A footballing giant has fallen
Italian football was seen as the pinnacle of football; a lot of players in the 90s wanted to play for an Italian club. Italy generated a lot of talented players, which then created a strong national team. Serie A was the league that attracted a lot of world-class players, similar to what the Premier League and La Liga are doing at the moment. Every player wanted to play for clubs like AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus, and Italian football generated substantial capital from the sale of players and advertising, as they were able to sell football rights to every country in the world. Grassroots football was core to the sustainability of Italian football because this level produced a lot of young talent. Players wanted to get into the national team because they were winning everything available.
The likes of Baggio and Maldini, even to the new school of Pirlo and Del Piero, showed that Italians can form a team that competes at the highest level. Winning four World Cups is no easy feat; it takes courage, determination and team cohesion. Since 2006, when Fabio Cannavaro lifted the World Cup trophy, Italian football has not been the same, and
Serie A has lost its credibility, and the country has struggled to attract talented players. Clubs such as AC Milan and Juventus have lost their dominance in European football, and they have struggled to produce young talent. The scandals with Juventus rocked Italian football and shaped the dynamics of transfers, and the trust in the Italian football pyramid shifted.
The Azzurri have struggled and continued to be hampered by scandals, and grassroots football has slowly diminished. Italian football has not produced any global superstars since 2006, and this is not a good sign for a footballing nation that was once feared in the global arena.
Again, the Azzurri have failed to qualify for the World Cup, and this seems to be a recurring theme, but the blame runs deeper than what people might think; this is not a surface-level problem. Gattuso and the players are not the problem, even though the team has been very poor under him. Losing to Bosnia is a new low, and missing out on the World Cup might be the fall of the Azzurri.
Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian news outlet, calling it ‘the third apocalypse’ might be one of the most devastating headlines ever. This might be the end of Italian football as we know it, and missing out on the World Cup again might not be a good outcome.
