Long a model of discipline, Italy has become a minor player in European football. Three consecutive failures to qualify for the World Cup, a youth system in decline and a blurred identity: Italian football is paying the price for a decade of structural neglect. Behind the results, it is an entire system that is faltering.
But what has become of Italy? Beaten by Bosnia on penalties, the Nazionale will miss out on their third consecutive World Cup. A dizzying fall for a country that no longer produces enough talent, fails to develop its young players properly and seems incapable of keeping pace with the evolution of modern football.
A stalled talent factory
For decades, Italy lived on one certainty: that of an inexhaustible pool of talent. Today, the system has completely ground to a halt. In 2025, Italian players under the age of 21 accounted for just 1.9% of minutes played in Serie A. By comparison, Ligue 1 stands at 7.8%. The gap is astronomical. Even before we talk about ‘stars’, Italy no longer offers its young players a platform to express themselves. This scathing observation is shared by Massimo Oddo and Marco Amelia, who point to a system incapable of protecting its young talents.
In a league obsessed with the immediate need for results, clubs have abandoned the philosophy of building for the long term. Fielding a youngster has become a risk; signing an immediate solution, the norm. This strategy is draining the talent pool, even if it means seeing a forty-year-old Luka Modric still roaming the pitches of Serie A. The players emerging are hard-working and disciplined, but rarely decisive. Whereas Italy once produced geniuses such as Francesco Totti or Alessandro Del Piero, it now fields interchangeable players.
Football out of step
Modern football demands a pace and intensity that all the major nations have embraced. Constant pressing, lightning-fast transitions, relentless effort: the game has changed. Italy, however, seems stuck between two centuries. It no longer possesses the absolute tactical mastery that was once its strength, yet has failed to adapt to today’s physical demands. The gap is glaringly obvious on the pitch, with few incisive wingers, few players capable of breaking through the lines and a shortage of finishers that is becoming a real problem. The all-time top scorer for the national team remains Luigi Riva with his 35 goals… scored between 1965 and 1974.
The lack of progress is striking when compared to their neighbours. Spain has injected pace with players like Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. France boasts a wealth of players capable of turning a match on its head with a burst of speed. England, the Netherlands and Portugal all offer a wide variety of footballers. Italy, however, is struggling to keep up. Apart from Gianluigi Donnarumma and Nicolò Barella, the Azzurri no longer have a single player who could be described as a fuoriclasse. Euro 2021 maintained the illusion, but above all it masked a gap that has continued to widen.
A system closed in on itself
Beyond the pitch, the entire Italian football environment is taking a serious hit, starting with the infrastructure. Even Juventus, long the backbone of Italian football, no longer plays that role. Between 2007 and 2024, only six stadiums were built or renovated in Italy, compared to nineteen in Germany and twelve in France. This lag is weighing on the clubs’ appeal and the overall modernisation of the game. At the same time, demographics are working against football: the population is ageing, the birth rate is falling and the number of players is declining, automatically reducing the recruitment pool.
In this context, the issue of the talent pool is crucial. Contemporary Italy is more diverse, but this reality is not yet reflected in the national team. Players such as Mario Balotelli and Moise Kean have remained exceptions rather than the result of a broader trend. The reliance on players trained abroad, such as Emerson Palmieri, Jorginho and Mateo Retegui, betrays a glaring lack of home-grown talent. Italy is not short of talent; it lacks a system capable of turning them, once again, into world-class players.
Post Comment