Drill Soccer

It has often been stated that one of the main problems England face is that the Premier League is populated by so many foreign players that this hinders the progress of England’s top stars and in particular the youngsters, in the Premier League. However, this criticism could also be applied to Italy’s team due to their marked lack of football superstars.

In recent times the Azzuri have been less than impressive. After a less than impressive qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup finals in which an equaliser in Ireland pushed them into the final after a sequence of drawn games, Italy has faced growing disappointment. Italy’s disappointment only grew in the finals, where their first two games against Paraguay and New Zealand were supremely lackluster.

Italy was hurt by their lack of ingenuity in attack, despite their renowned defensive abilities. Italy missed the cunning of Andrea Pirlo, a looming threat from a player of the amplitude of Francesco Totti, and the usually great from of Luca Toni; what is worse, Italy may struggle to find new players to fill the new soccer jersey. Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan were the Serie A and Coppa Italia winners of 2010 before they went on to lift the European Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich in Madrid. However despite this glorious season, Inter did not contribute a single player to the Italian World Cup squad. Inter’s first team hardly ever contained an Italian player for most of the season. Only youngsters Davide Santon and Mario Balotelli made a lasting contribution and they were used mainly from the substitutes bench and neither made the final squad for the summer’s showpiece event in South Africa.

Looking through Serie A big teams is enough to confirm this worrying trend. AC Milan can be commended for a higher amount of Italians in their first team, but this victory is diminished by the fact that most of these people are nearing or beyond thirty. It’s a slightly rosier picture at Juventus, but only just thanks to the likes of Chiellini, Giovinco and De Ceglie coming through the ranks to supplement the impressive Marchisio in midfield. The vast majority of Juventus Italian nationals, certainly those who would be considered for the first team, are also 30+.

Increasingly, the bulk of the Italian national team is not now coming from the top four or five teams in Serie A, but from the teams who sit just outside of that elite group. The 2010 World Cup Italian squad has a total of six players from Juventus, with two coming from Milan, and one from Roma.  However, the team also has 3 players from Napoli, another 2 from Sampadoria, 2 from Genoa, two from Fiorentina, and one apiece from Udinese, Cagliari, Bari, and Al Ahli of the UAE.

The trend is not stopping anytime soon, thanks to the ages of top players this may become a worry for both Azzuri managers and the Italian FA alike. A number of these Italian players are not currently participating in the Champions League every season, a wounding phenomenon that will fiercely impact performance abilities when such players are on the pitch.

It isn’t a bleak future by any means, youngsters like Salvatore Bocchetti, Leonardo Bonucci, Giampaolo Pazzini and Domenico Criscito are coming through the ranks, but unlike their predecessors, their football education will come on the pitches of Cagliari, Bari, Palermo and Lazio, rather than the Bernebeu, Nou Camp, Old Trafford and Allianz Arena.

It is a worrying trend for the Italian national side and one that needs to be addressed. Can the heroes of a country really be considered heroes if they don’t have their hearts in a national cause?