Decline, Rock bottom, and the future of Italian football.

I - Amarcord

On July 9th 2006, the sky over Berlin was blue. This is a phrase that brings a melancholic tear to the eye of any Italian football fan because it was the moment Fabio Cannavaro raised Italy’s fourth World Cup trophy to the sky after a legendary tournament. The games against Germany and France produced enough excitement and joy to last a lifetime. This was the pinnacle of a fantastic decade for Italian football. Italy came second in Euro 2000 and won a World Cup, but it was at club level that Italian football showed its true greatness. AC Milan won an all Italian Champions league final against Juve in 2003, came second in 2005 and won the trophy again in 2007. The decade was capped with Inter Milan winning the ‘treble’, the Champions League, Coppa Italia and Serie A trophies all in one year in 2010. The cherry on top is that four different players: Nedved (2003), Shevchenko (2004), Cannavaro (2006) and Kaka (2007) won the ballon d’or (football’s greatest individual award) while playing in Italy. Fast forward to that night at the San Siro, on November 13th of 2017, for the first time since 1958 Italy failed to reach the World Cup. So how did we get here, how did we hit rock bottom?

II - Il Declino

The team Marcello Lippi fielded in the 2006 semi final against Germany had an average age of 29.6 (which is quite old). This team would go onto win a World Cup, but it should have been clear then that there was a great need for a generational change. The team Lippi fielded against on the make or break game Slovakia on the last matchday of the group stages in 2010 had an average age of 29.3 (Transfermarkt). In fact, on that day, there were five players were over the age of thirty in the starting lineup. To Make matters worse, in the entire 23 man squad, there were eight veterans of 2006, but only Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Gilardino were under the age of thirty.. There were signs of recovery in 2012 when Cesare Prandelli led the team to a runners up medal at the Euros in 2012, but he too showed how overdependent he was on older players, fielding a team with an average age of 29.9 against Costa Rica (Transfermarkt) in 2014. In fact, on that day there were four 2006 veterans on the starting lineup, the youngest of which was Daniele De Rossi, aged thirty. There is a lot to complain about the way Ventura handled the 2018 campaign, and it would take a whole article render the titanic failure justice. In brief, he insisted on playing a 4-2-4 formation, popularized in the 1950s by the Hungarian national team. He refused to call up Jorginho until the final play off game where he also refused to play Lorenzo Insigne, who was at the time the most in form winger in Europe. Whatever identity the team had leading up to the final game was thrown out the window and the team never looked like it was gonna score (Butler, 2017), despite clearly caring about it deeply.

III - La Rinascita

There is a case for optimism. When Ventura was in charge of the 2018 qualification campaign, many of Italy’s best coaches were working abroad, or had been in the decade. Roberto Mancini won the Premier league with Manchester City before returning to Inter for an unsuccessful spell. Carlo Ancelotti won league titles in England, France and Germany as well as a Champions League with Real Madrid. Finally, Antonio Conte, the man who set Juve won the premier league with Chelsea after brief yet emotional spell with the National team (Euro 2016 was actually quite fun). Now, Maurizio Sarri is making Juve fun to watch, Antonio Conte is making Serie A competitive again at Inter and Mancini coaches the national team set up. Serie A teams are attracting top talent again, with Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez joining Inter, Hirving Lozano and Fabian Ruiz joining Napoli and Matthijs De Ligt, and Cristiano Ronaldo joining Juve all in the past two years. Top players and top coaches are in Serie A, and after Napoli tried and failed to challenge Juve, maybe a third horse in the race (Inter) can make the league competitive again. There is hope for the national team as well. The current roster has an average age of 25.7 (transfermarkt) and has managed to qualify for the 2020 Euros winning all ten qualifying games a record for the national team (Guardian sport, 2019). We have also seen a tactical shift in Italian football. It’s no secret that Italy is the land of defensive football. In the league, Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli was arguably the most fun team to watch in Europe for three years, and he is now coaching Juventus, replacing the defensive minded Allegri. Mancini was also known for his tight defense but with Italy it seems he has adapted to the modern game, and to his crop of players. He has built a system around ‘passing, possession and speed’ (Guardian Sport, 2019). For example, Jorginho is a player his two predecessors largely overlooked (which almost led him to quit Italy and play for Brazil) but he is now the indisputable regista in the midfield. He is flanked by Nicolo Barella and Marco Verratti, two mezzale di possesso or centre mids for possession. The attack is largely composed of fast, creative wingers. The problem of the goal scorer persists but the base is there. This is also promising to be an exciting generation, from last year’s U21 Euro squad, ten have made their debuts for the national team, and players like Federico Chiesa and Nicolo Barella are nailed on starters.

After a decade of pain and misery for any Italian who did not support Juventus (a bit for them too but they have no right to complain) we are slowly but surely getting our hopes up again. It’s too early to say we are good, and earlier still to say we can dream, but try and stop us.

By Gianni di Girolamo