement, which has been losing its former appeal for many years.
By: Matteo Zamprioli / @calcioconl57842
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Getty Images