Italy will once again watch the World Cup from the sidelines after suffering another play-off setback, underscoring the dramatic decline of one of football’s historically dominant nations. The four-time world champions, passionate about the sport, now find themselves at a nadir with no clear route to recovery after losing a penalty shoot-out to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gennaro Gattuso, appointed in June to replace Luciano Spalletti, faced a daunting task as automatic qualification appeared unlikely following a heavy 3-0 defeat to Erling Haaland’s Norway. Despite his uneven coaching record, Gattuso, a hero of Italy’s 2006 World Cup victory, managed to instill a strong team spirit and secured six wins in eight matches, scoring 22 goals. However, a humiliating 4-1 loss to Norway at the San Siro in November exposed the team’s limitations, especially in the absence of the star power that once defined Italian football.
Gattuso’s future remains uncertain, as does that of Gabriele Gravina, the head of Italy’s football federation (FIGC). Gravina, elected in 2018 after Carlo Tavecchio resigned following Italy’s first-ever World Cup play-off defeat to Sweden in 2017, faces a board meeting next week that will determine whether he retains his position.
July 9 will mark the 20th anniversary of Italy’s last World Cup triumph, coinciding with this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Yet, that historic victory feels increasingly distant. Italy’s recent successes, including their Euro 2020 win, have been overshadowed by a failure to nurture world-class talent and the decline of Italian clubs, which once dominated Europe but now lag behind financially stronger leagues like the Premier League.
Italy’s defense of their European title ended in the last 16 of Euro 2024 with a heavy defeat to Switzerland. Notably, Italy has not advanced past the group stage in a World Cup knockout match since 2006—a year before the iPhone was launched. Gianluigi Buffon, another 2006 World Cup winner involved with the national team, reflected on the root causes of the decline, stating, “Today’s results are the consequence of our attitude from 20 years ago, when we clung onto our best players like Fabio Cannavaro and Francesco Totti, thinking they would last forever. Right then we should have been rethinking our tactical and technical models.”
In response, the FIGC unveiled a new youth football initiative earlier this month, led by Maurizio Viscidi, a long-term coach with a successful record in Italy’s youth teams. Cesare Prandelli, who coached Italy during the disappointing 2014 World Cup, is also involved in reform efforts. He has criticized the current club coaching methods for stifling young players’ creativity and spontaneity. Prandelli remarked last year, “If 10 years ago we’d have had the good fortune to have a talent like Lamine Yamal, we would have let him get away. Our coaches would have taken away his joy of playing.”
The project, announced on March 18, aims to provide training for coaches across numerous youth clubs that collectively train around 700,000 children. Simone Perrotta, reporting to Viscidi, explained the goal is “to get the federation inside the clubs” and standardize training methods to foster individual skill development and creativity.
Currently, only 33 percent of Serie A players are eligible for the national team, a figure slightly higher than the 29.2 percent of English players in the Premier League. However, Germany and France have significantly higher proportions of local players in their top divisions, at 41.5 percent and 37.5 percent respectively, highlighting the challenges Italy faces in rebuilding its footballing future.
