After the match that took Italy out of this year’s World Cup, on Tuesday (31), analyzes that spoke of “apocalypse” and “nightmare” also pointed to the existence of a generation of Italians who are growing up without seeing the country’s team compete in the World Cup. The last Italian Cup was in Brazil, in 2014, when they were eliminated in the first phase.
With the defeat to Bosnia, the “bambini” and “ragazzi” will now have to wait until 2030 for a new chance. Despite football being the most popular sport in the country, young people will have turned 16 without ever having watched an Italian World Cup game live. Present in 18 past editions, the country is a four-time champion, has two runners-up and a third place.
“For the first time we will have young people who will come of age without ever having seen Italy in the World Cup,” wrote journalist Luigi Garlando on the front page of Gazzetta dello Sport.
Still on the field, player Leonardo Spinazzola mentioned this generation in his post-match interview. “It’s a huge disappointment for everyone, the group, our families, the Italians and our children, who will see another World Cup without Italy,” he said.
“It was a feeling of disappointment, but not sadness. Deep down, I knew we wouldn’t win. When people asked me, I said I was optimistic, but I was afraid it would end like this,” he told Sheet Davide Zagordi, 14, primary school student who coaches football at a school in Milan. A Napoli fan, he follows the sport closely and knows scores and line-ups from historic games by heart, not just Italian football.
On Tuesday night, he watched the match against Bosnia with around ten friends, celebrating a birthday. “We celebrated, we screamed, as you do when you watch a group game. Then it all ended in defeat,” he said, saying he cried a little with the result.
“This game sums up what Italian football has been like in recent years. Bosnia had 30 shots on goal; we had 9. Italy didn’t evolve, they remained on the back foot, waiting for an opportunity”, he assessed.
Born in 2012, he was two years old in the last World Cup played by Italy. “I have no memory of that World Cup,” he said. The same goes for the disqualification for the 2018 World Cup, when Italy lost to Sweden.
2021 experienced an exceptional year for national sport, with Italy finishing in the top ten at the Tokyo Olympic Games and beating England in the European Championship final.
“At the age of nine I had one of the greatest joys possible, seeing Italy win the European Championship, as a strong team. Then, in 2022, came the disappointment with the defeat to North Macedonia, which is not so different from Bosnia”, he recalled. “There, yes, I felt a lot of sadness, a much stronger bitterness than I felt now.”
Everything Davide knows about Italy in World Cups came through historical videos, readings and reports. “I listen to stories from my family about the World Cups, from my uncle, who is very passionate, and from my father. He tells me, for example, about the famous Italy and Argentina match in Naples”, he said, about the 1990 World Cup semi-final, played in the European country. “My grandfather also talked a lot about Paolo Rossi and the 1982 World Cup.”
“I have this whole mythology about Italy in the World Cups, which seems impossible, it seems like they are telling you a little story to amuse you. But Italy was a big one in world football,” said Davide.
According to him, the absence of the “Nazionale”, as the team is called, will not diminish his interest in the next World Cup. “I’m going to watch it for two reasons. Because of the new format, with more teams. And because it will be my last World Cup as a teenager, with several very strong players, some who were the first ones I saw”, he said, citing Croatian Luka Modrić.
Among his friends, however, he sees less excitement. “Enthusiasm for football is a little dull. Many say they don’t care, they don’t like it, that tennis is better, that there’s no point in playing it.”
By 2030, he expects radical change.
“It is clear that, after three editions of the World Cup, it is the system itself that needs to change, not just the coach or the players,” he said. “You have to change the approach, the way you play.”
