The failure to develop and trust young players is at the heart of a two-decade decline in Italian football, the league champions said. 2006 World Cup Maximus Oddo and Mark Amelia to Reuters.
The warning comes at a time when the Italian team is preparing for another playoff, .
After winning the world title 20 years ago, Italy was eliminated in the group stage in the following two editions, winning just one match. Since then, the team failed to qualify for the last two World Cupsbeing defeated in the playoffs.
Former goalkeeper for the national team, Amelia stated that these results were not isolated episodes.
According to him, the 2006 achievement masked structural problems already existing in the Italian football systemespecially in relation to the training and preparation of players. The former athlete also highlighted the lack of confidence in young promises and the clubs’ low investment in long-term planning.
Amelia also drew attention to the high number of foreigners in Serie A. For him, the only way to reverse the situation is to increase investment in Italian players from the ground up, even with the risk of some projects not yielding a return.
In the same vein, former defender Oddo believes that Italian football has lagged behind other European leaguesmainly due to economic and structural reasons.
According to him, the scenario has changed significantly: before, Italian players rarely played abroad, while today this is common. At the same time, foreign athletes of medium level began to occupy space in Italy, reducing opportunities for local talents.
Currently coach of Milan’s reserve team, Oddo advocates a profound change in mentality, especially in the training of young people.
For the coach, it is necessary to invest more in training coaches, also transforming them into educators, focusing on the individual development of athletes, and not just on immediate results.
He criticized the pressure to perform even at the youth level, where coaches are often replaced if they do not deliver quick results.
In this context, according to Oddo, coaches end up opting for players who are more ready in the short term, but with less potential for evolution in the long term.
False sense of progress
Winning Euro 2020 would, in Oddo’s opinion, have covered up deeper problems.
He highlighted that, both in the 2006 World Cup and in the Euros, Italy relied on solid defensive systems, citing names such as Alessandro Nesta, Marco Materazzi, Gianluca Zambrotta, as well as Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci in the continental conquest.
For Oddo, Italy no longer has defenders of the same level, pointing to Chiellini as the last big name in the position in the country.
Amelia agrees that the title did not represent a structural turning point. He cited the current qualifying campaign, which included two heavy defeats to Norway and left Italy in second place in the group.
According to the former goalkeeper, although the team presented more modern football at the Euros, it still relies heavily on its traditional defensive solidity. He warned that, in the qualifiers, the team conceded many goals and now needs to balance consistent defense with efficiency in attack to achieve results.
Italy’s only absence from World Cups before this recent period came in 1958, when they finished behind Northern Ireland in their qualifying group.
This Thursday (26), the team will face Northern Ireland again in the playoff semi-final, in Bergamo. The winner will advance to face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Oddo highlighted that a possible absence would represent a significant blow, especially from an economic point of view, in addition to affecting the football ecosystem, including the media and fans. According to him, the lack of international results has reduced the fans’ enthusiasm.
Amelia, in turn, believes that the outcome of the playoff should not divert attention from structural problems.
For him, Not qualifying for the World Cup wouldn’t be a tragedybut rather a reality that needs to be analyzed in depth. The former goalkeeper concluded that, even in the event of classification, Italian football’s problems will remain.
