A Lack Of Youth Development Highlighted As Italy Fail To Qualify For The World Cup

For weeks after the draw pitted them on a path to meet, the idea of Italy versus Portugal as a playoff final for the 2022 World Cup had been discussed endlessly. Would Cristiano Ronaldo miss out on what would surely be his final chance to play in the game’s most prestigious tournament, or would the Azzurri fail to qualify for the second consecutive time?

Yet that meeting would never take place because, while CR7 and his Portugal team-mates dispatched Turkey in their semifinal, North Macedonia would upset Roberto Mancini’s Italy with a 1-0 victory at Palermo’s Stadio Renzo Barbera.

It was a result that sent shock-waves around the footballing world, and a moment that means the Azzurri will once again miss out on playing in a World Cup, just as they did five years ago.

Indeed, since winning the 2006 edition of FIFA’s elite tournament, Italy’s record has been nothing short of abysmal. Four years after their triumph in Germany, the Azzurri returned from South Africa after drawing 1-1 in their first two matches against Paraguay and New Zealand before losing 3-2 to Slovakia.

The 2014 tournament was even worse, with Cesare Prandelli overseeing a 2-1 win over England only to lose 1-0 against both Costa Rica and Uruguay. By the time qualifying for the 2018 edition began, Gian Piero Ventura was at the helm and saw his side eliminated in the playoffs by Sweden.

“The crisis of Italian football began with Calciopoli in 2006,” Luciano Moggi claimed the following day. Speaking in an interview with Adnkronos, the former Juventus director pointed to the fact that in Italy’s final victory back then, there were five Juve players in the Azzurri team and four more representing opponents France.

“Unfortunately, in Italy, we are like this,” Moggi continued, “when something works we want to destroy it and now we are paying the consequences.” While the motivation behind his words might be self-serving, it was interesting to note that he defended Mancini, insisting that the Coach “did an excellent job with the material he has at his disposal.”

There is no doubt about that. After all, last summer saw the Azzurri win the European Championships with largely the same squad as Mancini set them up and motivated them perfectly to claim ultimate glory at Wembley.

While his work – and indeed the performances of his players last summer – deserves every plaudit and will never be forgotten, there can be no doubt that Italian football must recognise the need for change.

In the aftermath of this latest failure, one interesting voice has been that of former Torino striker Francesco Graziani. “We need to have a new way of working, in the youth systems, aiming to make the teams play well and not wanting to win at all costs,” he told TuttoMercatoWeb.

“We must try to have a precise identity that we don’t have at the moment,” Graziani continued. “I hear people say that players are cheaper abroad but I don’t agree, let’s start investing in Italian players.”

Is there truth to those words? Undoubtedly so. If we look at the most regularly used lineups of Serie A’s top eight clubs, we discover that only 18 Italian players are routinely called upon to start matches.

Further analysis shows that of those 18, no fewer than seven – Juventus pair Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, Alessio Romagnoli (Milan), Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Gianluca Mancini (AS Roma), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta) and Francesco Acerbi (Lazio) are central defenders.

With Italy playing a back four, that means only two of those players can start for Mancini. The logjam continues in central midfield where we find Sandro Tonali (Milan) Manuel Locatelli (Juve), Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma) and Giacomo Bonaventura (Fiorentina). Remembering that Chelsea’s Jorginho and PSG star Marco Verratti usually start for Mancini, we basically have five players fighting for one position.

Of the six that remain, there is one right-back (Napoli’s Giovanni Di Lorenzo), a left-back (Fiorentina Captain Cristiano Biraghi), three wingers – Lazio’s Mattia Zaccagni plus Matteo Politano and Lorenzo Insigne of Napoli – and one striker (Lazio’s Ciro Immobile).

There is also a very clear generational divide too, with seven of that group of 18 players in their 30s. That continues a theme Graziani highlighted, and he is certainly not alone in believing that Italian clubs have to do more to help young players.

Among those to speak out has been 21-year-old midfielder Nicolo Fagioli, who joined the Juventus youth sector in 2015 and worked his way up to the under-23 side that plays in Serie C.

His performances there in Italy’s third division convinced Andrea Pirlo to make Fagioli part of the first team squad last season, handing him his debut in January 2021 to widespread approval.

Yet this past summer, Fagioli was sent out on loan to Serie B side Cremonese. While he has weighed in with three goals and six assists to help the Grigiorossi to sit at the top of Italy’s second division, he clearly remains unhappy at being forced to drop down a level.

“I see that in Spain, perhaps not so much in England, but in Germany and France too, more youngsters get to play than in Italy,” Fagioli – currently on duty with Italy’s under-21 side – said at a press conference this week.

“I can say that when it comes to Italy, a young player might get a chance, makes a mistake in one or two games, he is criticised, people say he’s not ready and then he is sent out for experience at a lower level, so it’s difficult for a coach to pick someone consistently.

“We can feel it and see that’s what is happening, that Italian clubs don’t tend to put their faith in young players. We hope things will change with time.”

It is difficult to find fault in those comments, and even if Fagioli proves to be below the standard required at Juve, finding himself overlooked by every other club in Serie A is surely not reflective of his quality.

If he played in the top flight for the Bianconeri, doesn’t the 21-year-old deserve an opportunity with a side lower down the table? Is he truly no better than the midfielders seeing regular action at Udinese, Spezia or Sampdoria? Couldn’t Fagioli have helped Salernitana, Genoa, Cagliari or Venezia in their relegation battle?

The lack of faith continues into the national team, where those seven aforementioned players in their 30s have shared 383 caps for Italy, while of the other 11, only three – midfielders Barella, Cristante and Locatelli – have made 20 or more appearances for Italy.

Hopefully, as the likes of Chiellini, Insigne and Immobile head towards international retirement, Mancini can be bold enough to select some younger players like Bastoni (22) and the Sassuolo pairing of Giacomo Raspadori (22) and Gianluca Scamacca (23) rather than some older stopgap options.

The next tournament is the summer of 2024 with the World Cup another two years after that. Italy has time to build for the future, but it needs its top clubs and best coaches to do the same, or else risk repeating these failed qualifying campaigns.